Dave, Okay, fair enough, and I agree in that I don't have time to try them all either. I have tried many of them though, and in doing so find ones that suit me regardless of popularity, suggestions or hype. Even if I could get a "be all, end all" piece of software as you suggest, I probably wouldn't use half of it because I wouldn't be interested in half of it. Plus, some individual pieces of software do individual functions, or renderings, better than some present "catch all" offerings. That's why it is important to find what you like. For me it is the same as other art work in that I am interested in a wide variety of things, with a wide variety of styles available and I would like to work in a wide variety of media, but have found it best to work in the various media that suits me best with the tools I am most comfortable with. Coming to that realization included trying a lot of different things along the way. Doing so makes the difference between success and failure and liking what you do or create. That's just what works for me. My recommendations to any beginners would have to start with: Mind-Boggling Fractals www.mbfractals.com or it's freeware limited version Mind-boggling Fractals Lite found at these two locations: www.simtel.net/pub/pd/54429.shtml www.completelyfreesoftware.com/graphics_programs3_w95.html Then, next, would be any of Stephen Ferguson's programs: http://fractals.iuta.u-bordeaux.fr/fergusonsc/ Followed by Fractal Explorer: http://www.eclectasy.com/Fractal-Explorer/ which incorporates many of the better features of Ferguson's programs more completely, 3D, Landscapes, IFS and Quats along with simple versions of popular features of Ultra Fractal in it's layering capabilities and palette control. These are listed solely for ease of use and ease in getting used to working in fractals and some of the different rendering methods. From there the field is wide open. For switch previews, Terry W. Gintz developed the best method I've seen when he adapted Zplot for Windows, and has undoubtedly continued that to present. However, once someone gets experience working around M-set locations of an equation and learning what will happen in switching to the J-set, you get pretty used to what you can expect from generalized switch window images in most current software. I agree it could be better, though.