The past week I participated in a PD workshop run by Oscar Martin and Luca Carruba at NK gallery. The workshop lasted one week and ended with a collaborate performance where all participants used their patches made during the workshop. I can’t tell you how that turned out because unfortunately I had to leave two days early to finish another job. However, the workshop was quite inspiring. Oscar and Luca rushed us through the possibilities of the software so fast that I imagine it hard for an actual newbie to keep up. For me it was quite informative, especially since I had my own agenda, wanting to know how to communicate with an Arduino with PD as means of an interface.
I’ve worked with Max/MSP and VVVV before and also had a look at JMax and PD back in 2002. PD has evolved a lot since then and since it is a piece of true open source software it has all my sympathies. The community is active and I´ve found the mailing list extremely patient and useful.