Sycraft
It is too bad that they promoted it. They should have just kept quiet as they worked on it. I understand how their excitement and zeal overrode good business sense though. Also they probably thought it would be easier than it is. Particularly if they were playing with Codeweaver's stuff. Crossover is based on Wine and as any Linux user who's played with Wine or Crossover can tell you it seems really cool and functional at first, but the devil is in the details and starts manifesting as you dig deep in to a program. So while something may be "compatible" you find a lot of advanced functionality doesn't work or works wrong.
 
Stuff like this is why companies often hold their cards really close to the chest: You never know what can crop up that'll screw with plans and if you announce things early in the development phase, it can build up expectations that later get crushed.

chuckebaby
Im glad. Now cakewalk can focus on more important things like fixes and updating new features (IE- Ripple editing).
I think this was the proper move to make.

tlw

millzyI get the hassle of having to install Windows, then Sonar, but are there really performance issues? When you say 'underpowered', does running Windows on a Mac somehow downgrade the performance of the Mac? Sorry, still trying to understand apart from the hassle of installing another OS on the machine, what the Bootcamp issues are. 

Well, for a start MacOS's Core Audio and Core MIDI mean there's no need to worry about setting up special configurations that disable cpu sleep modes, core parking, etc. to get consistent very low latency performance. That alone counts for a lot.

OS updates generally don't result in the kind of issues that see lots of threads on this and other forums. Updates aren't pushed or compulsory either.

If you need MIDI over wi-fi or a virtual MIDI cable they're built in to the OS and "just work". No problems using wifi or bluetooth at the same time as a DAW either. Good, native wireless MIDI networking is one reason you see Macs on stages rather than laptop PCs.

Another factor is the hardware consistency. Let's say my gigging MacBook died or was stolen. I could order a replacement and have it in 24 hours if bog standard, a few days if customised. And then be absolutely certain I can stream my backup image onto it in a few hours and it will work. There's no assurance that's the case with laptop PCs. I could even do fly gigs carrying just a USB drive or some DVDs, ask the promoter/venue to provide a Mac to the required spec and install my stuff onto it in a couple of hours or less.

Use the bootcamp drivers and you're running a Windows computer with all that entails, good and bad.

It's just a small snapshot I know, but I was at a small, quite unique and very informal festival over the weekend. "Small" in terms of audience capacity, but some very well known established bands in their fields (and in at least one case internationally for nearly 50 years). Every computer on stage, running the mix or lights/on-the-fly video projection had a glowing apple on the back of it. A few iPads as well. Not a single PC, and talking to people, both band members and musicians amongst the audience, I suspect that might be the case for some time.

What a large studio requires of a computer system and what a project studio or live work calls for are rather different things.

Sanderxpander

But the main thing I find baffling from your post is the assertion that updates don't break anything on OSX, because in my experience OSX updates break things far more often than Windows updates do. I get emails from Native Instruments multiple times a year to please wait with updating my OSX because they need to adapt a driver or an installer or a program. If there is anything Apple deliberately doesn't care for it's backwards compatibility, because it messes with their business model - they sell hardware, primarily. They need you to update every so few years. Microsoft makes an OS that they and it's in their interest to make and keep it compatible with as much hardware and software as they can feasibly ensure.