Version 9 is a start of the rewrite, I believe the core will be finished or mostly finished. Quote from Newtek's website on 9.0:"The changes that have been made for the initial 9.0 release complete the necessary reconstruction of LightWave to begin implementing the desired new workflow." Its just a start to reworking LW. I'll wait on upgrading until things are stabilized and my wallet says its ok:) Which could be awhile. "797 available FREE plug-ins for Lightwave." Yep! Really a lot are very similar. Also, a lot of the plugins are scripts. Good stuff if you own LW.