@Jeremy - Come to think of it, I too came across WPDesigner because of some of the tutorials he wrote, specifically theme related stuff. Not to mention the fact that I loved the design of his site.

@Dave - In my opinion, a fresh install of WordPress.org is much easier than a new account on WordPress.com. I'll explain why in a future post but it's a nightmare to navigate and their is too much stuff in for the user to wade through on .com versus WordPress stand alone. That's why you probably see people flocking FROM it rather than TOO it.

@Martha Davis - If you're still struggling with WordPress, I highly suggest checking out WP101.com which I'll be doing a review of in a few days or keep an eye out for new classes on WPClassroom.com. In fact, WPClassroom has classes on September 13th and 15th and is more of what you're looking for to learn the software.

@Ipstenu - I think I hinted to that in the post near the end. I mean, these days, you have one click install, one click upgrade for core, themes and plugins, and overall, everything is just easier. If you loved the way a theme looked, there is a good chance that user would never have to touch any code to get going. But, are we going to be looking at a generation of WordPress users that look at you funny when you mention the acronym FTP?

@that girl again - I can't agree with you that the software has become more difficult to use, at least I don't think so. But I will say that WordPress.com is definitely more complicated to use than stand alone WordPress because of the interface and how many menus and links people have to wade through on WordPress.com. WordPress.com is supposed to be the hassle, easy way to press your words when in fact, I think it's the other way around.

@Jim W -I'd say no. As I learned with Drupal and with Joomla before WordPress, each system has it's own nomenclature, it's own ecosystem of terms and descriptions used to navigate managing the system. While all three are built with PHP, they each do things a different way, sometimes majorly different ways. While there are similarities between them all, there are probably twice in not three times as many differences.