Finally got my copy of 5E, and slowly working through it. That's a pretty hefty book. I've got the PDF, but it isn't as fun to sit down and read on the laptop, and I've always preferred a hard copy if I can get it.

So, barring the odd typo I've come across so far, (gird instead of grid), here's my thoughts.
1) Priority System. Still my favourite system for character creation. Glad to see it back, been enjoying using it, looking forward to how it will apply with metavariants.

2) Mystic Adepts. I like the split between power points and the magic attribute for spellcasting. I've not made mystic adepts, but two of my players have, and this is almost a godsend to them.

3) The Matrix. Honestly? I don't care how much flack people are giving, I like the new Matrix. It makes sense to me, and I could see a number of real-world parallels that made it easier to understand. The description of a number of stuff at the beginning reminded me of a really advanced version of Second Life, which kind of makes sense, and the way everything is laid out reminded me a lot of how cellphone carriers work these days. It made everything structured and codified - which makes sense when the corporations want everything to run smoothly, the Overwatch concept made me grin, and how the new programs, persona, and technomancer rules work will make things much simpler for me. So, thanks for that.

4) I noticed that armour is a single value, and while I've not gotten that far into studying the rules yet, it has me intrigued, and I'm going to be looking at that a lot closer soon. I'm very interested in seeing your 'Augmentation' book for 5E.

Thanks for the book, hope to see a lot more soon!

Armor is higher on items now, Armored Jacket is 12 instead of 8 for example, weapons also do more damage, without having to be modified.

I like 5th Edition, just not sure how to take the new rules for stuff that has been bricked....

3) i haven't seen much complaining about the matrix itself. wireless bonuses get dumped on a lot, because they often make no sense. but the rules for the matrix itself? apart from technomancers being in a pretty lousy place, i haven't seen much criticism of them.

Priority is good for newer players, but for any experienced player, it is a step back from build points or karmagen. Still, it wasn't a deal-breaker for me, and is a lot better than the one for SR4 that they had in Runner's Companion.

My only problem with mystic adepts isn't the rules, but the fact that they are planning on doing an errata for it, which means they are in a state of limbo right now.

I like what I have heard about the Matrix - it needed to be simplified. It is the wireless bonuses, or rather, their clumsy and illogical implementation, that turned me off the new edition.

Armor as a single value is a simplification that is workable. I didn't like some of the other changes (they should have just gotten rid of simple vs. complex actions, instead of a convoluted rules mess that you can shoot with a simple action, but only do it once a round).

I have some concerns with the Armor system myself, but that is more of an optimization thing & other currently limited amount of Armor you can have on a more or less mundane person.

Sure, completely taking TMs out of the picture reduces the rules volume

To each their own. As far as I can see, I'm cool with technomancers in 5E, my wife's playing one. I like that they can reduce overwatch and regular hackers can't, though I was a little miffed they couldn't command drones without submersion - but since we're picking up from our 4E campaign, this isn't a big problem. (I can't believe my player group is now floating at around 1000 karma... the game's been going on for many, many, many years though.)

1000 Karma... Wow... Our multi-year ongoing campaign has one character over 400 and several in the 350 Midrange.

Well, we average about 6-8 a session, play every week, and have been at this for... erg. 5-6 years? Mind you, that was a pick-up of a prior campaign, which I think ran for 3-4 years. It started in 3rd Edition.

Yeah, The ~400+ characters have been in play for about 4 years (and my 300+ MysAd has been in play about 3 years), where we play every week (with some variance between GM's/characters due to life). Our average Karma outlay is about 2-3 Karma/Week (more 2 than 3) until the end of a Mission where we rack in the remaining Mission awards. All told, if broken up by week, Missions net us about 4 Karma per Week overall. Of course, we also gain/lose contacts, equipment, and money at a fairly decent rate, so it all works out in the end.

I wonder what people hand out per session? For me, I go with this:

1-2 karma at the end of the adventure.
1 karma per objective attained in a session.
1-4 karma by degree of threat in a session.
1-2 optional courage / intelligence per session.
1-2 optional roleplaying per session.
1 for pushing the adventure forward (if the group is prepared and moves forward).
1 for right skill at the right place at the right time. The "I can DO that!" bonus.
1-2 optional for humour / drama per session.

This means that an average session will give 0-2 karma for objectives, 1-2 karma for threat, 1-2 for roleplaying, 1 for story progression, 1-2 for humour (our group's pretty laid back), and sometimes a smattering of more depending on the current adventure, which brings the group usually 6-8 per session.

I like putting my players through the wringer in unusual ways - the current adventure involves having to raid a BTL factory which puts the users into giant metal holding crates and stakes these using automated lifts. There's scads of people in there, and a group of avenger shamans who follow Baba Yaga plan to kill all of them in one fell swoop, to perform a ritual, summoning a powerful creature of despair and hopelessness in the hopes of destroying it and wiping the background count in the process. The PCs are kind of like 'err, this is NOT going to end well', and are going to try to rescue the addicts, and either convince the shamans that this is a horribly bad idea, or kill them trying. Unfortunately, the guiding spirit of the magical group has been seen prowling the area, and the PCs aren't really looking forward to facing Baba Yaga in a region with an aspected background count. Then there's Baba Yaga's three knights, and their steeds.

I'm so looking forward to this - I'll be running this in 4E, then part way through going to have the Matrix rebooting to 5E, causing the technomancer to go 'GUH!', and rending everyone's commlinks almost useless. Once the run is finished, the PCs can go get new commlinks (or try to talk to their hacker contact about trying to get cyberdecks built, and pay through the nose.)

1,000 karma technomancers are hardly a reasonable standard to compare against.

Well, no. But I did build her as a starting character. so I had a look at the opening technomancer, then helped my wife put in the 1k karma.