Blender Beta

 So I'm using the "Beta" version of Blender, which seems to be commonly referred to as version 2.5.  The stable release version is still 2.49, which has the old UI and interface which many have complained about over the years.

 I've been learning Blender on the 2.5 version so all I'm really familiar with is the new interface.  I actually really like this new Blender, it is fast and easy to model in, and performance is quite good.  The beta version does seem to have a few issues though:(

 -The latest one(2.56a) crashes sometimes, when this happens I open up 2.55 which hasn't crashed on me and do whatever I need to do.

 -Boolean operators don't seem to work terrible well-- sometimes they work yes, but other times I end with a monstrosity of broken triangles which just isn't fixable.

 -Bevel is a modifier, and I can't see any way to just apply it to a selection.  It always wants to work on the entire object.

 -Poly reduction is also a modifier(called Decimate).  The problem with it is that it doesn't maintain UV's, so it is rather useless if you have already textured your model.  Old Blender does have a script that maintains UV's, as does MeshLab, so it is possible to export to one of the those programs, decimate, and then pop it back into New Blender.



 Still, just the fact that Blender includes so much(and is free) makes it pretty fun to work in.  Modeling seems solid, though I have noticed a few issues as mentioned above.

 UV unwrap works fairly well, I like the UV editor so far.

 Texture paint mode: where I can just paint on the model and it applies it to my UV texture.  I like this! I can see using this to rough sketch a texture, and then fill in the detail in PS/GIMP.

 Sculpting mode: something like zBrush.  Well okay, it isn't as good as zBrush, but it exists, it is build right in to Blender, and it works well enough.