mosspa
One of my dear friends once imparted a few words of wisdom about 25 years ago that made me think, quite hard.  I'm only paraphrasing, but Nick's post to some USENET forum stated, 'a synth or piece of software will never be worth TO YOU less than it was when you acquired it'.  Yes, Windows may change (and likely will), but nothing prevents you from immortalizing the version you already have.  If the current version of SONAR works for you, all you need to do is to put it on its own computer platform with that platform's current version of Windows, and SONAR will work, just like it does now, for as long as you can keep that platform running.

Windows updates isn't the only problem.  I'm constantly buying new plugins, new virtual instruments and efx, as I think a lot of Sonar users do.   So what happens in a couple of years when technology continues to advance and we'll start seeing more and more plugins that either won't work in Sonar, or more likely cause it to crash?
Right now I have occasional crashes in Sonar due to Izotope's Ozone 8.  I'm betting Ozone 10 or 12 might not even work with Sonar.

Sonar will keep working if you isolate it on an offline machine, and don't plan on buying new plugins in the future.
Meanwhile all the other DAWs that are still being supported, or new ones that have yet to be created, will continue to improve with the latest technology and eventually make Sonar Platinum look like something from the DOS era.

It's like thinking your car will last forever without having to be serviced.

And just FYI, I love Sonar Platinum, and will continue to use it for the time being.  But I'm also actively looking at DAWs and deciding which one I will have to eventually switch to.

Just a quick follow up... Turns out that the fall creators update completely broke the invoicing part of sage Peachtree accounting software. Only workaround is win 8 compatibility mode until they resolve it. Is it really a problem? Don't know but sage is hardly small or niche... But they Are still in business and will correct it. Again, don't assume sonar won't get broken by an update.

I'd imagine we can all agree that Sonar Platinum will continue to work, just for an unknown period of time.
Given that there is this uncertainty, surely having a plan B inplace makes sense.
 
The only glimmer of any useful plan B, I've seen so far is this feaure request here : http://answers.presonus.com/23241/ability-to-import-sonar-projects
 
I can't speak for anyone else but I've put thousands of hours into sonar projects & the potential loss of time invested is more worrying than anything else.  If anyone else recognises this position, please register & up vote the feature request.
 
If they receive enough votes, quickly enough they might have an opportunity to hire some talented developers who might currently be looking for work!

foldaway
I'd imagine we can all agree that Sonar Platinum will continue to work, just for an unknown period of time.
Given that there is this uncertainty, surely having a plan B inplace makes sense.
 
The only glimmer of any useful plan B, I've seen so far is this feaure request here : http://answers.presonus.com/23241/ability-to-import-sonar-projects
 
I can't speak for anyone else but I've put thousands of hours into sonar projects & the potential loss of time invested is more worrying than anything else.  If anyone else recognises this position, please register & up vote the feature request.
 
If they receive enough votes, quickly enough they might have an opportunity to hire some talented developers who might currently be looking for work!

Wouldn't Presonus have to have access to the internals of Sonar's file format to even begin to think about adding a Sonar project import feature? 

Unfortunately Presonus will never add a direct Sonar file import feature. The realities of software production ensure that. From Sonar, exporting/importing OMF and MIDI or MusicXML files will remain the only option. The bad news is that Studio One currently doesn’t support OMF so you would have to deal with Wav file export/import which is a lot more work😩. I moved to Cubase a couple of years ago which does import OMF. I used Sonar since it was s MIDI only sequencer so I had a lot of Sonar files to transfer! It’s laborious but it works. The good news is that you can take as long as you need to move on to something else.

Blades

A modern PC does not have to be off line. If you’re careful and don’t visit dodgy sites you’re going to be ok.

As "the IT guy", I am advising everyone to please not think this way. It is wrong. Period. There is So much more to this and tons of non-dosgybsites websites websites websites get infected with Malware every day. This is simply incorrect and irresponsible advice.

As i said, if you’re careful you’ll be fine. Some of us can’t afford 2 or several PC’s. Our IT Guy thinks otherwise.

