i just was reading advice on questions i always seem to have then noticed a thread about Gibson/SONAR
according to my interpretation Gibson is shutting down SONAR. i have about a thousand questions. first, what about the "lifetime upgrades"? second, am i going to have to buy and learn pro-tools?
ya know when i learned about Gibson buying Cakewalk i got a very bad feeling. i've been a musician with varying amounts of success since 1973. in '74 i bought my first Gibson, a 1955 junior and since then have owned many, many Les Pauls. about 6 years ago my wife (bless her) bought me a '94 Les Paul special. needless to say, i was shocked at the "quality" of this dog. first thing i had to do is get rid of those nasty P-100's, then i noticed that the ABR bridge didn't sit correctly on the posts and the pots sounded like crap. i called Gibson and asked about the bridge and the guy i talked to told me to buy a Tone-Pros bridge and the pots, this i found amazing, he told me they install 300k linear taper pots in EVERYTHING, humbucker, P-90, everything. 
after i took a few deep breaths i said to him, "this is a GIBSON and you're telling me to buy an aftermarket part and you install the cheapest pots you can find to put in guitars that start at $2500?!"
anyway, now that my day is ruined. i need to ask what is going to happen, will the "lifetime" updates stop, will this forum be shut down?
i kind of hope Henry (if he still runs Gibson) sees this.
as always, i will look forward and appreciate any advice you guys have.
jp

Yep,  unfortunately everyone now has to use PT.

Hi Joey, below are some info from the announcement thread ...
 
Regarding "lifetime upgrades" I believe it's Sonars lifetime not ours :-(
I remember when they introduced "lifetime upgrades" the question what that means was raised, the answer from Cakewalk was as long Sonar exists ...
 
No you don't have to buy Pro Tools, Sonar still works fine and there is plenty of other options :-)
 
Yeah i also had a bad feeling about Gibson buing, still remember when they killed Opcode, I still have & use some old Opcode hardware ...
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/announcement
  
Update from Keith Albright [Cakewalk]
Update: 11/22 Stores closed and you will no longer be able to purchase new Cakewalk products.
 
FAQ:
Q. What if the cakewalk site goes down - will we be able to reinstall and activate our software that is paid for and owned?
A. If and when Cakewalk's servers are taken down, we will issue a mechanism to activate software you own, without needing access to the internet. We're working on the mechanics of this and we'll provide more details as available. At present online activation is fully functional.
 

this really sucks.

What concerns me the most is that Gibson's formal announcement came out on Nov. 17th.
Here we are Nov.29th (12 days later) and are still not any closer to knowing when our software will be given the offline key ? That is not only disturbing but troubling.