A lot of resources have been dedicated, spent to making 0.4.9 and 1.0.0 usable. If you see any specific problems, you can bring it up in github or even do a pull request for a change. You can also point out the specific problem in here.

If you run 1.0.0 right now, you will be running under the old YACoin rules (0.4.9, 0.4.4, and prior). At block 1,890,000, the new rules will take into effect. Make sure you are running 1.0.0 by that point. The Windows link at the website has been updated (thank you aso!). If someone wants to create a faucet, I can link to it from the website. Otherwise, it will likely be removed soon.

Again, if you try to keep the old chain alive, you are taking a big risk by transacting on it. What's interesting is that NO ONE cared about keeping the old chain going (except for me) until I announced the hard fork. Armchair quarterbacking has nothing to do with consensus (PoW-PoS or PoW).