Even though it is actually slightly less convenient then set up I used prior to last Jan. I'm still satisfied with the I/O26 for mobile field work. With added mic pre's via ADAT optical I regularly track 12-18 simultaneously
in my experience the 'reset' problem has more to do with poor XP firewire implementation then with I/O26 itself (admittedly everyone in the Wintel firewire mess shares some responsibility)
I use it primarily to track live music performance and (saying this of course tempts fate) not yet lost source material, but have had to reset I/O26 when it has just 'sat' power up, for long series of time (but this is not remarkably different then experience I've had with Wintel & MOTU product)
If the price differential had been greater I would have picked up the 'little brother' (I/O14?) as a personal interface when it's just me and carry on luggage. But, for me, there was enough loss of feature set (with I/O14) without enough price differential to stop the purchase.
Anyway main point is that as a front end for computer recording that has a lot of flexibility (for the price), decent mic pre's (for the price) and migrates well among platforms (Mac, Wintel, (have not tried it on linux yet), stationary PC, mobile notebook) it's almost a bargain