Brothers are good but so are Vikings. Right now there are a lot of Ruby machines slightly used but come with warranty and most get 0% financing. this is because Viking came out with a Ruby deluxe last yr and alot are trading in for a bigger machine. I would suggest checking out anymachine before buying it. I love all of my Vikings, I had the Ruby and traded to the top model after the Viking convention due to the deal I got. They are great; lots of bells and whistles, easy to use, not tempermental. They come with the initial software that allows you to organize and edit to a degree your designs. Check out mrpatience.com for more info for 4D or 5D organizer; that's the software that will be included with the machine and you can buy full versions late. I love being able to add the jump stitch command to all of my designs and saving me time in the end cleaning up threads. Good luck, I'm not sure where you are or I'd give you some good leads as to where to check. Please do try out different machines and shops; not all shops have great customer service and support. That's a must have in embroidery. I used a Brother in a class and even though there are features that I wish Viking had, there are so many that Viking has that it would drive me crazy because Brother doesn't have. Plus some of the features that Viking does't have they have things similar to it that takes care of the problem. Good luck