I voted, continue on with DS6.9. Although I have to say, I am actually very impressed with NS 7.1 (or whatever Symantec wants to call it nowadays). I love Managed Software Delivery policies, and would prefer to use them over the dynamic collections I'm using in NS 6. IF I have to ditch DS7.1, I'll probably end up keeping NS 7.1 and use it in conjunction with my old DS 6.9 server.

At first, I was hesitant to try getting a Windows 7 hardware independent image working on DS 6.9, but now, after all I've been through with DS7.1, I'm confident I could get it working fairly quickly.

option 5. that's option 2 + option 3. 

we are going with ds6.9sp5 instead of ds7.1, but like the previous poster, we like NS7.1 so far.  just not the DS part.

symantec released 2 hotfixes (that i know of) for DS7.1sp1.  we reported both of those issues to them and tested the patches.  if we found that much, then i'm scared about what else we might find.  7.1 still just isn't ready, nor does it have feature parity with 6.9 so we're staying on 6.9.  yes i know they're different products, but the way we use it, 7.1 just plain won't work for us in its current state.  maybe by 7.9 it'll be ready. (i kid, i kid...)

i mentioned option3 because we currently buy microsoft products via software assurance licensing.  because of that, we can get SCCM for basically free, though we'd have to go through all sorts of training and building new servers and migration... but we are doing that with altiris already, so i don't see much difference.

i think the problem is there are so many unknowns with NS / DS 7.1.

I've already found jobs timing out and failing because we had maintenance windows in place...

DS6.9 works... it does exactly what it says on the tin in an easy and well laid out system. it also has the mmc styled application that alot of people find very easy to use.
the new one really has some serious short coming in respect of the way you move around it and use it. lots more screens and longer load times.... instead of the very user friendly old version.

I am however still pushing forwards with it to see how far i can get it going as i would like to take advantage of it if possible.

the other side of this is we bought Altiris just before NS7 came out and hadnt implemeted NS6 at the time so 7 seemed the reasonable choice however over the last x years this is the first time its actually been usable and its still not at the point that 6.9 is at from the deployment point..