8.5 or X1

I don't know for sure but I believe 8.5.3 will be the last incarnation of the Sonar that we all grew to love over the last few years. X1 has been troublesome but the upgrades and quickfixes seem to have stabilized most of the problems. X1 is an entirely different look and workflow. Whether we like it or not, I believe X1 is the look and workflow that we will be using for a long time. Could be 2 years,could be ten. I would advise you to make the plunge into X1 mainly because 8.5 will no longer be supported in a short time. This forum is a great place for you to ask questions and get knowledgable info if you decide to go with X1. I,myself, have not had much problem with it. Other than finding out where they moved certain commands or features. There is a sharp learning curve but in the long run, it has been worth it.

If you're coming from V6 and you want to be up and running in no time use your 8.5, it's basically the same but better.
 
X1 is different enough that there's some learning curve involved and is so much more like the competition that you might also consider checking them out.
 
The two main challengers have been mentioned enough round here, so I won't do it again, I find them largely indistinguishable from X1 (well as X1 moved towards how they work I should say I find X1 largely indistinguishable from them!).
 
Child

That is what I did. I run a studio as well as play on sessions. I could not shut down work for any amount of time to learn X1. I had been using 8.5 for work. I installed both the 32 and 64 bit versions of X1 on the same computer. That way, I worked with 8.5 and when I had spare time, I would pull up X1 and put in an older project to learn how to get around. It took a little longer that way but when the day came to use X1 for the first time I was pretty much ready. I have to say, I have not even looked at 8.5 since. BTW, I used V6 at a studio I worked at. I think that has really been my favorite version. It was stable as a rock!