I'm planning on sticking with Sonar, but I will be picking up a new DAW in the current deals. Eith Cubase or maybe Studio One. I suspect though, that once I get into digging into the new DAW Sonar will start to drift from my attention even if I don't want it to. Maybe the new DAW might turn out to be better. Who knows. Currently, I am very attached to Sonar.

I'm sure Win10 updates will force us all out in short order if that's the OS we're on. So with a lot of anger and despair, I'm out as soon as I find something else. Maybe Pro Tools. Sonar Platinum was cheaper to own and arguably better than Pro Tools, but since I do recall one time when a Microsoft update killed Sonar, I'm not taking a chance on it happening again. Hopefully the product is rescued by another entity because it is a more attractive product than PT, but I can't wait around for that.

wdaweb
I'm sure Win10 updates will force us all out in short order if that's the OS we're on. So with a lot of anger and despair, I'm out as soon as I find something else. Maybe Pro Tools. Sonar Platinum was cheaper to own and arguably better than Pro Tools, but since I do recall one time when a Microsoft update killed Sonar, I'm not taking a chance on it happening again. Hopefully the product is rescued by another entity because it is a more attractive product than PT, but I can't wait around for that.

If you are getting paid and most of your work is new clients, PT is a smart move.  If you are a hobbyist, or like me, working with return clients that understand you are working with "non industry standard" software then I would suggest S1, Mixcraft or even Reason over PT based on expense alone.

I occasionally "rent" PT with the subscription plan when I have collaborative work from other studios and while it is a good program and I learned it really fast, I think it is no better than the MUCH cheaper alternatives I listed above.

I understand why some users will want to move on and migrate to alternative software. What I don't get is their urgency. Why not just continue with Sonar while taking some time to check out the market?

SimpleM, Thanks for the advice. I'm not going to make a quick decision on this, but rather will try to think it all the way through before I make a move.

Why do you allow W10 to update if you think it will trash Sonar.. Get your priorities straight. 
My DAW is a DAW computer,, it is not for anything else. The OS does not matter really and what do updates do for me? .  So if Sonar is really important to you, do yourself a favour and stop updating windows if your worried it will trash something...it probably will someday soon. 
 
I am going to return to Windows 7 just for this reason. It doesn't update much any more and it certainly doesn't mess with the activation of my plug ins. I'm fed up with W10 screwing things that were working. I don't hate windows 10,  for my office PC all is fine, I have W10 on 3 computers now and at work my laptop too.  but it's a goner from my main DAW as soon as I get my new SSD drive. 
 
 You CAN freeze your computer and DAW in time. If all is working why on earth change anything. It's a tool. I don't update my guitars, pedals and amps or my car for that matter , I just maintain them!!  They are the same after many good years... 
 
The mistake as I see it is a lot of people want to use their DAW for all other computer tasks. That's fine but don' t expect to do this without trouble. Computers are cheap and will last forever with a bit of upgrading and few new parts. 
Right now I have 4 Desktops and 5 laptops , they all work 100%. I have XP, W7 and w10.  I maintain all of them and add more RAM and update hard drives. 
 
So Sonar will go for a long time in my little corner of the word. 
 
I'm gad to see one person mention Pro Tools. Now that's at least common sense. I like Pro Tools, a good friend has it and it's very cool because he has a X32 integrated and whatnot. But he wouldn't touch MIDI with a 10 foot pole. If your an audio only dude then might as well go with the crowd. Mix BUs seems similar to me. 

I'm staying on for sure.  You never know what the future holds.  This DAW is too good to be depleted entirely.  My thought is that its assets will be purchased by another company, and even if they re-brand it (just like they did from Cakewalk Pro Audio to Sonar), I'm fine with that.  When I first got into the Cakewalk world, I was using Cakewalk Pro Audio 3.0.  I've gone through so many version upgrades with them since 1994.  Don't forget, there were plenty of bumps and bruises along the way, but they have always improved.  I think SPlat is the best DAW out there anywhere.  I was searching the other forums, and here's an interesting one from 2011, around the time when Sonar X1 was procured by Roland:  https://www.gearslutz.com/board/cakewalk-sonar/574239-has-cakewalk-finally-screwed-themselves.html

Me too

I am most definitely going to stay with Sonar as long as I my computer can run it.  The latest Platinum update is for me nearly perfect.  It is a tremendous and stable program.  There is no reason for me to stop using it just because development for it has stopped.  I hear of cross grade offers for other Daws and I am not the least bit interested in giving up Sonar for something else that might not have all the features I rely on in Sonar.  I have a full version of Cubase 7 that I bought several years ago but never could feel any love for the program.  Sticking with Sonar Platinum and I fully expect to be using it many more years to come.

I've been using Sonar since the mid 90's and have no plans to change DAW software unless Windows' possible breakage.
 
I've had Pro Tools since version 9 until 12.4.  All it does is take up space on my DAW's C:\ drive.   It's an expensive way to open an OMF file. It doesn't even have Melodyne build in.  You have to transfer the track in like with did in Sonar about 3 + years ago.
 
As for the others, Sonar has years of development and features on them.  I think it will still be a few years until the other DAW's feature set comes close to the ease of use of Sonar.