Agreed, icons are no substitute for text, especially with these 3d apps, which have so many commands it's rediculous. Honestly, I think max's UI has stayed pretty much the same, and yes, it does eat ram, but they've suprisingly managed to keep it from becoming overly bloated. I actually disable a lot of things in it that I don't use often at all, and don't make it a point to use the tools I know are broken. I guess it's one of those "well, why would you take that much time to learn that much if the program is crappy to start with?" I think it's a case of not what program you use, but what you can do with it.