sony vegas 11 was a disaster and user faith in the product was at an all-time low.
 
but they got their act together and last summer invited a group of long-time users and forum denizens to beta vegas 12. the beta came out, much feedback from users, 12 was released, but, like all software, there were bugs...
 
jump cut to yesterday. sony released version 670 (we were on 573 for months) of vegas 12 with pages of bug fixes. there is far less angst on that forum, but still frustration about specific bugs. sony listened, they responded with fixes. the product is a year old...
 
dissolve to cw, where they've erected walls around the development of sonar. to the point that some users, like me, have lost faith in cw's ability to a) deliver a product that can be depended upon, and b) respond to user-identified bugs in a timely manner.
 
sony creative software found a way to involve users, cw shuts the door in our faces. both small companies part of a bigger parent. different strokes...

Heh, I skipped 11 and went straight to 12. I really like Vegas. IMHO, they have one of the fastest workflows out there - it's one of the most under-rated video editors out there. It's audio capabilities, compared to other video editors, are the best in the industry, bar none. Of course, it's awesome as a multi-track audio DAW, barring the fact it has no midi capabilities. I'd spend more time in it for audio duties, but most of my work is midi based.  

I love vegas for its ease of use and audio capabilities but it falls short of other major editors in the purely video aspect. The differences are not so major that it would impair me from doing my job but are significant enough that very few Avid, Final Cut, Premiere users would be inclined to switch.

Any small company aspect of Sony's acquired audio and visual software disapeared quickly after Sonic Foundry sold the programs. Unlike Cakewalk, Sonic Foundry moved on to other products and did not become part of Sony fold. Not that being a big company is bad.

I think the issue is workflow - Avid and Premier have specific work flows that mirror a lot of what was already done in the industry. The colorist does his job, the editor does his, the musics and foley's do theirs, and so on.
 
These things can be a PITA for a one-man-band though. If you've never used a video editor though, picking up on Vegas is easy whereas those other editors will take some getting used to. Vegas-y things like doing composites right in the editor, no need for conforms (which I believe the other guys have mostly eliminated now), full audio capabilities.
 
There's a few professional outliers that use Vegas. But the video industry is like the music industry - there'll be clustering around certain products for project exchange purposes.

Hey, I live in Middleton, and I do like Vegas, Acid and SoundForge, though I haven't used them since about 6 or 7

Vegas is IMO the easiest of the major editors to use for the total beginner.  It is also a great one-man-band solution since it does have limited composting capabilities.  Third party plugins help a lot since compositing in Vegas is possible but very awkward.  The lack of tracking alone makes it more practical to use a free tracking solution like Blender (a pretty decent tracking solution if you don't have the money for third party).
 
Premiere is getting better with audio now that it is icorporating more and more of Audition's features into the audio portion of the program but is still nowhere Vegas.  I think a combo of Vegas and Hitfilm and Vegas would be a great one man band solution but still not as powerful as adobe suite.

dubdisciple
Vegas is IMO the easiest of the major editors to use for the total beginner.  It is also a great one-man-band solution since it does have limited composting capabilities.  Third party plugins help a lot since compositing in Vegas is possible but very awkward.  The lack of tracking alone makes it more practical to use a free tracking solution like Blender (a pretty decent tracking solution if you don't have the money for third party).
 
Premiere is getting better with audio now that it is icorporating more and more of Audition's features into the audio portion of the program but is still nowhere Vegas.  I think a combo of Vegas and Hitfilm and Vegas would be a great one man band solution but still not as powerful as adobe suite.

 
Yep, that's exactly how I see it all, too.
 
I've tried Blender, but never seem to find the time to invest properly in it. You mention it will do tracking - that's something I'll have to try someday - thanks for mentioning it.
 
 
 

Vegas Audio version 1a was what I cut my teeth on when I started using the computer to record back in 1998. It was very easy to get started on. I remember when I first bought Sonar 6 PE, I was like "f this" and switched back to Vegas cause I didn't feel like totally relearning the process. Little by little I finally got proficient on Sonar, and now use X1 expanded. I love Sonar now, but the learning curve on Vegas was much easier. Obviously this is all from an audio aspect. Vegas 6 was the last version I tried, and I really enjoyed the video features. And as before, very simple learning curve.

SuperG
 
Blender is so powerful that it puts commerciial software to shame at times.  I have not had time to properly invest time in mastering it because I already have spent money on other products that do the same thing but it offers incredible featrures that apply to video:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l26kp1ETRk8