I think Blender really is different from other graphics free-software: - It is baked by a very strong foundation. - It is used by real studios all over the world (and more and more used) - It is used by the scientific world a lot. - The new release cycle is around 10 weeks. And every release ships with awesome features. http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Process/Release_Cy... - the community is strong, big and active. - it supports a lot of OS, and the experience is great in all of them. - The foundation is very user focused : * they create "open movies" to identify the needs and the weakness of the use of Blender is pro environement. You don't know about Big Buck Bunny (http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/) or Sintel (http://www.sintel.org/) ? * they try to focus on real problems, not on eye-candy or extra-features that would impress but not be useful once.