I've been running a VMX42 for just over a year. All in all good machine but I personally wouldn't buy one. I gave myself a year using the conversational to get used to it. (I am sure there lots of details I have yet to learn). It is easy to learn and good overall. The graphics, interrupt button, touch screen and DXF editor (po' boy CAM at the machine) are brilliant. Mechanically good. Just in the last month the control has started acting funky and occasionally locking up.
I have recently been using G-code because it is frustrating to call up a page to just change work offsets or a retract height when it can be done with a simple three letter G-code command. Also in conversational the program isn't displayed as it runs so you can't see the next move or post comments ie, what to do when you have a stop programmed. Another big one is you can't program point to point in Z like you would in Gcode or even Aniliam conversational. You program a series of X & Y movements or a profile and then it raises & rapids back to the start for the next pass. Lots of wasted movements.
The number one biggest problem for me is NO F_ING MDI. There are lots of things such as squaring up a block or just changing a tool during setups that i like to do in MDI. Nope, you have to write a program to make simple cuts or push a series of buttons on different pares to change the tool. Conversational machines are supposed to be for short run work but not having MDI really makes simple stuff take longer than it should.
OK rant off. All in all, good machine if you want easy programming and aren't worried as much about efficient machining. The guys who were running it before me were turning out good parts with very little experience. But they were horribly inefficient and were doing things that would make a journeyman shudder. (ie letting the machine do the thinking and not changing the feeds & speeds going from steel to AL) If you are proficient in G-code or looking for efficient programs you will probably be frustrated.
Personally I would like to see a machine with the Hass control with Hurco's interrupt button, graphics, touch screen,& DXF editor and some of Aniliams pocketing and profile cycles on a Okuma made base machine.