You know Brent you hit the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned about BLINK. I got involved as I was looking for a decent firewall replacement for Tiny Pro. This was not a simply program to use, it was poorly interfaced and had incredible learning curves to the point where it just wasn't ready for prime time. That was fine for me I got the power I needed with a steep and complex usage pattern. After it was bought out and dissappeared from the earth my search for a viable replacement brought me to BLINK.
However I cannot really put BLINK into a usage category (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert) since it blends many aspects together. I mean it's very easy to add rules and such, but they still do not disclose enough information for a beginner. The program features very advanced usage like HIPS, but does not give enough detail to be of value to the Expert. The vulnerability assessment is great for more advanced folks but it's greatest value would be with the beginner, besides for the average beginner or intermediate they probably couldn't decipher the vulnerability writeups (heck some professionals have problems with this...). The current implementation of Application and System firewall are very confusing even for Advanced folks but I hear that's getting combined. Wise. One can go about adding phishing rules but how do they work? Should a beginner be creating phishing or IPS rules?
I'm sure in time BLINK will be a great product, but who should use it? This is what I can't determine. Do I recommend this to my Aunt, or am I asking for a support nightmare doing so? Power users seem beyond this product but it's interface seems mostly geared towars this type of user. I am conflicted.