Pro tools is a great choice if you are planning on spending a lot of time in higher end studios that are mainstays for major label acts. The definition of pro is wider than it used to be. Many professionals use other DAWs besides pro tools, however, the bigger names often have tons invested into hardware specifically made to work with PT. Fortunately more and more high end hardware is compatible with other systems.

If you are doing most of your recording and mixing at home/yoir own studio and you are not running a studio geared towards major label acts as clients, your choice of DAW comes down personal preference. I always found Sonar to be several steps ahead of PT on features.

Seriously, if you are contemplating moving to Pro Tools, look at Mixcraft.  It may not be the "industry standard", but it is more functional, much easier to assimilate (like, it's so intuitive that RTFM is really optional for most), and it's a hell of a lot easier on the pocketbook.  I am currently using Sonar as my main DAW, mostly because of its integration with Addictive Drums, the step sequencers, and I've been with it since it was only a MIDI sequencer.  In my opinion, all of the DAW alternatives have pluses and minuses when compared to Sonar.  Choosing among them is really a function of the Sonar-like functionality you require for your personal workflow, their suitability for your system (i.e., if you have a lot of VSTs and VSTis, don't choose Digital Performer), and the slopes of their learning curves.  I jumped on-board the 'abandon ship' mentality a lot of people are exhibiting here over the past few days, and tried several other DAWs.  Then, I came to my senses and realized that: (1) Sonar is never going to get worse that it already is, and I'm quite satisfied with it except for a few personal niggles; (2) I will always have access to what I currently have (i.e., I trust that before the servers are dead, a means of providing me with new system authorizations will be provided); (3) Mixcraft, my secondary DAW, will continue to improve and make Pro Tools look like the industry joke it really is; and (4) I'm really getting too old to try to master another modern DAW of any complexity rivaling Sonar's.
 
I booted Sonar up tonight and it worked identically to the way it worked last week.  I, then, loaded Alchemy and realized it functions just like it did before the Apple buy-out (better, actually, because I now have acquired all of the expansion packs).  After a few glasses of wine I thought about how lucky I am to have been given the opportunity to have participated in the ride from Twelve Tone Cakewalk 2.0 to SONAR Platinum as it currently exists.  I'm now planning to stick with Sonar and Mixcraft and just ride out the storm.  What's funny, though, is in my couple days of panic, I never even thought about Pro Tools as an acceptable replacement for Sonar.

I have checked ProTools a few days, and for me it has a very bad workflow.
Some of my customer said, that they have to work with it - but they hate it.
I think ProTools is good when you have to record a band or orchester as engineer and mix it. But not for composing and creating own music.
Specially for our work Cubase seems to be the best. It has a very good clip management, batch naming of clips and batch export. Offline rendering and so on.
Everyone has different needs.

Because its pants.

This is a bit of a weird one for me because I've only last week got Sonar Home Studio with Computer Music magazine. Pro Tools is my regular DAW. I have the vanilla version. While I claim to be no wizard with it, I'm still in the ironic position of knowing next to nothing about Sonar, on this Cakewalk forum, and quite a lot more about Pro Tools. For that reason, I can't really compare the virtues of Sonar with Pro Tools. What I will say is users who are used to one particular DAW often take time to get acclimatized to another - this often leads them to trashing the new DAW - because their mindset is used to their familiar method.
 
To me the best thing about Pro Tools is the workflow. For some reason people often think it's complicated. It's actually one of the most straight forward DAWs you'll find. It's like a visual linear tape recorder. It basically has two, or perhaps three (including the Midi Editor), main windows. The Edit Window (with tracks and playlist) and the Mix Window. The third would be the piano roll Midi Editor. However, you can also switch a midi track to Notes in the Edit Window to give a midi lane throughout the duration of the song (I like this feature typically for working with drum/percussion patterns, where small pattern changes are required on the fly).
 
My favourite recent feature has to be Commit. Apparently, Pro Tools lagged beyond with Freeze. Now it has Freeze and Commit real-time bouncing. I always choose Commit. It's so easy. For example, you have an Instrument Track ready for audio. Right-click, review the options, Okay, done! The midi is faithfully reproduced as an Audio Track, and the Instrument Track is disabled and hidden out of view.
 
I also suggest that even if Pro Tools isn't the best DAW - due to it's wide use by professionals - it may still be the best one to learn. As somebody indicated above, just knowing how to use Pro Tools opens up doors and makes it easier when taking your work to a pro studio that uses it.
 
Some negatives to bear in mind: 
 
It's expensive. Subscription model.
 
AAX plug-in format only. Although now widely used (I now only buy AAX compatible plug-ins). The way around this is to buy a bridge plug-in. I regularly use 64bit VSTs by using Blue Cat's PatchWork or MB-7 EQ. Both are very good for much more than VST hosting.
 
No vocal align or pitch editor like Melodyne. I've noticed with the better Sonar packages, you get these. An alternative is to buy Revoice Pro, which covers both, is very good, and works well in PT. Expensive though. Waves Tune is often on sale and is a good pitch editor for PT.
 
iLok. This can be annoying, if not working. I've never had much trouble with it. Has some advantages too: software serials on your iLok can be taken with you and used at your destination; you'll no longer need to worry about avoiding iLok software, such as Revoice Pro and several others - you may prefer to put them on your iLok!
 
I hope that helps in some way.

LOL lots of ProTools haters out there.
 
But hey, guess what? ProTools is stronger than ever.
 
In my opinion, the choice is easy:
 
Audio? ProTools.
 
Midi? Cubase.
 
Have a Mac? Logic.
 
Any of those are better than a zombified terminal vaporware just waiting the last nail in the coffin.

PT will be my next move when I make it.
 
 
 
 
 

What is it about 32 inputs for Hardware? I have already 44. Deal breaker, I guess. 
 

 My favorite recent feature has to be Commit. Apparently, Pro Tools lagged beyond with Freeze. Now it has Freeze and Commit real-time bouncing. I always choose Commit. It's so easy. For example, you have an Instrument Track ready for audio. Right-click, review the options, Okay, done! The midi is faithfully reproduced as an Audio Track, and the Instrument Track is disabled and hidden out of view.

 
For me this is THE MOST important feature, also Sonar had it for years, new feature of Sonar is to instead of Freeze track and let it convert to Audio, just enable Record on the track and record the audio of software synth, and NOT have that synth disappearing when it done. 

you can have more than the fixed number of inputs just not record more simultaneously. Or go HD. That’s what I did.

Yes, 32 vanilla, but 256 HD.
 
http://www.avid.com/pro-tools/compare