well i have bought sonar 8 p mainly because i knew sonar since 1.3 (4, 6 and 7) and i always found it to be very easy to understand and use. the hardest thing to understand about sonar was how to freeze synths, and if thats my biggest challenge in understanding how a program works and what it does, then its REALLY easy to use.

another thing that made me buy sonar 8 was the massive amount of plug ins. i have received my sonar 8 yesterday and did only skip through the included dimension pro conent and find it amazingly good. i also have kontakt 3, but i already know that i will be using dimension a lot more than kontakt. and i haven't even tried all the effects plug ins and the other instruments.

correct me if i'm wrong, but does a cubase version of a similar pricing come with that many effects and instruments? especially for smaller budgets i'd say sonar is the product to buy if you want as much for your money as you can get (and don't we want that all?).

that dongle thing would only be of relevance to me if i intended to buy additional libraries that rely on their own dongles (vsl, ilok bla bla bla, soon you have all usb ports blocked with dongles ...).

so, thats my 2 teeth. sorry, cents.

still prefer cubendo for sound to picture, ADR and similar... but do all my music production in Sonar.

own them all, very legally, and a few others like Vegas, ACID, Orion, FL and Pro Tools LE. What I do with them all depends on the project.. but strictly for music making: Sonar!