I literally learned most of 2.8, including the left-click select keymap, in just a few days working on a project. It isn’t that different from 2.79, it is just a lot nicer. I held off learning 2.5x and stuck with 2.49 for a while but the transition wasn’t that bad either once I decided to tackle it. Very soon, the older version felt foreign. The sexy UI will be an extra incentive that will get 2.79 users to switch early on, I believe, and they will do perfectly fine.
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That’s odd, I have also been ‘talking to lots of blender users’ and they are excited about 2.8 because it is infinitely more usable out of the box. The upward trend of the development fund would also indicate that the community is not as fragmented as you seem to think- rather, a small handful of squeaky wheels hoping for some grease.
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I can see directly opposite situation. Everyone likes 2.80, even users of another 3d software. Blender has a lot of support from community. A huge chunk of community gives a lot of feedback about ongoing development. Personally for me, almost every issue has been fixed now, and there is a lot of other improvements. Sure, you have to learn some new ways to work with blender, but in general it is the same 3d editor. Anyways, if you do 3d even as a hobby, you just can’t avoid learning something new every day. Even if you prefer 2.79, you can keep it and use as long as you like.
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Blender 2.8 is more better then 2.7 in all sides. Whole new UI, more close to commercial software like 3d Max/Maya. Bugs are fixing more quickly. In short blender 2.8 is more popular among it’s community. At first it’s a little bit hard for old user (2.7) to migrate to 2.8, it’s a general part of life. For completely new user or cumming from other background it’s a better then prev. Blender 2.7 was completely new concept, like clicking with right-mouse button. Blender 2.8 is moving more forward to industry standards…
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I have started using Blender 2.8 last november, things were changing a lot and fast. I still used stable 2.79 for client work alongside 2.8 for learning purpose.
Since march I have worked only on 2.8 and do not see how I would go back.
If you never touched 2.8 it could be intimidating, a bit like learning a new software… but we should not be like a Max user that has to learn Blender and refract to better changes, just because it’s different.
Take a smaller less important client job, or personal job, give it a try and report missing features in UI.
Good luck it’s going to be great 
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2.4x to 2.5 was a much bigger interface change, and involved much more hotkeys, and the Blender community had no problem making that shift.
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I never understood why learning a new software was such a big deal… tbh I stopped using 2.7 months ago… was really painful at first but after a week or 2 of late nights I was fine… since I then have delivered several shots for Warner Brothers in 2.8… If you think 2.79 to 2.8 is painful try working at a studio that constantly has to train maya artist how to use houdini for lighting.
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Not too drastically, just because most are lazy. We have 2.8 already near 1 year. And it was a time to learn new UI/UX and smoothly change workflow to more modern and stable 2.8 
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It seems some guys loves 2.8 here)
Well, it is pleasant to me as diamond blenderfund donator, that supports its development, you are welcome!
Yes, this is actually, a big issue, because Collections - is a common layer system representation, while Layers of 2.79 are completely not, it is a QCD system. It just was named as “layers” by mistake)
So the problem is that developers tried to replace an eagle with elephant)
By the way they wanted to replace digits from QCD system, but but we took action on time.
Well, as CG workflow designers we are working to make all this stuff at least usable.
You are completely right, there will be community split, and this despite the fact that there is still a lot of issues in 2.8 that are sad for 2019 (like abscence of normal snaps, or common grouping, or corrupted wireframe display, or collection hierarchical issues and so on), we are working on fixing it =)
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With the frezee of blender 2.80 and a vacation period by the devs, (they worked a lot, and have to recover their energy) the ideas will clear up.
And all those little boring regressions will be corrected,
Because the phase of spontaneous in-depth polishing will emerge.
Blender 2.81 will largely be this too.
Yes. There are many things to not like about 2.8. I too have seen 2.8 as being for the industry and professionals while us beginners are left with our mouths open wondering whether we should switch from 2.7 or not. I like the Idea of adding the new features to 279, and I hope it isn’t discontinued soon.
sorry there is now way with the current resources that two independent versions will be supported.
for now you’d either have to stick with 2.79 or live with whatever quirk you find in 2.8 - and its not like 2.79 has no quirks itself
I hope many things will be adressed after the release Its not like 2.8 is the final for ever and ever release of blender…
These squares were confusing as hell. Your comments sound like you don’t want to learn the new workflows
My whole reply is about explaining the new workflow. That quote corresponds to an introduction explaining why a 2.79 user may be confused.
It is 1D_Inc who wants to restore old layer system. Not me.
Software cannot stand still, never has done, never will. I have just been through the basics of Blender 2.8 with my 17 year old great-niece - she loved it and cannot see what the issue is here in learning 2.8 from scratch - neither can I. It’s just a case of applying yourself to the task, sorry to be a bit blunt here, but 2.8 is not any more difficult to learn than 2.7 was, or 2.5 from 2.4, or Intergraph IGDS was in 1981.
Saying the community is going to “split” does not help anyone.
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2.8 is significantly easier to learn from scratch than 2.7.
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are we still kicking this dead horse? can we at least change the wording of the topic since “split” implies something resembling an even distribution of opinions when in reality it’s not even close?
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What do you mean? Split is still a problem.
No matter how many blender users you were talk with, if they are artists or simply beginners.
A lot of peoples uses blender for pretty much simple tasks, but why professional community have to listen to them?
Usually it goes in other way - professionals tells to newbies how to be effective on complex tasks.
Because other way newbies will stay newbies.
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