Its not wrong to think this way in todays world. Each to his own. Shame you missed out the YMMV, but there you go. I respect your pov, but to say mine is irresponsable is, to say the least, going a little far.

Jerry.

I've had my PC online for almost 7 years now and never had an issue.
I have had an off line PC in the past but it was just a hassle and I didn't see the perks.
 
I do have 2 PC's set up but one was for testing Sonar (I was a Beta tester for 6 years. Starting with Sonar X1).

sharke

foldaway
I'd imagine we can all agree that Sonar Platinum will continue to work, just for an unknown period of time.
Given that there is this uncertainty, surely having a plan B inplace makes sense.
 
The only glimmer of any useful plan B, I've seen so far is this feaure request here : http://answers.presonus.com/23241/ability-to-import-sonar-projects
 
I can't speak for anyone else but I've put thousands of hours into sonar projects & the potential loss of time invested is more worrying than anything else.  If anyone else recognises this position, please register & up vote the feature request.
 
If they receive enough votes, quickly enough they might have an opportunity to hire some talented developers who might currently be looking for work!

Wouldn't Presonus have to have access to the internals of Sonar's file format to even begin to think about adding a Sonar project import feature? 

Yes, or hire someone that knows the file format inside & out, such as an ex-sonar developer looking for work at the moment!
 

vintagevibe
Unfortunately Presonus will never add a direct Sonar file import feature. The realities of software production ensure that. From Sonar, exporting/importing OMF and MIDI or MusicXML files will remain the only option. The bad news is that Studio One currently doesn’t support OMF so you would have to deal with Wav file export/import which is a lot more work😩. I moved to Cubase a couple of years ago which does import OMF. I used Sonar since it was s MIDI only sequencer so I had a lot of Sonar files to transfer! It’s laborious but it works. The good news is that you can take as long as you need to move on to something else.

Why wouldn't they? There's a great business case for it.  In thier shoes, I'd certainly employ an ex-sonar dev or two to add this feature or create a small standalone convertor. As it would make Studio One top choice when Sonar users evetually have to move DAWs.

foldaway
Why wouldn't they? There's a great business case for it.  In thier shoes, I'd certainly employ an ex-sonar dev or two to add this feature or create a small standalone convertor. As it would make Studio One top choice when Sonar users evetually have to move DAWs.

Two reasons:
1) They would need legal access to the source code which is currently not for sale.
2) It would be very expensive with no clear return on investment. Since that would be a feature solely for the benefit of a specific group with absolutely no value to anyone not in that group it’s a bad investment. Also the potential customers in that group have several solutions from other, much larger companies. Also this is a specific moment. By the time a major feature like that could be added the moment will have passed. Since software is so expensive to develope properly companies need to make investments into features that a large number of their users need. Sonar import would not be such an investment. Also if they were to purchase rights to the source code that would add a HUGE additional expense. It would be a waste of time and energy to wait for such a feature.

vintagevibe

foldaway
Why wouldn't they? There's a great business case for it.  In thier shoes, I'd certainly employ an ex-sonar dev or two to add this feature or create a small standalone convertor. As it would make Studio One top choice when Sonar users evetually have to move DAWs.

Two reasons:
1) They would need legal access to the source code which is currently not for sale.
2) It would be very expensive with no clear return on investment. Since that would be a feature solely for the benefit of a specific group with absolutely no value to anyone not in that group it’s a bad investment. Also the potential customers in that group have several solutions from other, much larger companies. Also this is a specific moment. By the time a major feature like that could be added the moment will have passed. Since software is so expensive to develope properly companies need to make investments into features that a large number of their users need. Sonar import would not be such an investment. Also if they were to purchase rights to the source code that would add a HUGE additional expense. It would be a waste of time and energy to wait for such a feature.

re: 1)  Not necessarily.  This can be achieved legally through reverse engineering, as the goal of said reverse engineering is interoperatbility & does not result in a competing product (as sonar not longer being for sale).  This is the case in the EU at least.  Appears possbile in US but likely more risk attached.
 
re: 2)  An entire customer base, not worth any investment to win over?  How much have you spent on Cakewalk products over the years?