Upgrade options/suggestions?

[محروم.كوم]

Hi folks,

I'm running a pretty old vB install and would like to upgrade. I'm currently at 3.6.1 with some patches. A couple mods but very minor stuff.

I just read in the sticky that if I'm going to upgrade I have to buy a license for version 5, but that would then allow me to install version 4 if I want to instead, since 5 is still in beta.

Questions:

1. Am I entitled to any sort of discount since I've been a vB customer for years?
2. How stable is version 5 right now? It it beta as in "users will generally not notice anything amiss except for the occasional odd glitch", or as in "expect frequent and recurrent usability problems"?
3. Is version 4 more like version 3 than version 5 is like version 4?
4. As you can tell from the age of my current install, I don't like being on an upgrade cycle, so I'd prefer to do things once and be done with it, rather than go to 4 and then go to 5. But since 5 is beta that means I'm going to have to constantly update it anyway, right?

Any advice from knowledgeable folks much appreciated.

Thanks. __DEFINE_LIKE_SHARE__