Haven't run a game in ages...3rd Ed or 4th?, Warning: Long, possibly rambling post from an old-timer Options

[Abstruse]

It's been a long time since I've posted on here, but I've been a Shadowrun fan since I was introduced to the game way back in 1992 (unlike most people who came to gaming through D&D, I came to it through Shadowrun). Between the Dresden Files novels, Burn Notice, and Leverage; I've gotten a few of my friends intrigued about Shadowrun after I keep making comparisons between them all, so they're wanting me to run a game. I, of course, immediately went and pulled out my hundreds of Shadowrun books (seriously, I've got almost everything from FASA/FanPro, most of CGL, and probably 2/3 of the novels) and dove back in. Now, I'm torn...

Of the four people willing to play in the game, one loathes 4th Edition with a passion (but also wants a pink mohawk game rather than the heist/infiltration/stealth style game I prefer these days and has stated if that's what I run, he won't play), one probably won't care either way most likely since he hasn't played since we were all in college over a decade ago, and two of them have never played Shadowrun before. I might be able to get a couple more players who also don't have much experience with the system.

The last game I played in (not ran) was a 4th Edition game and that's what I've read the most of recently. 4th Edition is definitely easier to learn for new players, and I've even got a massive set of 6-sided dice I've painted the pips on so hits/glitches are easy to identify. However, I'm really not a fan of the edition personally. I feel that a lot of the nuance of previous editions was obliterated in the desire to copy White Wolf and I feel that many of the decisions made by CGL have taken the game world and its fiction far away from what drew me to the game and makes me still drag out my books every year or so and read through the lot of them (no offense to anyone who likes the new direction, it's just my opinion).

I'd love to run a 3rd Edition game, but I'm way out of practice with the system. I don't trust myself to run it for players who know the rules, let alone teaching it to new players. However, I think I'm one of maybe a dozen people in the world that ever really understood the pre-4th Edition decking rules that didn't have a hand in writing them. I've been running a Pathfinder game with little work even though I hadn't ever played 3.5 and my 3rd Ed experience was around 6 years old when I picked up the book, so I'm pretty sure I can get back into the swing of things quickly. Also, I'm itching to run the published adventures I've got stacked up I never got to run because my old players never wanted to bother with things like "plot" and "story" beyond reasons to kill this NPC or not kill that NPC until they paid, then killing them. Something tells me that I'll have to do a lot more work converting Harlequin, Missing Blood, Dreamchipper, and Double Exposure to 4th Ed than converting them to 3rd Ed.

So I'm going to ask you guys for advice...which edition do you guys think I should go with to introduce a bunch of dungeon-crawlers to Shadowrun? Should I go for the simpler but not as compatible with 4th Edition, or the more complicated for new players but more detailed 3rd Edition rules? I'm not expecting you guys to make the decision for me, just help me work through the arguments in case I'm missing something...