I run on a daily basis on the same machine running and playing MC:
Photoshop, Pro-Tools, AVID XP, DVD Workshop, Nero, Vegas Video, Sound Forge, MyIE2, Forte Agent, Outlook, Lotus Notes, PowerDVD, CuteFTP, DesktopX, Virtual Dub, Winamp3, Tag&Rename, Project, EAC, RazorLame, MS Word, Getright...
I agree, not all tomatos the same, but I do more with my system while MC is playing than most, AND I use an unusual high-end audio card to boot. Now, all I use MC for is strictly an audio db, playlist and broadcast tool for my home based studio facility. No video, no images and very minor tagging duties. Oh, and lately I've been burning data cd's for my car player with it...all with no crashes, and none of the major bugs I've read about (just the usual "this doesn't do this the way it should" kind of stuff.)
I do understand that since MC does so much, it has the potential to be more buggy than a more simplified "target specific" software app, like say Winamp. But I've been amazed at what some people will do with their computers, like stick'em in a cubby hole desk setup, then not understand when it repeatedly shuts down during any process of significance. Or a friend of mine who smokes like a chimney can't even boot into Windows (then when I wiped the thick tar residue off the processor, he seemed to at least understand there might be a problem with that.) Not to mention the wads of cat hair I found in there sucked in through the one missing slot cover. That's all it takes. Or out of date drivers, conflicting drivers, bus-master slots out of sequence, bad or incompatible RAM or RAM settings...I could go on.
I'm not trying to defend JRiver, I don't think they need it, their work stands on it's own, or it doesn't. Whatever...I just have seen the jump to conclusion thing too often when the conclusion is usually misguided.
Anyway, good luck with getting it "right".
WP