Pre-sales questions & IP Board vs vBulletin
 

I have a few questions to ask before purchasing the software. I will be moving from IP. Board to vBulletin.

#1 If vBulletin 5 is still in BETA, then why is the price so high when the most finished version is v4 that customers will use?

#2 Is it easy to upgrade from v4 to v5 when v5 does come out?

#3 If I wanted to use v3.8 after purchasing the license, could I? It's what these sites use: http://sonicfangameshq.com/forum and http://soniccagedome.com/forums/ Is there an option to download this version via the client area? I'd rather use the latest, but I'm just wondering just in case I want to use this version in the future.

#4 Can I place custom links on the menu to link back to my main site? I'm only going to use vBulletin for the /forums location, while using wordpress on the .com location.

#5 Can I put a header image where the dark blue color is behind the menu bar? Like the header image here: www.sonicredux.com (My site)

#6 For a custom theme, I would like to add a background image to where the grey is on the background, change the forums grey bars to a light blue, change the menu color, add a header image to put behind the menu bar, change the latest posts/old posts icons. I think that's it.

#7 Can I create custom widgets on the right side? Where the "latest topics" etc are. This isn't a big deal, but I'm just wonder. Can I also completely disable widgets on the right side if I wanted to?

#8 Can I disable the forums resizing/can I set the forums to a fixed width? I would like to make the forums default width smaller with no resizing.

I bought IP Board a little over 2 months ago. I have been running into constant problems with an extreme lack of support. It's a great looking forums software, but very messy and full of bugs that they refuse to fix. vBulletin is very clean and easy with nothing complicated from what I can tell. I'm not entirely sure.

Last question:
#9 I already bought IP. Board a while ago. Would you say vBulletin is better? If so, how?

$250 is a lot of money to spend on a forums software, so I had to ask these questions. Thanks! :)