I have been using Blender on and off since around 1999. I initially struggled and kept my 3ds Max. After the 2.5 update it has been uphill since then. I now use

I have been using Blender on and off since around 1999. I initially struggled and kept my 3ds Max. After the 2.5 update it has been uphill since then. I now use it as my primary 3d application. (I am mainly an animator but do everything else.) It's interface, once understood is blazing fast to me. Yes it has caveats. So does every other big 3d package. I prefer some of the ways that Maya does things, and other times the way Blender does things. (I will never go back to the crashing fits of 3ds max, so much lost work.) But in the end it's the same as all the other tools. You just need to keep at it and it will become second nature. The UI idea of no overlapping windows is probably my favorite feature of Blender's GUI. The ability to split windows and swap them to ANY part of Blender allows you to set it up exactly how you want, plus you can save your workspaces. Set it up once and forget it. I can agree that some common commands have obscure shortcuts, but EVERYTHING is customizable. I do mean everything. (Side note, not everything is customizable in Python. :*( But most things are.) I have my own tool panel for all of my animation tools, I have custom shortcuts that overwrite some shortcuts that I never use. In the end I'm faster because of it's UI. Most of all I feel like I have a custom studio proprietary software because of how customizable it is, with just a tiny bit of Python knowledge. I don't claim to be a good programmer, but if you can write some html, you can customize Blender till you get what you want. Heck you can even make Popups/overlapping windows with 1 hotkey + mouse gesture. I may be an advocate of Blender, but I have used just about all 3d packages and can gladly say that I'm happy with my experiences with Blender. (Since 2.5)