Here's my personal take: I started with Vegas at 2.0. I like the workflow and how it works. It has always worked for me.

I am a beta tester on Vegas 6. I have had many different versions installed. All have worked on my system but the earlier builds were unstable - especially in relation to scripts. However, the 6.0 release version was stable enough for me to do real work with it. The 6.0a version removed the last remaining problems I had with scripts.

I reported many problems over the beta testing period and they have all been dealt with. I can use 6.0a for serious jobs at this point. I do believe 6.0b will resolve many/most of the problems currently being discussed.

There are, I think, a lot of people with short tempers and overly high expectations over on the official forums.

I think you hit it on the head, there. I've been doing my best to calmly stear people away from the fire-n-brimstone roasting they've tried to give the Sony dev team -- it's a good release, far from perfect, but it's damn good.

As others have said, the bugs seem widely known, reported and are being worked on currently. I personally don't have any problems (so far), but I sympathize with those who do. I'm confident the Sony team's going to get the bugs hammered out, though -- they're a good bunch, and for the most part, make me happy to say I'm a paying customer of theirs.

- jim

what other softwares have sony written on their own outside of purchasing talents (like sonic foundry)? anyone know? is sony even a "software company" like microsoft is?

Sony isn't a software company--they are an electronics company that uses software in many products.

in that case, why did sony buy sonic foundry's product lines and trying to develop software in house?

I think that Sony wanted a software product that would mesh with their hardware line--the new HDV cameras etc. I think they felt that Digital Video was making inroads in all markets, consumer, prosumer, pro and that they needed an NLE. This is all conjecture.