A post for those who THINK that Sonar is SAFE from Windows Updates

Many of you know me as a long time contributor to this forum, so I hope you will read my words with some amount of trust and at least let it enter your logical consideration on what to do about your DAW situation with this Cakewalk news.
 
First - let me say that I'm saddened by this development and wish that it wasn't how it is.  I am a "lifetime" subscriber and, while I think I got my money's worth in updates as we were going, I also know that I will stop using Sonar either now or soon and those benefits will have been lost.  I'm also a hobbyist. I don't make a living doing this or even any money, and I don't get much time from my professional life for my hobbies, so I haven't been that productive with the new features and have no interest in getting bogged down later by software that doesn't work - leading me to have to fix things just to be able to enjoy them.
 
So that's my perspective.
 
There are a lot of posts that have a tone of believing that Sonar will be safe, effectively forever; that as long as the activations work, the software will also and will be able to be re-installed without issue.  I've seen many state that they believe that the Windows Updates that are sure to come - and (for most) are unavoidable to keep an up-to-date system - will not stop Sonar from working.
 
I think that this is incorrect.  I do IT support for a living, running my own small business with several technicians working on small-to-midsized business IT environments.  I have seen a few recent Windows updates roll out that have been quite destructive.  One about a month ago prevented many servers from being able to boot at all.  Of course, this sort of issue would affect ALL DAWs (and other software for that matter), but many others have been software specific. Notably, there was one that came for both Windows 7 and 10 that rendered a few applications for our customers completely inoperable when it came to integration with Excel files - a function needed to be able to use the application for its function in their businesses.  The manufacturers of the software in question (one manufacturing barcode printing application, one enterprise database application using SQL for the backend) simply recommended that either the updates for those systems had to be turned off or an upgrade to the software and/or a patch would be required to get around the problem.  In both cases, the customer was interrupted and lost hours of time, expense, and had to choose between turning off updates (not safe for security) or dealing with a broken application while they await a fix from the vendor.
 
In the case of Cakewalk, that fix would not come.  This would be the effective equivalent of Sonar working fine as long as you didn't want to use any VST effects or instruments.  I don't think that would be a reasonable problem to have.
 
That situation happened over night in all cases.  No warning and basically no sympathy.
 
So for those believing that they won't be affected negatively by this possibility, I think you should strongly consider thinking again, or accepting the "frozen system" methodology to not have to encounter the problem.
 
Myself - I don't have the budget to do much at this time since I don't get a lot of time to "play", but I'm leaning towards Studio One like many others here.  I've downloaded the demo, found my way around, created a drum map for my Pearl Mimic Pro, made sure I understand how all of my external gear works (or doesn't) with the software, and started poking around, watching videos, and experimenting to determine if this is my way forward.  The "deal" that they have to crossgrade out of Sonar at this time will likely entice me to making that a Christmas Gift wish for the year.  Sonar will become a memory.
 
As said, I'm saddened, but I've also had some support issues lately that went unanswered without constant hammering to get a few minor issues corrected - it took a nearly year of badgering for fixes for bugs that had been around since at least X1.  The whole skylight interface, while pretty, lost loads of productivity until the most recent revisions.  Many features that worked well before were inexplicably removed (like track layers) when X1 came along.  Hardware devices (like the short-lived VS700, the Mackie Control mode under X1+ no longer supporting many features it used to (like EQ mode that controlled the Sonitus), the Contour Shuttle Pro not having a working plugin to the software any more, ACT being basically a complete pain and somewhat abandonware) lost function or became completely unsupported and useless.  There are probably tons of reasons why Cakewalk was doomed to inevitable failure - these are just the few I encountered.
 
I hope that we can all continue a sense of community either here or moving along to another shared-software-venture that many of us are sure to take.

I have an old laptop from 2005. No internet and Windows XP. Everything is still running, but I no longer use the thing, it feels like tough mucus.
 
There are soon faster machines on the market, monitors with high resolution. Sonar will run on a computer without internet for another 8 years - but shure only with the technology of today.
 
after time.... Sonar will not be used anymore, although it's still running, things will get dusty in the basement.
I'm not worried about keeping Sonar running, but I'm afraid to become a Platinum Lifetime Zombie.

I'm a retired LAN/WAN Network and help desk manager (worked for SSA).  Large corporations, federal agencies and even small businesses do not change OS overnight.  It is a huge expense in both the hardware, software and training.  For those reasons, alone, many stay on older OS'.  Its not that the "current" OS is unstable or bad its the $$$.  Take SSA, they have approx. 1800 client server LAN systems in SSA offices and approx. 55,000 "workstations" (PC's).  The PC's run MS Office and specialized applications.  Consider the cost of upgrading the network, and it happened approx. every 10 years while I worked there.

I agree with the original poster here. One thing that worries me for all the people here that are planning to continue using Sonar for as long as possible, particularly the one who rely on it for their income, is what happens when their hardware breaks?
 
It's all well and good to wrap the computer in an isolation force field, but one way or another something is going to happen and by sticking with Sonar your degrees of freedom are extremely limited. Better to move on now while you still have the option to get stuff done with Sonar while you can.

My experience is that the major windows 10 updates (anniversary/creators etc.) have been hosing some device drivers (thunderbolt and nvidia display) and reinstalling the drivers post update has fixed it each time so far. There are not very many things affected and it's annoying but so far not very hard to fix and keep going - this is on my own systems ymmv
 
for the time being I am disabling updates for windows 10 and making system image backups. I can make a full backup turn updates back on and install them and then revert back if there is an issue that can't be fixed. This is more of a problem with windows 10, if you are using windows 7 then the updates are much easier to control and generally less destructive.
 
