Does the question have a purpose like you are planning on getting one? Or just to survery what people think about programs.
anyway, the 5Major programs are: maya, lightwave, 3dsm, c4d, and bryce...
You cant say which one thes "best" really each one has its pros and cons (of course maya and lightwave are probably the best) its really about which you find easiest to work with.
its hard to compare because maya and 3dsm do animation not sure about c4d. and lightwave has a strong renderer going for it.
bryce CAN be used very effectively (i.e. Ekud) but most people just do like "random" stuff like mentioned.