It's always a frustration when something that used to work doesn't.

That said, it is not unusual for a new version of an operating system
to break applications that ran on the previous version, particularly if
there have been major changes of any sort. Windows changes regularly
break applications. Vista is going to break a lot of applications. Apple's
operating system changes have broken applications. I've seen people
scrambling to fix shell scripts when Unix upgrades included changes to
shell languages.

My strategy would be to stick with the version of the operating system that
works with your applications until either the os or the application are
upgraded to where they work together.

By the way your observation regarding poking and prodding and trying to figure
out how to make something work rang true here. I spent more than a month
getting Knoppix to access the internet with persistent configurations
(for example, nothing I'd read had said that the configuration disk needed
to be linux formatted.) And now I'm poking and prodding and trying to
figure out how to transfer large files back and forth between Knoppix and
Windows while preserving the security of the Windows machine (which due
to its vulnerabilities never goes online.) I'm considering the CD burner.
In any case...

Regards

Django

PS: Once I get secure internet access nailed down I plan to experiment
with the Linux audio applications. I'm a long time Cakewalk user (currently
Sonar 3) but I think Vista has the potential to break a lot of applications
and introduce a lot of instability. We shall see.