On February 19, 2010 Blender 2.5 alpha 1 was released.
This version has hotkey customization option. Now professional 3d artists like me that are used to 3ds max and Maya can adapt blender to their work flow and habits. The entire GUI was redesigned to be more intuitive, it is now more similar to other high end 3d programs.

See more details about this release here:
http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-250/
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Andyba, 3d artist
skills: 3d modeling, texturing, rendering, 3d character animation, compositing
3d software experience: 3ds max, Maya, Softimage XSI, Deep Paint 3d, Body Paint 3D, Wings 3D, Z Brush
2d software experience: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After effects, Macromedia Flash, Freehand

Also the interface looks more similar to other industry 3D programs like Maya or 3D Studio and I don't mean that it's completely like that because it has its own unique things and I think that it could facilitate migration to and from Blender in the future.

This is a hot debate issue and some people disagree with me on that but I stand by my belief that this can help people from other 3D software find Blender more familiar but again other people may differ in opinion with me on that and I respect that.

Nevertheless the interface changes which in my opinion are a great improvement over previous versions of Blender are only a few of the many improvements of the program. Now it includes things like indirect illumination which is one that I was waiting for for quite a while and many, many other new things and improved features.

Simply put the changes from version 2.49b to the final 2.6 version due around summer (not too far away) are some of the most significant changes in the program in its history and overall the reaction of the community in general to them has been a very positive one.

The program has already moved from 2.5 Alpha 0 and is currently in version 2.5 Alpha 2. The full version will be 2.6 which is the final production version.

In general I think that the new final 2.6 version will be well worth waiting for.

I totally agree with you regarding the interface, PixelOz.
I played around with a little with 2.5 alpha and found tools that I couldn't find earlier in blender. When I intentionally tried looking for them in blender 2.49 they were there, but the interface wasn't intuitive enough for me to find them before.
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Andyba, 3d artist
skills: 3d modeling, texturing, rendering, 3d character animation, compositing
3d software experience: 3ds max, Maya, Softimage XSI, Deep Paint 3d, Body Paint 3D, Wings 3D, Z Brush
2d software experience: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After effects, Macromedia Flash, Freehand

And there are so many new things in Blender in this new version! Wow I mean the program is already very capable although I admit that some features do need some polish.

Nevertheless some old features are already been improved for the new version and more are going to be when 2.6 is released. I like the new smoke system and the new animation system and now all parameters are animatable! This is something in which I found some limitations in some simple animations that I was trying when I was learning and now you can animate all the parameters. That alone has a lot of potential for special effects but there is just so much more that is going to be new in 2.6.

This version of Blender is quite an overhaul.