As a rule I do exactly what you suggest. I have several systems and all my main machines are still running 8.5 and one system still at 7.0 to be able to run RATMAN.

I have one machine that I upgrade to test out the new features and determine if it's worth the trouble to upgrade.

My point is that Autodesk is adopting a policy of releasing a NEW release every 6 to 12 months, regardless of whether they have added any features that truely diserve to be called "new release".

I worked for a couple computer companies and I have seen this strategy. It is basically marketing bastards saying straight to your face "We think you are an idiot because we can change a letter in the name Maya from lowercase to upper case and tell you it's a new improved version with the earthshattering capital "Y" feature and and you will shell out $$ to us so we can come up with a new way to screw you over 6 months down the road!"

This is a policy that is not in the customers best interest and it gets me angry because it's so transparent what and why they are doing it. Yet they are convinced that they a being so clever.