All right; so after considering what Commander McLane had written, and wanting to ascertain myself of my own given advice - I devised what will hopefully be my final test on the potential of the Anaconda...
I was at Xexedi, bought an Anaconda from the ship yard, and proceeded to outfit her for a full combat test.
The three pictures below, show the equipment, with which she was outfitted, as well as what I had in the hold, before setting out.
That's about the best you can get with the core game. A naval energy unit was not available (and don't spoil me how to get one, cause I'll figure it out eventually), and the military shields can only be purchased at Ceesxe (didn't feel like traveling there for this experiment).
First plan, was to see if I could hit anything with the sides lasers. So I launched from Torus Station - Virgin, went about 6 km along the docking lane, turned so that my starboard laser would lock, centered the firing sight on it, and....
Hit the station!
Man, I was glad - these stations are like 10 km wide, so if I would have missed I would have felt really inept - or proven that the Anaconda side laser glitch was true (obviously turns out here that it is not - well against a 10 km wide target, any ways).
The station is so large, that even though I'm just over 6 km from it, even in full screen you can't get a reading on the distance from the target lock.
Oh yes - you see the little purple blip at the top of my IFF scanner, broadcasting my new status of being a fugitive?
Well, he was soon joined by 9 more...
There were ten GalCop Viper Interceptors total here.
It was very difficult for me to snap the pictures with one hand while trying to dodge fire.
I had to now prove whether the 'Conda could take these guys on, or not.
I can't witch out, because you need to be 25 km from a Torus before being allowed, so no choice here - it was fight or die.
Edit: I have removed the text on how I fought. I have given enough fighting tips already in my prior posts, and maybe some of you would like to learn it for yourselves, without me spoiling that for you.
I killed seven of the police Vipers, three got away from me (which I never was able to locate again).
While I was dog-fighting it out with the police, some local ships decided that they wanted to cash in on my bounty - I vaporized all those next - because I found it highly unsportsmanlike to shoot me while I was already outnumbered 10:1 with the GalCop vipers.
After that, I obliterated everything near and around the station.
Once accomplished, I set the compass for the witchpoint beacon, and swept the lane of everything along it's path.
Pirate groups, convoys, transports, traders, SAR boats, bounty hunters - I didn't care.
I was not lurking, hunting, or springing on anyone like I had done in my previous post.
No subtleties. This was all a deliberate; locate, engage, and destroy outing.
Anything that didn't witch out, or run away from me, was systematically vaporized.
Once the entire system lane had been swept, I witched out to Laenin in order to start the process of clearing my name.
I took the above picture, because that DS pirate made me laugh with what he said about my "exciting ship".
It befitted what I was proving with the Anaconda during this test.
Seconds later he got vaporized, I (jump) engined to the station (you can make it out below the planet).
Saw there was traffic ahead of me, so asked for docking clearance from 25 km out.
Was informed that I was number 13 in the que, so figuring I had a little time, went to the navigation beacon and nudged (pushed) it out of position. That gave me a little more running room for a long line up approach.
When clearance came, I went in all the way on injectors.
That's the picture that turned out the best to demonstrate some things here.
Although, the Anaconda is really big in size, it is very easy to dock manually.
Since the Anaconda has such a poor rate of pitch / yaw, it is hard to over-react on the stick and pull her out of line.
It fits any which way through the docking entrance.
The above picture, just about demonstrates all that.
So now, I'm back,
All prior sins (terror) forgotten, and you can see how we fared from the pictures below.
54 kills - None by the side lasers, 6 to 8 by the rear laser, all the rest from the forward firing one.
Oh yes; Commander McLane, I do know about the rear laser firing from above the targeting sights. But it does not affect me that much. Only if a target is very close, or beyond 8 km does it start to throw me off.
I had installed the Trophy oxp before embarking on this, and was depending on that to show you the tally. However there's a bug in that oxp and it just showed the types once I was docked.
I did keep track of what got away from me, on paper next to my computer: Asp Mk. II x2, Fer-de-Lance x3, Krait x2, Anaconda x2, Boa x4, GalCop Viper Interceptor x3.
So 70 targets engaged in all. The traders got away from me mostly by witching, while the rest were by injecting.
Other points of interest; you'll see that I took no internal damage to any system, and did not need to use any of my missiles either.
Conclusion:
The Anaconda is a fine ship capable of doing it all as a (mega) trader, and then some.
It has massive cargo capacity, so running passenger / cargo / specialty contracts, can bring in piles of credits.
It can hold it's own, and push through pirate packs to system stations.
The poor top speed, acceleration, and massive target size are definitely a deterrent to making it as your main fighter style craft (but it was never designed as such).
Whether it can complete the more difficult missions in the game, I don't know.
Seems like I have more to learn.
But after the above tests, and in the hands of someone more competent than me, I wouldn't be surprised if it could.
I still don't feel like perusing my career of an assassin with one, though.
I breakout into a cold sweat thinking about doing combat in that rogue asteroid. 
