Anderton
I think a major Vista problem for end users was the updating. I need to re-install Vista just before I transitioned over to Windows 7, and it took forever. I'd do an update and Windows would say it was updated. But if I tried immediately to find new software, it almost always did and then did another update. You had to do this serial updating thing, without a clue as to when it was going to be over, until it just wouldn't update any more. So then you'd reboot and try one last time, just to make sure :)

 
Oh!! I do remember that now. Updating a newly loaded Vista machine was an all day event. The windows update required we install every security patch for the original vista version before we could install sp1. There were hundreds or maybe not, but it took forever.  After that, I had really good performance using sonar 8 during that time on a Jim Roseberry pc. That good performance continued up thru X2, but with the cake folks saying they were dropping support for vista and MS offering a upgrade to win8 for under $40 for a time. I jumped on it and made the change. My sore spot with win8 is around how many hoops I had to jump through to get programs like soundforge-8, j-station edit and even the delta 1010 to work like they did in vista and xp. On that note, j-station worked for about a month on win8 and now it now longer sees the midi ports. That bites a bit, but I use a vista loaded laptop for controlling the j-station now. There are usually work arounds.
 
 

but with the cake folks saying they were dropping support for vista and MS offering a upgrade to win8 for under $40 for a time. I jumped on it

 
I did the same, but I have left it sitting on a shelf for now.  I am running Vista 64, it came on the AMD Quadcore when I bought it.  It has always run great.  I have never had any problems with the release of Sonar 8, 8.5, X1 or X2; everything always seemed to work great for my usage.  I was worried about Vista not working with X2, but so far, no issues.  So....why mess with something that works.  I will keep the copy handy incase something changes and stops working, or... I buy a new computer with Window 8 already on it.  Then I would go back and make changes to my current rig.  I just don't see the need for messing up something that works fine, at this time.

John
I don't think any of that is true. I do recall that MS was blind sided by hardware makers that touted their XP machines for Vista even after MS had developed a Vista logo to show Vista compatibility. The problem was MS didn't insist that those using that logo prove that Vista would even run on their machines. MS had to change the logo so they would have some control over those that didn't measure up.
 
Unlike Windows 7 Vista had no preview or general release before the retail version was offered. No one except a few beta testers had any idea what Longhorn was going to be like. Longhorn was the code for what became Vista. Something that was years in the making.
 
Another thing was that 64 bits became more popular and Vista was offered as both a 32 bit OS and a 64 bit OS. This complicated things because even though XP also had both they were not sold together. Also developers were extremely slow in providing 64 bit drivers for XP and were not too fast with Vista either. Cakewalk was one of the very first to adopt 64 bits but it was Vista that made the users think about using a 64 bit OS in large numbers. It was a sort of critical mass situation.
 
What really happened to Vista was multiple things 1st was the need to upgrade the hardware 2nd was the exploitation of Apple with ads that were great marketing but totally untrue implying that Vista was a bad OS. (Those that spout this line seem very gullible to me and have bought into the propaganda) 3rd a real lack of good drivers for both the 32 bit version and almost none for the 64 bit version.
 
With all that its a wonder that anyone used Vista but a few did and found it a great OS that was new in many ways. First and foremost was its new Aero graphics engine. A huge step in speeding up the over all feel of the OS.  Then there were a lot of things we now take for granted and so many that a run down would take too long. 
 
It really bugs me when some one carelessly throws out the popular belief that Vista was a dog of an OS. When in fact it was the beginning of a whole new way to work with a computer as well as being a very solid one. We now have Windows 8 another mile stone in computing that those in a position to appreciate it will benefit greatly from.  
 
We are seeing some of the same nay sayers popping up saying the vague things that are meant to make us have second thoughts. This is not only true of our choice of OS but also our choice in a DAW.
 
The same old tired lines are used and the message is the same MS sucks and so does CW.
 
I reject that and I hope others are able to think for themselves too. 
 

