For PC, I'm a Reaper guy. Fairly stripped down and easy to understand. Can run on even basic computer setups and it's compatible with most VSTs

Reaper is winrar-style nagware, so essentially free. TBF it's the only one I've tried personally and I'm too terminally music-dumb to know what all the features do, but there sure seems to be a lot of them and I've heard plenty of good things about it.

Ardour

It's FOSS

Pro Tools is the industry standard and it's what I use everyday at my job. That said it's not perfect and it's geared more towards classical recording studio workflows so a lot of its design is based on that assumption and can be cumbersome to newer modes of music production if that's the mindset one is coming from. For instance the midi in PT is fucking ABYSMAL and I refuse to use it 99 times out of 100

As a lot of people said, Ableton is really good and when I'm being creative, i.e. arranging or producing music it's my go-to. It has a lot of very advanced and current features that makes producing contemporary music really simple. Like simple rendering of midi to audio and really advanced time compression/expansion algorithms. It's got a steep learning curve but it can do anything. However, the stock plugins and Virtual Instruments definitely leave something to be desired. You'll want to accrue a list of 3rd party plugins, if you want I can give you a list of ones I use professionally

I recommend Logic to ppl a lot, especially if their beginners, bc it's relatively cheap and is the most "all inclusive" daw there is. It does everything reasonably well (has good enough level effects, tools, and virtual instruments) though tbh I'm not a huge fan. I keep it around just to print stems from my clients' logic sessions if they bring me one to bring them into Pro Tools.

You could also look into FL Studio, lots of people use it, it was my first daw back in middle school. If you're recording more than producing there's Cubase, Reaper, or Nuendo. You can produce in these but they're generally not as popular

Edit for bonus points:

Pro tools:

• guaranteed that if I'm working with another studio or a label i'll probably get a PT session so it helps with that but this isn't a widespread concern
• if you're aware of fundamentals of recording the layout is really logical and it has a lot of good features for running in a pro environment
• PLAYLISTS. Idk if avid/digidesign had this patented but PT is the only daw i've used with real per track playlisting and if so, copyright is a fuck. But it is VITALLY important to my workflow and keeps me from having to make 30 tracks just to different takes/versions of a recording. You can consolidate all that into one track

Ableton:

-audio to midi helps a lot with remixes, sampling but changing it so you can't really see what it came from, or when people pay me to remake a track because they want the stems but the og producer doesn't have it available

-the Time compression/expansion algos can be almost imperceptible or if you're going for a warped sound they can be "bad" which is cool. most other daws just sound bad.

Can't believe nobody said Ableton

garageband

my favorite drummer uses it and if that's all he needs than I'm not going to shell out a shit ton on other programs (or actually figure out how to pirate)

I use Tracktion Waveform. It works fine and is pretty cheap compared to the competition.

I like Logic because it's what I learned in high school. But it also has the best stock compressors and instruments of any DAW by far imo. There's a HUGE library of high quality samples and loops to use in your productions. With the 10.5 update, the sampling capabilities were majorly revamped with the addition of drag and drop and quick sampler. I havent used the other DAWs but in the end they all do mostly the same thing. You def cant go wrong with Logic.

Reaper. It has a trial version that can go on indefinitely so there's effectively a free version, only catch is there is a small popup with a short timer. If you want to buy it the price is only $60 which is miles better than the others when I checked but if you're pirating I suppose none of that matters.

Reaper was the first out of two daws I tried, with the second being Ableton. I found Reaper extremely intuitive to use, I feel like if you're capable of navigating your computer or pretty much any other program then you can easily learn Reaper. A lot of people also like the customization it offers but, real talk, I just use the default theme, never had an issue with it. Most of the in-built bundled plugins are also effective and versatile, if you know the basics of them then you probably won't need much else.

I tried Ableton after I had a couple of hundred hours in Reaper and it just seemed needlessly convoluted. I can't think of any negatives to Reaper off the top of my head, the one thing I tried to do but couldn't was due to Amplitube rather than the daw.

Ableton because that's what I got for free years ago. Don't listen to me.

Cubase gang represent. It’s audio editing capabilities are phenomenal. Audio fidelity is amazing.

Regarding Ableton, it’s really handy for putting together ideas and writing songs but it’s audio editing is absolutely fucking atrociously pathetically bad. Mixing capabilities are also quite shyte.

My college teacher said “write in ableton, mix in cubase”

I've been really enjoying Waveform, just the free version. Though honestly I've only used it and BandLab which I found noxious personally.

Pros: on all 3 major platforms, very pretty interface (I see rainbow, I like), simple enough for a dumbass like me to use

Cons: if you're really going hard you'll have to track down the pro version on the high seas, which I couldn't find (though this may be related to the aforementioned dumbassery)

I really enjoy my blackflag edition of logic, it has generally served me really well. I absolutely despise Adobe Audition, just an awful DAW that's only really useful for cross-compatibility with the rest of the Adobe suite.

I'm kind of surprised no one has mentioned it yet, so I'd like to chime in with Cakewalk. It's free, but the built-in plugins aren't quite as extensive as Reaper's. That being said, you can use Reaper's VSTs along with it. I generally use it for multitracking guitar and bass. I've always found the channel strip and mixer interface to be pretty intuitive.

I also use FL Studio, but usually more for writing tracks with VST synths (rather than live instruments). Its piano roll/pattern editor reminds me a little of ProTracker from my Amiga days, and it's definitely a good tool to have in your arsenal if you skew towards the EDM or industrial side.

I used Ableton live and klystrack when I wanna sequence something chiptune-y to then import into a more normal DAW.