Blender 2.57 released (first stable release with completely new UI)

Found this on the site, thought it was rather interesting:<p>The Evolution of Blenders User Interface [PDF] <a href="http://download.blender.org/documentation/bc2008/evolution_of_blenders_ui.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://download.blender.org/documentation/bc2008/evolution_o...</a>

&#62; Other improvements include a new file browser<p>Oh thank god. I want to tear my hair out whenever I use Blender just to view or convert a file. The file browser is nearly unusable.

I have to say, Blender has come a long way. Big kudos. Python scripting is a major plus for me (Maya uses Python too).

I used it for a few years about 10 years ago, and I loved it at the time - I stopped largely because the software itself was just overwhelming. The new interface looks promising, it's great to see Blender still being developed.

How does it compare to the commercial competitors (Maya, 3DS Max, Softimage) in terms of features &#38; usability?

This is not the first release with new UI. 2.5 series all had this new UI.