BobF 
Like you, I paid up front so I guess I'll see where things stand 12 months from now.  In the mean time I'll be keeping my other software up to date and exercised as well.  I was going to let it go, but one of Cakewalk's official spokespersons has advised me to consider alternatives because I'm clearly too stupid to make Sonar work - LOL! 

Ya know BobF... I'd like to think we're on the same viewpoint and have the same desires with Calkwalk.  I don't think you're too stupid to use Sonar as well, but my thoughts are, that the extremely negative/angry posts that I see in the forums, actually do more harm to Cakewalk, especially when someone new comes to the forums.  Someone else pointed that out as well.
Any rate, I wish you well with your future with using Cakewalk, and hope you make some great music and projects with it.  I like to think optimistically and when we're down to the *year later* scenario, we'll all be happy we stuck with Cake's growing pains with their new products and structuring.
My apologies (for any off-tone previous comments) and /friction desired with ANY member here on the forums.
Thx for your understanding.

mixmkr
I don't think you're too stupid to use Sonar as well, but my thoughts are, that the extremely negative/angry posts that I see in the forums, actually do more harm to Cakewalk, especially when someone new comes to the forums.  Someone else pointed that out as well.

I think most people realize that forums attract negativity and complainers; all DAW forums prove this, so it's not surprising. Still, if someone stumbles into these forums and sees "Command Center: Garbage," they might assume that it doesn't work or the thread is about bugs, and not read far enough to find out the thread is about a feature request. Then they'll go on Gearslutz and say "Yeah, that CCC sure is GARBAGE! Even the SONAR forums say so!" And of course, the more people who believe that, the fewer copies of SONAR will sell, thus reducing the chances of getting additional features in a timely fashion.
 
The reality is that for those who want an easy "typical installation" experience - the kind of installation I'm sure most users do - the CCC works well. For those who want to do custom installations, you can install the way you did before, by downloading installers and installing manually. It's obvious by the thread in the feature request section some people really want this feature, and I understand why, but it I'm not sure how many users would consider it crucial.
 
As to whether Cakewalk is listening, those purveyors of a "garbage piece of coding" for which they "should be ashamed" posted a 1b version that fixed a CCC problem 3 days after that problem was reported. Cakewalk obviously listens and acts on what it hears. However, it also prioritizes based on feedback, and a post about how something is so horrible needs to have that level of horribleness corroborated to get pushed to the top of the queue. So far, it seem more like for a minority of users, doing a custom install is more of a PITA than anything else because it has to be done in the same awkward way it was in the past...a situation the CCC tries to avoid, but in this use case, does not.
 
However, I do expect the ability to do custom installations will be increasingly more important as SSD system drives become more common, so I would assume this is on Cakewalk's radar.

Thx Craig.

  It seemed that a couple of people were actually more concerned with a "lean" drive for imaging, versus filling up a SSD.  I guess I can understand that, but I'm not totally grasping how under 10gigs of media content mukes that up.  I'm also not sure why it just can't be deleted or physically moved...at least the Cakewalk media.  I'm finding my media browser in SPlat, could care less where it's located and can retrieve it from any connected source.  So I'd just move the 6 gigs of loops, one shots, etc to your desired drive or just delete it if you'll never use it.   THAT point seems to be grossly overlooked (but yet complained about since Cakewalk just *dumps it* on your C drive).  Realize, THAT content is really the only stuff that takes up any space, as compared to track templates, MIDI info, etc.   So, I'm not really understanding the frustrations. 

(I'd almost bet a large percentage of unhappy people are ALSO the ones that gripe about Cake including all these "useless" loops in their program, instead of just a barebones DAW -  the "delete" function on my computer works just fine).

I can't imagine that they won't fix this soon. After all it's only a fancy installer. Programmers can write those with their eyes closed, it's not as if they have to worry about drivers or complicated DSP or anything like that. I've seen Google refuse to fix really glaring, simple bugs and design flaws in their software for years at a time, but Cakewalk isn't Google (it actually has a human face and connects with its users).

So while it's not the best situation, just hang tight. I'm not happy about all of that content on my tiny SSD C: drive either, but it's not the end of the world and as soon as they roll out an update I'll simply delete all of it and install it again. To be honest it's not that much of a pressing issue to have me downloading everything individually from my account.

sharke
To be honest it's not that much of a pressing issue to have me downloading everything individually from my account.

That's the quote of the thread, imo.   It seems nowadays if somebody has to spend the energy to mouse click a couple extra times and wait 15 minutes, that's pushing the limit. 

Everybody thinks developers are stupid... They aren't.. they use software more than anybody else. They understand about user interfaces. They are generally 100 steps ahead of the customers.
 
If you've ever installed Visual Studio which is what they develop on, then people would realize they are probably more concerned about file paths than anybody else. The package is huge.
 
The real problem is deadlines, resources, and the fact that software takes about 100 times longer to develop and test than most people realize.

All this complaining about the way to download the program. Rome wasn't built in a day. I suppose that your next gripe is that Sonar doesn't record and mix your music automaticly so that you can lay back with your big ego saying "Look what I mixed today." Maybe over 5 years, Sonar will also cut your grass for you.

cowboydan
 Maybe over 5 years, Sonar will also cut your grass for you.

They'll need REALLY BIG MOWER then.

bapu

They'll need REALLY BIG MOWER then.

why...can't you use Reaper for that instead?