LBJ,
 
You have an excellent website man, best of luck to you and your group.
 

Dave just wrote one of the very best OP posts I've ever read. 
 

In computer land the backup is your best friend. Nice to read some calm and rational thoughts. I'm using Sonar today and in the future. It feels like old slippers. The fallback DAW search has been great, and a real eye opener. But it's not time for the fallback position. 

The OP pretty well expresses why I stopped on Manchester and dealt with it. Moving targets are bad news when people want to get things done versus beta testing. Most software has pushed beta tests to the field and rely on the internet to update; no one thinks of "final product" anymore. In the interest of time (time = money), stability trumps new.

The nuclear example was a nice touch. Nuclear tech is often 20+ years behind "new" because it is proven, reliable, and has a fairly massive margin for error. The US nuclear navy is the only self-regulated agency that I know of, due to their track record, due diligence, and leadership (ADM Rickover was so hard core that he is legendary... One of my regrets in life was that he was gone before I got the chance to interview with him). "Navy nuke" is all you need to say to the right people to tell them 90% about yourself, but is also why I have always keyed on "field failures" as not acceptable. Field failures in some areas represent loss of life, so they take things seriously; where it doesn't, many will get complacent.

I think everything Bit says is true. But, the situation is different for different people. Given my gig, I've always been fluent with multiple DAWs, so it's not as big a deal for me to segue over to something else over time. Just as I used other programs in parallel with SONAR, now I'll use SONAR in parallel with other programs.
 
I doubt Windows will "break" SONAR in a serious way. I could be wrong, but the large number of people who are using versions of SONAR that were designed to work with XP speaks volumes about attention to backwards compatibility.

bitflipper
Couldn't resist, could you? 

Big up bitflipper.

The idea of having JUST Sonar on one computer, detached from the internet isn't so viable either.  That involves potentially adding another computer to run your other audio programs that DO get updates, etc.  That's more expensive than just a new DAW software.  Unhooking from the internet for Window update fears, doesn't seem like that really is a total solution.  
Basically I view this that Sonar now has a lifespan that WILL end potentially much sooner than other active and competing softwares.  WHEN it ends seems to be the question, but I certainly would not rely on using it for the next 3 years.  Yes it is fine now, but isolating it completely from the outside world and other programs/hardware is not a good solution.
Personally, I think you just chalk it up for what it is....and decide if you want to switch platforms or not.
Also....
I totally believe that there will be new software that comes out....such as Melodyne 4 Editor.... that totally revolutionize certain aspects, and using the current version (from here on out), may limit things like that, and prevent you from being current technically.

My reasons for looking at other DAW's isn't that Sonar will break, it's that it is already broken and now will never get fixed. I've been using Cakewalk software since the early 90's, so everything I know about DAW's comes from that experience.
 
When I first tried Studio One v1 way back when I bought a PreSonus interface, I thought, "well this is pretty basic" and stuck with Sonar.
 
When Platinum first started with the rolling updates and bugs were affecting me in nearly every release, I tried Reaper. After several severe migraines, and a Sonar update that actually addressed some issues, I stuck with Sonar.
 
This latest drama prompted me to take another look at Studio One, but this time, v3.5. Wow, how things have changed. After almost a week with it, I have not run into a single bug. Not one. For someone with limited time to be creative, that was an astonishing acknowledgement. Working with it was like a breath of fresh air. I wasn't saving every time I changed something for fear of the white screen of death. It worked the way I always hoped that, someday maybe, Sonar would.
 
I love Sonar and know it like the back of my hand, but it's done folks.
 
Regards,
Dan

dcumpian
My reasons for looking at other DAW's isn't that Sonar will break, it's that it is already broken and now will never get fixed. I've been using Cakewalk software since the early 90's, so everything I know about DAW's comes from that experience.
 
When I first tried Studio One v1 way back when I bought a PreSonus interface, I thought, "well this is pretty basic" and stuck with Sonar.
 
When Platinum first started with the rolling updates and bugs were affecting me in nearly every release, I tried Reaper. After several severe migraines, and a Sonar update that actually addressed some issues, I stuck with Sonar.
 
This latest drama prompted me to take another look at Studio One, but this time, v3.5. Wow, how things have changed. After almost a week with it, I have not run into a single bug. Not one. For someone with limited time to be creative, that was an astonishing acknowledgement. Working with it was like a breath of fresh air. I wasn't saving every time I changed something for fear of the white screen of death. It worked the way I always hoped that, someday maybe, Sonar would.
 
I love Sonar and know it like the back of my hand, but it's done folks.
 
Regards,
Dan

I agree with this a lot.  Working on software that will never technically advance, in a rapidly changing tech world, bothers me as well.  Being satisfied now with Sonar and...STAYING satisfied  down the line is quite another topic.  Certainly isn't TECHNICALLY competitive for a commercial studio to be running software that is no longer updated and supported either.
After a week, I also have not had a single crash, except when I imported some Cakewalk VST into the project to see if they'd work.  Presonus on its' own has NOT crashed once.  I'd get about 1 crash every 10 hours with Sonar.  See my computer specs too.  Not some Best Buy Dell computer.

dcumpian
My reasons for looking at other DAW's isn't that Sonar will break, it's that it is already broken and now will never get fixed. I've been using Cakewalk software since the early 90's, so everything I know about DAW's comes from that experience.
 
When I first tried Studio One v1 way back when I bought a PreSonus interface, I thought, "well this is pretty basic" and stuck with Sonar.
 
When Platinum first started with the rolling updates and bugs were affecting me in nearly every release, I tried Reaper. After several severe migraines, and a Sonar update that actually addressed some issues, I stuck with Sonar.
 
This latest drama prompted me to take another look at Studio One, but this time, v3.5. Wow, how things have changed. After almost a week with it, I have not run into a single bug. Not one. For someone with limited time to be creative, that was an astonishing acknowledgement. Working with it was like a breath of fresh air. I wasn't saving every time I changed something for fear of the white screen of death. It worked the way I always hoped that, someday maybe, Sonar would.
 
I love Sonar and know it like the back of my hand, but it's done folks.
 
Regards,
Dan

It's the same here. There have been several updates in the last six months that broke functionality in Sonar for me. And, that's not including the long-standing bugs that never went away like track templates breaking drum maps.
 
I use a lot of orchestral libraries. I use a lot of automation. The updates to the piano roll made it where I couldn't use the drum pane and the keyed piano roll simultaneously. I'd put the actual music in the piano roll, and create drum maps of my articulations. It was fast and intuitive. Having do everything in just the piano roll was a pain in the rear, so I originally spent two weeks creating drum maps for all my libraries only to find out that the functionality was now broken. There's also a confirmed bug where automation disengages from synths once you saved the project. I've been bit by this one a few times. There's a good selection of bugs I could also name on top of this.
 
If you're just doing the rudimentary functions that any daw can do, then I don't see the point in moving. I'm sure Sonar will work for you (unless you like to cut/copy/paste a lot), but for some of us, it was already broken.
 
I personally reported bugs that I could replicate, was issued CWBRN numbers, only to find out that they were later deleted with no comment. If this is what you want to stay with, then so be it. Who's going to stop you? I use other programs for professional work because of their stability. I wanted to use Sonar on my personal projects, but that won't happen. The functionality I had before will certainly never return.