I was just wonder if there was any knowledge of anyone out there about softimage and 3ds max like which one is a better deal and stufflike that.
You can´t compare Maya/Max/XSI(softimage)/Blender/LightWave/Cinema4D/Houdini etc…
The reason for this is because it´s like comparing Apples to Oranges.
You get different flavors - but essentially they´re all powerful tools for
creating 3d graphics. Max is big on Games in the games industry
Maya and XSI is big in the Movie world. Blender is the free alternative
that´s rising powers right now. Common for them ALL is that you
basically can get the job done on all of them.
I use to say - if you´re new to 3D-software…then you´d not know to
appreciate the difference of these programs before you have
experience, you can´t go wrong with starting out on ANY of the
packages. Learning 3d…is learning 3d…no matter what package
you end up using, you´re going to learn 3d one way or the other
and your knowledge will NOT be lost! 
Last I heard, softimage only worked on a very specific workstation. (I forget which kind.)
I would be very surprised if this was true!
I reckon you’ll probably need a modern computer and a decent OpenGL card.
Softimage/XSI is actually a very good deal, at $500 it is several times cheaper than 3Dmax, and afaik it has comparable features.
And I’m pretty sure it doesn’t need one specific workstation.
You’ve gotta’ realize that Softimage is just a tool in the toolbox. It’s not the all in one tool. Like in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, they used Maya for animation and renering and stuff, and 3DsMax for effects and such.
And again, these questions have been asked many times before. Please utilize the search function in the forum before posting these application comparison threads.
BgDM