mixmkr
Once I boot up and I'm inside my DAW software, I never use Windows. (Wink) ;-)

Yeah, but it's the steps to get there and have that machine configured... 
 
The only maintenance I've done in the last 4 years was an occasional "verify disk" and "repair permission". As for optimizing my DAW, I right-click and disable WIFI when working. That's it.
 
No drivers download, no 3rd party utilities to install or remove, no registry edit, no BIOS to tweak. I can do all that stuff and did it for over 10 years, but I've gotten spoiled. :P 
 
But I'm seriously looking into running Sonar on a secondary machine, nevertheless.
 

As a business person, I really do understand why companies favor the subscription model.  It provides a stable, continuous bottom line which makes doing business, planning and r&d much easier.  That said, I don't care for it as a consumer.  
 
If CW had to do it, I'm glad they did it they way they did.  At least I can keep what I pay for "outright".  I've noticed the same trend in phone apps.  I can only hope this isn't the new way of doing business.

I think when studios get stable they tend to avoid upgrading unless absolutely necessary.  it's a royal pain having to get all the kinks figured out after an upgrade, especially when the return is not that significant.  i run across plenty of studios using PT 10 and even 9 occasionally. This model will basically assure that newcomers to the game will have no choice but to indulge in every upgrade or be stuck with nothing. The upside of this to me that is that it gives other players that had a huge uphill climb to overcome the seemingly insurmountable  lead Avid has built over the years. Avid has been losing money in recent years and i am guessing that upgrade sales are not what they wish and newcomers are splitting their options. I think this is more of a push to make their core users be stuck with their choice perpetually.

Thanks kson. I had just copied the Bobby Owsinski newsletter post and was going to start this thread here, too. My wife and I have been talking about this for a few weeks, when she was been "wrestling with" the Adobe Premier subscription. Then CW hopped on this wagon.
     Bobby Owsinski's post (the OP) is or rather feels bleak to me. I don't use PT, but I really hope CW isn't planning anything like Avid, down the road.
     Ironically, I overheard 2 guys talking about Gibson being for sale, while at my favorite local shop in Traverse City, MI!?!? Maybe this is  a mid-winter "storm" scare. I know some PT pals are going to be up in arms about it.
 
Michael
 

dubdisciple
I think when studios get stable they tend to avoid upgrading unless absolutely necessary.  it's a royal pain having to get all the kinks figured out after an upgrade, especially when the return is not that significant.  i run across plenty of studios using PT 10 and even 9 occasionally. This model will basically assure that newcomers to the game will have no choice but to indulge in every upgrade or be stuck with nothing. The upside of this to me that is that it gives other players that had a huge uphill climb to overcome the seemingly insurmountable  lead Avid has built over the years. Avid has been losing money in recent years and i am guessing that upgrade sales are not what they wish and newcomers are splitting their options. I think this is more of a push to make their core users be stuck with their choice perpetually.

My wife's brother runs a small commercial studio - he's still running Pro Tools TDM 5 or 6 on a Mac G4. He's added a laptop to his rig in order to run things like Kontakt.
 
Me I'm glad I got the upgrade to the latest version at bargain price. I don't write in Pro Tools and as far as mixing is concerned, version 11 offers all that I need.
 

My plans are to stand pat at Pro Tools 11 and wait to see how Sonar develops and wait to see how the other DAW developers react. I have no problem with how the Cakewalk membership plan is set up. It all depends on how the updates and added features roll out. However, I don't see enough band for the buck in the PT 12 (lack of) features set.

Having just been through the hysteria of Sonar's membership rollout in this forum, I find it mildly amusing to read what's going on in the Avid forums. Some users are up in arms and will never give Avid another penny, and the moderators are feverishly posting links to the FAQ and saying that "...Avid will have to prove that your reenlistment each year is worth it." Sound familiar? The one thing that is different is nobody is repeating endlessly "It is NOT a subscription," because, of course, it is.
 
Pro Tools holds a stronger market position than Sonar -- it's been around longer, it's taught in schools and it's used in commercial settings where $899 (plus specialized hardware) can more easily be amortized. So Avid is leveraging that position to bring in more money. That's what corporations do. Sonar, in my opinion, is much better software for songwriters and project studios, and I bet if you looked at sales you'd see those are the areas where Sonar is most popular. There's just not as much money floating around in that environment, so Cakewalk cannot be quite so brazen as Avid, but the principle's the same.

Larry Jones
 Some users are up in arms and will never give Avid another penny, and the moderators are feverishly posting links to the FAQ and saying that "...Avid will have to prove that your reenlistment each year is worth it." 

 
Major troll party over there...
 

Guitar Center is on the way out also, from what I just read...

Larry Jones
Having just been through the hysteria of Sonar's membership rollout in this forum, I find it mildly amusing to read what's going on in the Avid forums. Some users are up in arms and will never give Avid another penny, and the moderators are feverishly posting links to the FAQ and saying that "...Avid will have to prove that your reenlistment each year is worth it." Sound familiar? The one thing that is different is nobody is repeating endlessly "It is NOT a subscription," because, of course, it is.
 
Pro Tools holds a stronger market position than Sonar -- it's been around longer, it's taught in schools and it's used in commercial settings where $899 (plus specialized hardware) can more easily be amortized. So Avid is leveraging that position to bring in more money. That's what corporations do. Sonar, in my opinion, is much better software for songwriters and project studios, and I bet if you looked at sales you'd see those are the areas where Sonar is most popular. There's just not as much money floating around in that environment, so Cakewalk cannot be quite so brazen as Avid, but the principle's the same.

Yup, that's part of my dilemma.  The full time studio guys will take what I would view as an insignificant feature update like track freeze and justify paying $600.00 for it.  Their logic (and I have to admit that for them it is sound) is that if that little feature saves them a couple of bucks worth of time per day, it pays for itself in a year.  Eeek, I'm pretty much disarmed at that point.