Oh I've seen plenty of opensource products that are better than commercial in the web developer field. A lot of them are opensource but aren't really as they charge for Pro versions as well (although in a lot of cases you don't need the Pro version). Opensource it the big fear of M$ and Apple... but less so Microsoft nowadays as they've attempted to embrace opensource communities by assimilating them...

BTW if Cakewalk is making us pay, they aren't making us pay that much. The biggest hurdle is the initial expense and after that you are laughing.... think about what you are getting...

> Some of us resent the apparent shift from "making the customers happy" to "making the customers pay".
 
I certainly felt that way last year. but have you been near the forums recently? I've see the exact opposite.

So why is the Cakewalk MP3 activation not eligible? It is a Cakewalk branded product, no?

MP3 activation may (or may not be) Cakewalk branded but they still have to pay a third party for the MP3 license, effectively they are a reseller in this case. Besides MP3 export is free if you know where to look :)

jesus flippin christ. Maybe it's just me, but when someone gave me something, even if i found it useless, I just say thank you. 

As long as it isn't herpes ;)

good point

Just to clarify. I wasn't complaining in my post, but making suggestions for future promotions to avoid such discussions about why a code doesn't work for this product', or to consider how confusion could be reduced.
 
We all see the big words in any promotion that play on our emotions or stimulate impulsiveness, which are often taken at face value and acted upon based on a glance, which is what marketeers want (Impulse and emotional buying), but many do not read the small print, which is usually included in the actual ad or implied with an asterisk or other symbol to clearly signpost you to any restrictions and/or limitations, or wording such as 'Restrictions apply' clearly shown on the actual ad. I think many people click ads without scrolling down to see what the real deal is.
 
I do not agree that Cakewalk are trying to get us to pay more. Yes, they want us to open the door and look inside, but while there is the temptation to buy when inside, you can always decide not to. Besides, they have been proactive with Sonar X3 updates, and grumbling about the company may make them think they are just providing for thankless people.
 
I looked at some high street sales this week, and some shops were selling stuff that was, for me, not useful. But that is not to say that those things were not useful for other people. The end story is that you are not going to buy what you don't need.
 
 

CakeAlexS
Oh I've seen plenty of opensource products that are better than commercial in the web developer field.

I was referring mainly to large normal-user applications like editors - text, graphics, daws etc.
 
These require lots of resources to create, market and maintain them.  The free stuff is often the work of a single person.

If I sound bitter toward Cakewalk it is because I do not like the X1/X2/X3 UI.  I much preferred 8.5.3 and earlier.  X1 just seems so non-Windowsy, so design-over-function oriented, and so inefficient in terms of my personal workflow habits.  I miss the "by Windows users for Windows users" feel of 8.5.3 and earlier.  X1 and so on constantly frustrate me, and make me wish some other company (or group of open source developers) would clone 8.5.3 and go from there.
 
This forum itself is the same way.  It is arguably "prettier" than the old style, but it waste so much space with icons and profile stats on the left, that in order to see the same amount of information without scrolling, I need to shrink the text size, which in turn makes it harder to read.  Again, Cakewalk's efforts to appear "pretty" have resulted in a loss of functionality.
 
And with the sale, Cakewalk wants to appear extra "generous" by using terms like "UNWRAP WHAT YOU REALLY WANTED" and "TAKE $20 [etc] OFF ANY CAKEWALK PRODUCT..." in big letters in their ads.  And then, in boring text below the fold, they list a bunch of links to the only "qualifying products", which is a bummer, and then you click on those links, only to find out that not all products reachable via those links are eligible for the discount.  So the fine print has its own fine print.
 
You see?  It's all about appearance, it's all about *looking* cool.  But the reality is, Cakewalk has been giving me far less "bang for the buck" than it did back in pre-X1 days.
 
Face it, the only reason people think Cake is more "generous" with X3 than X2 is the fact that X3 has been patched 4 times since release.  Woo-hoo!  4 patches!  Yes, 4 patches!  4 patches that really didn't do much! 
 
Again, it's all about appearance.  Frequent version number changes is the new black.  So Cakewalk jumps on that boat.  Soon we'll have X4, then X5, and then before we know it, X25 (or whatever Firefox is up to now), and it will all still feel like X1.  Plus some bugs, minus some bugs, plus some bugs, minus some bugs, plus some bugs, minus some bugs.  And lots of fine print.  Ca-ching!