The sort of reaction to the 3ds format as written by the above posters is to be expected by folk who are mostly use 3D as a hobby and use it badly.
There is most probably an element of jealousy amongst their ignorance.  :)

Apart from being the most widely used object format it is also the most stable.

A FREE program called "Imagine" will import and export objects in a "3DS" format very well indeed if that's what you want !

Just search for "Imagine 3D" and down load what is probably one of the best little FREE 3D programs there are.