With all the trouble people had with embroidery software from Vista up. I set up a used box running windows XP. It's offline, so no worry about malware, and it has enough ports. I did the same for Photoshop - now running 5 on XP.
EQ5 running just fine, along with a program that lets me do my own stuff on a Cricut. I don't buy carts.
The main machine is Ubuntu 11.04, and I put ESET av on Ubuntu, just to scan any files I might download. All machines are generic and more or less upgraded to my spec.
I made the mistake of buying that Madeira box. Most thread useless to me as they never had enough of the same value to shade anything. Sold it.
I've used RA and OESD Poly. Those will mix.
Last edited by Weezy Rider; 05-29-2012 at 02:37 PM.