bapu
When SONAR stops functioning in ways more than I can bear Studio One 3 Pro will likely be my next move. Maybe Reaper. 
 
I'll continue with Mixbus as my mix/master environment.

My exact backup plan.
 
 

jude77
 
I can't see how that could hurt, after all, I doubt they'll be selling any new copies.

They still have that sale going on. AFAICT they are still selling it. Google "Cakewalk sale" and watch all the hits.

and that's kinda wrong, they should at least have a big arse banner that you can't miss telling people that SONAR is dead and there will be no more support (well, I think everyone has known that for a good while) and there will be no more updates or bug fixes etc, that's just my thinking.

bapu
When SONAR stops functioning in ways more than I can bear Studio One 3 Pro will likely be my next move. Maybe Reaper. 
 
I'll continue with Mixbus as my mix/master environment.

wow great minds think alike  50% off studio 3 right now( plus 48 month financing) just purchased it and installed watching it scan vsts with NO crashes or burps unlike platinum.
Mixbus for mix master also

There isn't a warning at the store yet, and there should be. But it's good that you can still buy the products, because it may be your last chance to do so. They should have a going-out-of-business sale. Everything Must Go!

BTW, Presonus had the same 50% Black Friday sale on Studio One in 2016, too. I reckon I can check back in 2018 and probably get the same deal then.
 

bitflipper
BTW, Presonus had the same 50% Black Friday sale on Studio One in 2016, too. I reckon I can check back in 2018 and probably get the same deal then.
 

I was going to wait and see what the bakers do, but I have a bad feeling
Studio one is the closest to what I am accustomed to, Reaper is just too convoluted for me

I have learned to use Samplitude Pro X3, which I picked up last year for a song. I'll switch to that if it looks like Sonar is about to keel over due to Windows or VST updates. Samplitude is a serious, heavy duty DAW with lots of features, and I didn't find it difficult to learn. It's not Sonar, but it will do the job...
 
I bet that keeping an off-the-grid computer frozen in time with Sonar on it will work for a while, but eventually the real world will force it's way through. Some new-fangled library for Kontakt will require the latest version of Kontakt, which will require the latest version of Windows to run stably, which in turn will require an update to Windows that will render Sonar unstable...or some combination thereof...

Heh, I still have SONAR Producer 4 running on an XP machine...
 
Since I started with Cakewalk v1.0 (and even helped Greg do some debugging) I always assumed that I'd be able to continue updating forever I guess!

As I'm still a happy 32 bit 8.5 user, I'm afraid I should upgrade on this very unstable moment and hope that I can get things running for my remaining years. But at what price...what when where... must keep my antennae out.
I really hope they give clear information, and make things smooth for people in a similar situation as I am.

Ham N Egz
Theres no time bomb in it, as long as you are running a stable release

Yes there is. Doesn't Sonar require online activation? It's been a while since I installed it, but I'm almost certain it does.