"While there have been gripes about limiting features, alien file formats, and dibilatating watermarks in the viewports of the free Maya, the Softimage looks to contain none of these shortcomings." Except I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that it's save-disabled. It can open standard XSI files, but I don't think you can save anything, which is one hell of a limitation. No matter how much documentation and training they give you, it's not worth much if you can't save your work. I'd rather go the Gmax route, where you lose some features, but you can make the most of the ones you DO have. No matter how much they talk it up, it's still only a demo.