Tracktion revived after a long coma

Tracktion was once considered a pretty forward-thinking and ergonomically-friendly DAW, but then the developer sold out to Mackie, which in turn had previously been sold to a holding company that cared more about milking products until they die rather than innovating. Tracktion languished for about 5 years, during which time its user base dwindled as pissed-off users migrated to other DAWs that were still being actively developed.

Now the original developer has re-acquired the product, dusted off the old code, and is promising to aggressively catch up to its competitors, some of which (like Studio One, Ableton Live and Reaper) didn't even exist back in Tracktion's heyday. Today, Tracktion does look a bit dated, but it's only 60 bucks and if the dev really gets busy it stands a chance of being a major player again.

It's 32- and 64-bit, no dongle, runs on Mac or PC and has a full-featured demo. And, unlike some terminally fashion-conscious DAWs, it actually installs on XP.