munmun : "I don't think that the desktop will ever go away. But it will be reduced to specialized applications that need the screen real estate. "

I need real estate. I've always wanted bigger and bigger screens and only have a laptop for portability and not Sonar.
Give me a wall I can stand up in front of.

Unfortunately, the trend is towards smaller and smaller. I can't imagine reading this forum on phone, but apparently a lot of you do. Or running Sonar on a iPad, or a laptop for that matter.

Whatever happened to ease of use (and sight) ?

Anyone remember how long it took to phase out 16 bit DOS applications?

I do. And then again with 16-bit Windows applications. I experienced it in both the desktop computer and enterprise mainframe worlds. At the time, I resented the lie promulgated by Microsoft, which was that 16-bit applications could not be multi-tasked, which I knew to be untrue because I'd been working for years with preemptively multi-tasking 16-bit operating systems.

Apparently for many, mobility and speed trumps sitting down for most computer activities.  There are a lot of people making music on iPads these days.  Cakewalk has lost everyone of them as a potential user.  Being tied to Microsoft is no longer an asset.  Ask Nokia.  Their big bet on windows phone is failing.

I'm completely open to the idea that a better user interface paradigm than the desktop might appear. I'm not all that bothered about that. I think for people doing Serious Work, though (eg: audio, video editing, CAD, software development, all that stuff), what we're going to see is the cost of our computers creeping up. We've been through a long period where the computer and OS could be roughly similar spec for all three of home, office and "Serious Work" use. I think those days are coming to a close. I think there will always be a pro-user platform, but it's going to be more specialised than it was, and more niche, hence likely more expensive.

John T


I'm completely open to the idea that a better user interface paradigm than the desktop might appear. I'm not all that bothered about that. I think for people doing Serious Work, though (eg: audio, video editing, CAD, software development, all that stuff), what we're going to see is the cost of our computers creeping up. We've been through a long period where the computer and OS could be roughly similar spec for all three of home, office and "Serious Work" use. I think those days are coming to a close. I think there will always be a pro-user platform, but it's going to be more specialised than it was, and more niche, hence likely more expensive.

+!

There are an awful lot of engineering workstations out there and I don't see them disappearing any time soon.

I see daws running on a workstation much more that I see them running as an app on a phone.

It would make sense to me that Sonar would slide towards the engineering side of things, rather than towards the consumer toy side.

munmun


 Being tethered to windows only is not a winning strategy for the future.

Which certainly leads to an important point; there is surely a big gap in the market for a custom made OS purely designed for Multi-media purposes that can be used as the bedrock on which to build a DAW platform (amongst other purposes).
 
An OS without all of the superfluous bloat-ware that we've become accustomed to.  I don't need my DAW to be able to send email, take pictures and turn my wife into a Zombie (too late for that!) or track my location by triangulating my GPS coordinates.  I don't need my DAW to pump out a live face-book feed to alert all my friends and family I've created a new track in cakewalk. 
 
I simply need a slimmed down, powerful, fast and efficient OS to sit under my specialised Desktop Apps and make them whizz along at lightning speed with super-low latency.   I realise that the amount of people with these requirements are probably not considered mainstream, but there's a large populous of Desktop users who would jump aboard that particular ship, without doubt!  Hang on; time-out...     ...wouldn't Linux just about fit the mould here?
 
All it would take is some organisation and commitment from the 'Big' software houses.  I'd hazard a guess that Microsoft would probably reassess their product road map if this were to become a reality. 
 
Until such an OS exists, I'll probably just pop out to the store and pick up a multi-touch monitor.

When I sit at my tablet, as I am doing now, it seems natural to me to be able to perform tasks in a full-screen app mode.  Or, as Microsoft would put it, in modern mode.  The device lends itself well to that.

But when I am in front of a giant screen I often want to take advantage of that screen real estate and have multiple windows open.  And even if I run just one program (say Microsoft Word) I don't want it to fill that large screen and cause whiplash from trying to read across the page.  

The trouble with the modern/metro mode is that it makes poor use of my large screen environment for many common tasks.  Of course, with Sonar I may only want one window open, but for many other situations there is a reason why it's called WindowS and this is where I struggle with Microsoft's thinking.  And why I never, ever run a modern/metro app on my desktop PC, even if I want to.

By coincidence I came across this today, by the guys who brought back the start menu.  I used that not because I missed the start button but rather because I liked the way the place the new start menu in a more "windowed-style" approach -- maybe I'll get this too:


http://www.stardock.com/products/modernmix/index.asp?playdemovideo=1&utm_source=StardockSoftware&utm_medium=email&utm_term=03272013&utm_content=HEADERGFX&utm_campaign=Modern%2BMix%2BGA%2BAnnouncement

VariousArtist


in a more "windowed-style" approach

Haha brilliant! who would ever have thought that we would have made such significant progress in the OS world, that 3rd party programmers would be earning a living from coding apps that help to make the new Windows, actually run apps in windows....lol
 
I think this is genuinely useful, don't get me wrong - but it's the fact that there's a need for it that makes me spit my coffee all over my keyboard.  laugh? I nearly cried!
 
 

I also think users have spoken loud and clear and Microsoft has no other choice but to listen, people love their start button and people love the desktop, no matter how many handheld ,portable devices, we always go back to the laptop,desktop, we are not a dying bread.