While protools is certainly recognized by the rest of the world, I've found the low-end versions (LE) to be overpriced and limiting. Protools make sense on a midrange or highend scale, but the name isn't really that necessary. I personally like Digital Performer the best. It's affordable and does just about everything protools (except the obvious feature or proprietary gizmo).
Logic is also really nice. Very user friendly and lots of neat little plugins and features. Very stable and smooth. Not as much of a technical DAW like protools or DP.
Cubase is solid, but doesn't have all the technical specs of some of the big guys, thus it can be a little limiting. If it were business related, I would never opt to use it, but for home use, I totally would. It's easy, comfortable, fun, and affordable.
There are many free open source waveform editors that do a good job as well. Audacity is pretty darn amazing for $0.00.