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There are many things that can cause a crash with that error message. I have not heard any other reports that opening Inkscape Preferences triggers it. But in the right circumstances, it would seem plausable.
Typically I'll have a crash like that if I'm working with certain fairly complex filters (meaning other than a simple blur), or certain extensions. For example, if I have more than 5 or 6 spirograms on a page already, and I use the Spirograph extension to make one more, Inkscape usually crashes. If I've already used the Add Nodes extension, and then I call up the Jitter Nodes extension, Inkscape crashes. I don't even have to try and use Jitter Nodes, just calling the extension triggers the crash. However, once I restart Inkscape, I can use Jitter without further problems. Sometimes using the Interpolate extension causes a crash. And I'm sure there are several other extensions and many filters, that I've never used, that could cause a crash.
Also, if you're working on an image with more than 1 imported raster image (JPG, PNG, etc.), or a large number of nodes (few thousand), or a lot of gradients and/or filters, and you have 2 gb RAM or less, you can get a crash like that.
The only scenario I can think of, where just opening Inks Prefs triggers a crash, would be if the image is large and/or contains the aforementioned items, and you're low on RAM. Then opening that large dialog could be just "the straw that broke the camel's back".
I guess I've made using Inkscape sound pretty ominous. But I think it's important to remember that Inkscape is very much under active development, and still has not yet released a version 1.0. To me, having such an awesome program available for free, it's not hard to accept a few shortcomings. And in fact, it makes it more important to me, to report any issues.
Anyway, with the info I've provided, you might be able to narrow down some more precise situations when you see the crash. If it looks like it might be related to performance (low RAM) there are some things you can do to help with that. I'm actually just about to start writing a tutorial for that, because it seems like I'm typing out those things all the time. So if it looks like that's the reason, let us know, and I'll post a link to that tut, when I finish it.