From what I understand, Blender was originally designed as an in-house tool for NaN (the original developers) and for what it was used for, it was quite good. Now it's something quite different, the interface is quite quirky. Most of the issue is that as the program has been developed, certain tools have been put in bad places... making the program unnecessarily difficult to figure out. Also, most of the time when the community talk about tools, they refer to those which can only be accessed through overly complex and badly designed keyboard shortcuts.
Years back I gave up on it, but now I have a fair amount of experience under my belt with 3D in general, I don't find it too hard to use. Providing you don't expect it to be an intuitive learning experience, it's best to learn the interface like you would find your way to a destination... except that (since Blender's documentation is a disaster) you're learning your way to each destination without the roadmap :) After a little while, you learn where everything is, via trial and error. Some of the interface makes sense, and other parts don't.
If however you're having issues with the interface because you're too thick to work out how to make a cube, try and take your learning seriously. The problem isn't with Blender- it's with you. As far as serious 3D apps go, Blender's quite simple to figure out. I agree that if the Blender developers want to target 3D users who are just getting started, they need to redesign the interface from scratch... but considering the stubbornness of some of the Blender users I've spoken to... I'm not holding my breath for that one.
Side note: Love XSI, but not really for the beginner.
Years back I gave up on it, but now I have a fair amount of experience under my belt with 3D in general, I don't find it too hard to use. Providing you don't expect it to be an intuitive learning experience, it's best to learn the interface like you would find your way to a destination... except that (since Blender's documentation is a disaster) you're learning your way to each destination without the roadmap :) After a little while, you learn where everything is, via trial and error. Some of the interface makes sense, and other parts don't.
If however you're having issues with the interface because you're too thick to work out how to make a cube, try and take your learning seriously. The problem isn't with Blender- it's with you. As far as serious 3D apps go, Blender's quite simple to figure out. I agree that if the Blender developers want to target 3D users who are just getting started, they need to redesign the interface from scratch... but considering the stubbornness of some of the Blender users I've spoken to... I'm not holding my breath for that one.
Side note: Love XSI, but not really for the beginner.