When I built my new daw I basically unplugged my fully functioning old daw and let it sit. In the last 2 years I've only booted it to work in a movie program. I forget which version of Sonar is in it. It's a win 7 machine 64 bit.
 
I guess if the worst would happen I could use it. I'm fairly certain there would be major issues with plugins and such. It would likely import current Sonar files. I would need to substitute or rebuild plug in layouts. 
 
I'm a hobbyist. I rely heavily on being connected to the web with my music computer. I don't think I would like going "cold turkey" and unplugging, but that's just me. I know many have done that. I just use too many things that require me to be online. 
 
If Sonar stops working , so be it. I have other options now. I suspect many money producing studios aren't connected to the web as a matter of course and Sonar might be fine for a long time, but do they want to risk it? If they spend hours tracking a client and Sonar stops working or freezes up before the project is complete what can they do? If you use software from a company that is currently in business,you may be able to salvage the project through updates or saving a project to reload into a fresh machine. If you have  a hard copy of the software all the better. No matter how well the software works you could have hardware failure.
 
If I were in business I would try to make it a habit to save all files and have some redundancy just in case. I wouldn't want to be the one to tell a client, " Hey, you know that song we worked on for 6 hours last week.....well.......my computer crashed and I can't get the files back."

Good words BF...
 
Thanks for the encouragement...
 
I still make most of my living from work I do with Sonar and will continue to do so... I'm running frozen with Win8.1 and only doing defender updates so I feel secure that it will work for the forseeable future... I worry only about a drive failure and the needed re-install if that happens, but I'm hopeful that Gibson/Cakewalk will give us a safety net by then...
 
I am not in a hurry to move to another DAW but I am examing the options in preparation. I have a working version of S1 Artist (no vst support without spending extra) and PT|First (also no VST support) and can upgrade these if/when necessary. Playing with demo versions of Reaper/Mixcraft/DP and not particularly happy... Cubase and Logic do not have demo's so they're out of the running right now, butas I've worked with both previously, I have an idea where they're at...
 
I'm expecting at least a few more years with Sonar working fine... if not more so I'm hopeful another solution will present itself by that time...
 
Right now? Harder to keep up with three forums! ;-)
 
Thanks for all your insights and continued help.... Hoping our connection continues well into the future!
 
 
 
 

I've "owned" Studio One Pro 3.x, Reaper 5.x and Mixbus32C for quite some time now.
 
They are my true backup plan.
 
When SONAR no longer does what I need I have palces to go with (ATM) no cost.

bitflipper
There's a lot of concern right now about what to do next, and nobody's more panicked than the professionals who depend on their DAW to make a living. They are rightly thinking about how to protect their businesses. To them, I say: calm down. Take a deep breath, and carefully consider your options - and, more important, the unforeseen consequences of any rushed decisions you make today. 

 
The sudden demise of Cakewalk provoked a strong emotional response. It was not strictly "Oh, what if Windows 'breaks' SONAR?" It was a visceral feeling of betrayal. I wouldn't feel this way if Honda Motors suddenly stopped making cars, because they never pretending to be concerned about me as as an individual, a stance Cakewalk did seem to take. So I was shacked and worried.
 
The fact that there are, in fact, technical reasons why SONAR users might be better off finding a DAW that is still being developed and supported reinforced my decision to find a different solution. As a computer technician you understand the inner workings of these boxes more than most of us, and with that knowledge comes a certain comfort level that you can keep them "on the road," so to speak. But I have owned and heavily used PCs since the 1970s, and I can tell you that I am not still using the one I started with, because it broke, as did a whole bunch of other ones along the way. So I feel more comfortable using stuff that has people behind it. New hardware doesn't always play nice with existing software (remember, not all of us are computer techs or software engineers), and you have to get new software. In addition, the Cakewalk staff, at the time it was sent home, was still listing ~50 bug fixes every month for this mature program. I'm going to guess there are still a lot of things they would have fixed this month and going forward. Now we have to rely on "workarounds?"
 
Basically, bitflipper, I agree with your sensible, calming advice. If you have a solid machine, you don't intend to get any new ancillary equipment any time soon, and you can afford an extra computer or two for email, web surfing, game playing and YouTube-watching, and you're not doing paid sessions with real customers, you're good for a while. Vent a little, sure -- it's good for the soul, and the heart, but there's no need to panic. However, like the management of the nuclear plant in your post, it's prudent to be ready for the future, now that we've been cut loose by those evil bstrds in Boston. Just kidding.

Too many people running for the hills since the Gibson - Cakewalk announcement.  The same Sonar you used two weeks ago to record or mix your song will be the same Sonar tomorrow, next week and 5 months to a year from now. 
 
Why do we allow ourselves to become so frantic at an announcement that doesn't actually affect us in any immediate way whatsoever?   The ones we need to be concerned about are the folks at Cakewalk who have now lost their jobs and have families to take care of and feed.  Those associates who have been hired part-time that now have to find a new living and it's close to the Christmas Holiday. 
 
This is where our prayers and wishes should be focused.   The Daws will be there, they will still be working, but these folks lives have just suddenly changed.

The issue is 'someday' SONAR won't work.   I'm thinking 10 years from now, maybe longer.  
 
Hopefully in 10 years the other daws will catch up to where SONAR is today.

I have cloned my entire C Drive using Macrium Reflect Free. It's in the safe and I know it will always work. As a pro, I have to consider the new options and I have indeed settled on Cubase 9.5 Pro as it seems the most intuitive to me, as a SPLAT power user.
I have no idea why anyone is planning to port projects though - why would you? Muck up all your hard work mid-job? No way man. Stay calm, finish production cycles, archive the heck out of it and move over if you choose to.
And for the non-pro guys, keep enjoying Sonar. The more research I did into a new DAW the more I realized how far Sonar was ahead in nearly every department that mattered.

As it is, I can see myself using SPLAT for composing way into the future - same as I still use CD Architect and Soundforge 11 for editing years and years after support has stopped..

gprokap
The issue is 'someday' SONAR won't work.   I'm thinking 10 years from now, maybe longer.  
 
Hopefully in 10 years the other daws will catch up to where SONAR is today.

Someday, none of the Daws will work because SKYNET will take over.

My SW engineering career was spent in space & aviation so I agree and it's not just the SW that is deployed, but development tools as well. As you said "constantly trading one set of bugs they knew about for a new set of bugs they didn't know." I learned pretty quickly that makes it tough to meet schedules 
 

Excellent post. My thought to a "T". 
Everybody is panicing for no reason, it's like some are almost addicted to updates?? 
 
Example of this is my old W7 DAW I shelved 3 years ago and put in a closet. 
Last night I dragged it out and fired it up and there it was. Sonar 8.5 ( looks like Mix Craft :) 
And Sonar X3e as well as folders full of old projects and tonnes of 3rd party stuff. Even Wave Lab is there and everything still is 100%. That computer was rarely on line as I didn't even have a LAN cable into my studio back then. It's frozen in time and I could probably use it for a few years yet until the old 500GB 7200 drives failed. 
But it's hard to go back to waiting a whole minute for it to boot to desktop :) 
 
If you make you living with a DAW you should have one or two backup machines. Computers are pretty cheap to build compared to a lot of other studio gear. This is a good time to build a new machine and freeze it in time. The currant version of Sonar seems very stable to me.
I have ordered a new SSD  and I will be installing W7. My reason for this is I can safely go on line without the OS buggering things up like W10 has done to me once too often. I'll have W10 on my other DAW. 
My Laptop is W7 and it has caused me no greif. I work in a Hospital and the IT dept said they have no plans to upgrade from W7 in the near future.