Blender 2.5 Alpha 0 and development roadmap

The Blender Foundation has released Blender 2.5 Alpha 0, the first official testing release of the 2.5 series after many years of redesign and development work. Alpha 0 already includes many new features and improvements, such as a new UI (closer to Max with modifiers, support for multiple windows, Python-driven, custom keymaps), rendering enhancements, physics (smoke simulation, new particle system) and new animation system. The final release is expected for mid 2010, after the Durian open movie project is finished and all features developed for Durian are incorporated into the software. More at Blender.org and BlenderNation.