The only way I can define "better" is that because Houdini is pure proceduralism doing particle work is much more flexible and therefore more powerful than the Maya/Dynamation approach. Sure there are a lot of things you can do with particles in Maya via scripts and expressions, but with a node-based event-driven particle system it tends to be faster to work with and less destructive to edit.
On the other hand, the one thing I've heard is that Dynamation and now Maya particles can handle a much higher volume of particles than Houdini. But that was a couple years ago and by now things may have changed.
Personally I use neither package, though if I had a choice I'd probably take Houdini. 90% of my work is particle-related and with that I can't see getting my work done without an event-driven particle system. It's just too flexible to ignore.
Brandon Davis
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