I am running X1 X2 and X3 on windows 7 systems and not having any problems, I could install my old Sonar 7 and that would work fine too. I used it not too long ago and it's still really cool! That is the first Sonar I ever bought.
 
Yes do take precautions but don't over worry about what might happen. I think it's correct to say that Microsoft is the one thing that could break Sonar but if/when that happens people will be here helping each other out to keep things working. I could be wrong but I think it will keep working for a long time - there are many good options right now to make future upgrade plans without being rushed.
 
Windows 10 will no doubt be making careers out of breaking all kinds of 3rd party softwares along the way regardless of whether they are current and supported, MS breaks their own stuff all the time...that's why/how they make so much money and some of us have jobs as IT people etc  ; p
 
I still like Sonar the best of any daw application, that's why I use it and nothing's going to change that
anytime soon

fireberd
I'm a retired LAN/WAN Network and help desk manager (worked for SSA).  Large corporations, federal agencies and even small businesses do not change OS overnight.  It is a huge expense in both the hardware, software and training.  For those reasons, alone, many stay on older OS'.  Its not that the "current" OS is unstable or bad its the $$$.  Take SSA, they have approx. 1800 client server LAN systems in SSA offices and approx. 55,000 "workstations" (PC's).  The PC's run MS Office and specialized applications.  Consider the cost of upgrading the network, and it happened approx. every 10 years while I worked there.

SSA is currently upgrading their desktops to Windows 10...I am currently a contractor there.  The servers we use in my area are moving towards 2016, but not there yet although there are a couple we use at least that are 2012 R2.
 
Fireberd, you are correct in stating that the change over is slow.  Typical for government agencies and rightly so.  I would rather see the slowness than have them rush into changes and have the systems fail to work!
 

Methodman, your problems are unique to your system(s).  You should make a separate post in the computer section.
 
Depends on which version of Win 7 you have.  If you have Home it will only address 16GB of RAM maximum.  If you have Pro or higher then it will use the full 18GB. 

While I value the perspective of the IT guys here, it should be noted that IT guys have a naturally pessimistic outlook.
 
I was an IT guy for 15 years. I'm not an IT guy anymore, but I'm now the guy the IT guys call when they're in a jam. So I'm not out of the woods yet, but I do have a longer perspective than most.
 
Back in the 80's I was enroute to a customer visit when I struck up a casual conversation with my seatmate on the plane. He made the comment that he had complete confidence in modern airplanes because "they're all flown by computers nowadays". I didn't say anything because I felt that such a fiction might be important to him, but to myself I thought "that doesn't boost MY confidence one bit!". Because, of course, I spent my days looking at broken and misbehaving computers.
 
Over time, such daily exposure to things that aren't working will naturally result in a general pessimism regarding technology in general. Many of the guys I worked with back then retired to become farmers or something else decidedly low-tech. My own distrust of gadgets and tech dependence will persist forever, I think. 
 
I'm not suggesting all the IT guys are wrong, just a bit overly-pessimistic.
 
I'm sure they'd all protest by saying no, not pessimistic, but realistic. Just being prudent. Prepare for the worst. Buy earthquake insurance. Don't go out after dark. Keep your gun loaded in the nightstand. Wear a face mask in public. Don't touch handrails or use public restrooms, and always wait an hour after lunch before swimming. And who is going to argue against prudence?

Never been an IT person per se, designed sipr and nipr networks for the mil now teach MCAS & Security+ certs to IT people at a local college. Seems like I remember a while back installing audio pro 9 on win 10 pro just to address the differences in the staff view in it vs the one in platinum (one of those staff view threads). If pro audio 9 will run on win 10 what possibly could Microsoft do to stop sonar. On the other hand I'm sure they will think of something. 

I am not a pessimist. I am a realist. I see failures happen for me as an IT guy but also for regular people all day every day. New windows, new acrobat, new chrome, etc. I am not saying it will break next week. I am saying to not be surprised when not does and don't be frustrated when you want or need to get something done on that broken system.

I simply have better things to do with my time than to try to fix the unfixable. I already don't get enough time to do what I want and have to live with the fact that there is not talent button on my computer, so things take me longer to do than I would like them to, so why set myself up for failure with something preventable.

I don't care if or how long people opt to stay with sonar. I was just trying to be helpful for people less technical who are reading about how safe everything will be forever. Maybe it will be and good for you if it is. I just don't want to live there.

this happened to cakewalk's plugins last year, who's to say something similar won't happen again? i think sonar will be broken by a win10 update before the authorisation servers go down

Reality is using your Sonar set-up on a computer that never accesses the internet.  Fantasy is leaving it prone to every possible thing that can come along the net by leaving it on a computer that is online.

I have thought about this for a few days now and I can see the point.
I guess im one of the lucky ones who is still using Windows 8.1 because I refused to upgrade to that garbage Windows 10 <-Never thought I would say that. I always like to stay advanced with technology, I just couldn't stomach the Windows 10 upgrade. I also have the convenience of taking my Work station off line because I have 2 work stations. One is an I7 the other an I5. So I will keep my I7 off line and use my I5 for learning a new DAW and online work. Great thing is that they are side by side and I have KVM switch so I can use the same mouse and keyboard.