I haven't touched the game in quite some time, do you guys think it's better for me to wait for the update and restart? Are the cumulative changes from the current public version significant?

Take a look at the changelog! https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=192&t=405397 Add to that the DLC, if you are getting it. So to answer your question, yes the changes are significant.

Myself I doubt I will start the v2.6 game anymore during these ten days. I will certainly do a new start but then I have not got very far yet. If you have a playthrough that is well advanced it may be sad to drop it. According to others, there may or may not be peculiarities with old saves.

I seem to have misplaced my Windows license, which is annoying as the only way to play the beta on GOG is through Galaxy, so must have Windows :-( (MacOS not supported).

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....Does anyone know if Galaxy works alright in Wine at the moment?

Thanks! I didn't think there was a list with the changes from all the various beta versions. I didn't have an advanced save at all, so it sounds like a good time to start over. :)

I don't have a Mac, so sadly I can't tell you how well Wine would work for that.

Seems I was unclear. I do not have a Mac either. I use Linux.

In Ubuntu/GNOME, there is a SNAP for GOG Galaxy that worked for me.

Lutris is probably a better option. I was able to use Lutris to install Galaxy, and Galaxy to install X4 beta. I felt like there was a performance hit, but the game did run OK. Caveat, I only ran the game for an hour or so, since my Linux box is a work laptop. I just wanted to test it out after reading on here. (I did have to upgrade to Nvidia 440 beta before my card was explicitly cleared for it, in order to get Vulkan support, and shut down Nvidia prime and force my system to use the Quadro card, otherwise the game would try to run on integrated graphics... But, 440 has since been pushed out as a general release.)

Thank you :-) I see now the Snap. I may or may not try it.

Ah, sorry. Since Wine is used on mac as well, and you mentioned MacOS isn't supported, I thought that was your other OS. Not that I could help either way, since I am only familiar with windows, for better or for worse. XD

Be happy, shoot Xenon!