Hi dolphin, one thing I noticed was that EE seemed to be user friendly in the demo version compared to Embird.....you definitely are right about trying different programs....EE is very affordable I think compared to some of the top of the line software being sold.....I have an older model Bernina that uses cables to hookup to my laptop, but she stitches beautiful.......I use a free version of Artlink that sends my designs to the machine.....their softwRe is around 700.00 I think where the EE is 150.00....would love to be able to digitize, but that will have to wait....thanks so much for your input!!! Sandi