Best software to develop nikon d5100 raw to jpeg?

I currently use the latest asee dsee and am quite happy with it, but when saving to jpeg it makes the photo granier then the raw file. Note I do not have noise reduction enabled on my camera. I also tried the latest trial of adobe lightroom and find it boring, featureless and overly complicated with a bad layout to boot. What do you use and why? Any developing advice would also be appreciated as I'm a novice.

I'm lazy with RAW editing. But I use Photoshop if necessary.
I'm satisfied with Picasa for JPEG.

Most of us who shoot in RAW use Adobe Lightroom.

In Lightroom, you can process RAW files in batches, batches of files that were shot under the same lighting conditions and save them as JPEG, TIFF, PSD or DNG files.

In Ligfhtroom, noise may be suppressed using the Noise Reduction tool under the Development tab

Lightroom is THE tool the pros use, so boring or not, you may want to take the time to learn how to use it. Lightromm is also the program that allows you to add keywords, copyright notice, make lens corrections and insert all your contact information

I think you can say a lot about lightroom but featureless?

I've used capture nx for a long time. Quirky interface and not always the quickest but when you know what you're doing it can do an excellent job.
I then switched to photoshop. I find it easier to work on a single image than lightroom and for me it's easier to use.

If you do a lot of bulk work, say more than 3, 4 dozen shots in almost exactly the same circumstances I really do think you need to give Lightroom another chance. If you work more in indivdual shots photoshop or elements may be the best option.