I am burned out on testing new DAWs, and I haven't done nearly as much as some of you. I bought Studio One and Samplitude and I'm going to stop now. My guess (based on reading these forums) is that about half of all SONAR users who are moving on are going to S1, with all other DAWs making up the other half. It makes sense to me, as in my testing I felt that S1 was the easiest to learn, although I can't imagine why anyone thinks it's similar to SONAR. Originally I thought I would install it and learn it gradually but keep doing my main work in SONAR, but I abandoned my first test song because I guess I'm just not ready to change my workflow yet. I know where everything is in SONAR, all the shortcuts, etc. and I can't keep two whole sets of information side by side in my head and still get anything creative going.
Samplitude is a different matter. It does not even pretend to be user friendly. The interface is festooned with so many buttons, links, tabs, menus and hidden functions that at first my eyes glazed over. This should have sent me running, but somehow it appeals to my inner geek. I have the feeling this is a very powerful program, and I want to tame it (and the Suite comes with some great-sounding effects and instruments). When I worked in real-world hardware-based studios it was part of the fun to sit down at a ten foot long board and amaze the clients with my knowledge. I never told them that most big mixers are really just one strip repeated fifty times.
Along those lines, I think our beloved SONAR itself is pretty geeky. Many of us here have used it for so long that we don't notice how complex it has become. If I were a Studio One user and they went out of business, I'd probably look at SONAR and say "It looks powerful, but how does anybody get anything done in such a complicated program?"