In the end I still love the game, and deal with the crashes with a smile, knowing that I am playing one of the few hidden gems, though it may have a slight flaw to it. Well this one does the job as a space sim. Needs programmable joystick like Sidewinder 3d Pro and up. Then you can proggy the tasks per mission at start. Good of this kind if that's your mood.
Independence War is a good game and a great concept.
Unfortunately the interface for the game does suck. I'm running it on a Pentium II with 128 megs of ram, and two 3-d accelerator cards. You need a good system to be able to enjoy it, but it will still occasionally crash. The game will occasionally get stuck on one aspect of a mission. You cannot get the ship to dock on the right part of a spaceship, the autodocking routine occasionally fails, and maneuvering correctly is nearly impossible at times.