There were actually thousands of Beta testers for Vista, including some companies. It was the first time a Beta test that large had been instigated by MS. But the fact remains that Vista was certainly not as ready as MS wished. Nor was the hardware available.
 
I personally had many issues with the first version of Vista until Service Pack 1, at least. In my experience, Vista was not a rock-solid release for MS--not the way Windows7 was. I had many crashes. Was it a great OS? Yes! Miles beyond XP!
 
Now, Is X2 a Vista? Likely not, but I don't want Cakewalk to give anyone ammo for further comparing it.
 
Is X3 next, or X2b? I don't know, and I wasn't asked to vote. I don't believe it's up to any of us. My only hope is that X2 is still going to be patched and not disregarded.
 
 

X2 can't be Vista otherwise there would've been lots (+ lots) of updates

Now THAT was funny.   :)
 
Bob Bone

I don't want to directly compare X2 to Vista, myself. That's not the point that we should be making, but rather that we need to drive home the need to set Cakewalk apart from the competition by instigating frequent updates AND a list of open issues/bugs. That's what I personally want to see. Could save us all a whole lot of frustration and time. 

To tell the truth, X2a has been the most stable version of Sonar that I have owned (and I have been using Sonar since v1.0). It's got a lot of bugs, but unlike some previous versions it rarely crashes on me.
 
Then again, Vista worked just fine for me, too (I only abandoned it for Windows 7 last year).

X2a has been pretty stable for me as well, once the Waves plug-ins crashes were resolved, but I agree that there's still a few nasty bugs. I just have no clue what's been reported or not--I've reported a few of them.
 
Unfortunately, Cakewalk still prefers the old-school method of waiting for us all to call in (typically when the ghosts in the machine run and hide) or report only bugs that are easily duplicated. Most of the issues people have aren't easily duplicated, so support tends to never see a majority of them. How they can fix those issues is by working with people in the forum. Plus, people like me have day-jobs and don't use Sonar except at night. Support or On-Call support isn't available from CW.

MakeShift

but with the cake folks saying they were dropping support for vista and MS offering a upgrade to win8 for under $40 for a time. I jumped on it

 
I did the same, but I have left it sitting on a shelf for now.  

I left mine on the shelf for a while as well. I think curiosity got the best of me. Once loaded and all the drivers updated, I had a better performing X2. Lower latency settings vs. cpu load was the most noticeable difference. Losing the ability to use a couple of older software programs eventually became less and less of a problem. 

brconflict
 
Unfortunately, Cakewalk still prefers the old-school method of waiting for us all to call in (typically when the ghosts in the machine run and hide) or report only bugs that are easily duplicated. Most of the issues people have aren't easily duplicated, so support tends to never see a majority of them. How they can fix those issues is by working with people in the forum. Plus, people like me have day-jobs and don't use Sonar except at night. Support or On-Call support isn't available from CW.

To be correct here, us providing a system for users to log bugs and get confirmation of the status a bug is at doesn't mean we don't do anything until that happens. Do you think we don't have other systems in place for logging issues? It sounds like you're implying people at Cakewalk just sit around all day until people complain about something, which is so far from the truth. I don't understand how you can make a statement like this unless you work here and know our day to day operations, which if you did you'd know how incorrect this is.
 
We work directly with a huge amount of people that never visit the forum ever. Official support methods are in place for people to reach out to us if they need help. We identify a lot of issues, and correct a lot of issues. The ones we can't correct, we follow up with our QA and Development teams. Sometimes we don't have an immediate answer, sometimes we do. We make progress all the time. It is factual that a huge chunk of the time when people fly off the handle about the stability of X2a, we check our records, and find out they've never reached out to us ever... which is incredibly frustrating for us. A lot of the times when we do get to the bottom of it, we find out it's not a problem with SONAR at all. Every time I mention this people think I'm making it up. They reply with "why would someone do that". I can't tell you why, but they just do. It's weird to me.
 
Anyhow, if you're wondering where my defensive reply is coming from, it is because we need to continually work together and not against each other. Every time I read something about how Cakewalk is not available for support, it hurts both customers and the final outcome of the product.