[Qaedain]

I prefer Paizo Games' Pathfinder system. It's a highly refined version of D&D 3.5 that excises a lot of the dumb shit from D&D. For example:

Grappling is easier to deal with.
Bards are useful.
The base classes are enticing enough to avoid prestige classes.
Caster classes are much easier to play.

And so on. It's basically D&D 3.5 that's been edited to remove unnecessary complication, things that don't make any sense and implement more logical choices/progression for classes and whatnot. I highly recommend it.