Subscriptions: online only?!

[QVprod]

Gotta interject. The likelihood of your computer getting hacked simply by being connected to a private internet connection is pretty slim. Yes, even on Windows. The idea that a production computer shouldn't be connected to the internet is an ancient idea from back when software was still primarily installed with cds. Nowadays with firewalls and basic antivirus you're only in danger by going to bad sites or being tricked by false email addresses.

I don't care what other people do or think. I don't let my production machine touch the internet. Not just for distant threats like hacking and viruses but also buggy updates* that I don't need. There's literally no reason my machine needs to be on the internet. When I'm in my studio working on music, the internet is the last distraction I need. My laptop, however, is on the front lines. I work on the same music projects on it when I'm far from home but I also download updates and whatever else I need on it. My laptop tests everything before it goes back to my main machine. It's all very methodical. I also practice regular offsite backups to an encrypted drive. I'm very careful with my data because I choose to be not because of some "ancient ideas" other people heard from a cousin who knows a guy who works on computers. I'm in IT and I know what I'm doing.

*I had a Windows update a while back totally screwed up the audio and it was hell getting to the bottom of it. IIRC, it was something in SP3. I wiped and reloaded and stayed with SP2 for the next decade. And that computer is still chugging along now, but now it's my backup/file storage machine.

Of course you're free to do whatever you wish but can't Windows updates be turned off? I'm a Mac guy so maybe I'm wrong about that.

My point is that the dangers that were before aren't really concerns anymore. I've been to a few pro studios . They're all connected to the internet. I even got looked at funny for bringing a hard drive once.

[jayhosking]

I totally get the never-online attitude. They're already making bloody fridges and other appliances with Bluetooth and wifi, updating the firmware on televisions and blu-ray players, and it's all a stupid pointless hassle and the devices are worse for it. We buy a guitar or some other piece of hardware and never expect to give it an update; it works as was provided when we got it, although it might occasionally require repairs. Although I left the audio/recording industry, I still kept my main recording machine off the internet for over a decade, and that machine still works; I had a version of ProTools and Waves that just worked and I didn't need any stupid paid updates or update plans or any of that nonsense. I pay for updates on Reason now because they offer good content for the price (in my opinion), but if I really needed things to be reliable again, I wouldn't bother with any of it, just like I wouldn't bother to download updates for my toaster.

Actually, all this talk makes me want to get another computer and freeze it in time with its OS and software. Hah.

[avasopht]

Of course you're free to do whatever you wish but can't Windows updates be turned off? I'm a Mac guy so maybe I'm wrong about that.

My point is that the dangers that were before aren't really concerns anymore. I've been to a few pro studios . They're all connected to the internet. I even got looked at funny for bringing a hard drive once.

You can't disable updates on Windows 10 Home edition. Even when you disable the update service it will still force download and install, so you might just pop out for lunch and find it's force closed all of your applications, and that long drive-to-drive transfer you were hoping to find finished when you got back has failed.

[QVprod]

Of course you're free to do whatever you wish but can't Windows updates be turned off? I'm a Mac guy so maybe I'm wrong about that.

My point is that the dangers that were before aren't really concerns anymore. I've been to a few pro studios . They're all connected to the internet. I even got looked at funny for bringing a hard drive once.

You can't disable updates on Windows 10 Home edition. Even when you disable the update service it will still force download and install, so you might just pop out for lunch and find it's force closed all of your applications, and that long drive-to-drive transfer you were hoping to find finished when you got back has failed.

Yikes that's horrible. Did I say I'm a Mac guy.? I'd hope that at least in the pro edition you can do it.

[aeox]

Of course you're free to do whatever you wish but can't Windows updates be turned off? I'm a Mac guy so maybe I'm wrong about that.

My point is that the dangers that were before aren't really concerns anymore. I've been to a few pro studios . They're all connected to the internet. I even got looked at funny for bringing a hard drive once.

You can't disable updates on Windows 10 Home edition. Even when you disable the update service it will still force download and install, so you might just pop out for lunch and find it's force closed all of your applications, and that long drive-to-drive transfer you were hoping to find finished when you got back has failed.

Yea it's so irritating.

I turned off all the settings for updates. Went into group policies, turned off everything in "services.msc" related to windows update, etc.

Yesterday I get a random notification that a new update has downloaded and is ready to install

[Oquasec]

extended trial versions of rack devices was a good idea :}

[bxbrkrz]

You can't disable updates on Windows 10 Home edition. Even when you disable the update service it will still force download and install, so you might just pop out for lunch and find it's force closed all of your applications, and that long drive-to-drive transfer you were hoping to find finished when you got back has failed.

Yikes that's horrible. Did I say I'm a Mac guy.? I'd hope that at least in the pro edition you can do it.

Using Windows 10 Pro gives you the flexibility to chose when you want to update. I've waited nearly a year after any big updates (patches, fixes are still going through)

[joeyluck]

I finally am getting around to using the service.

I did notice the disclaimer before proceeding... Was this not there before?

online-only.jpg (35.18 KiB) Viewed 1574 times

[stratatonic]

I finally am getting around to using the service.

I did notice the disclaimer before proceeding... Was this not there before?

online-only.jpg

So can you verify once online, and then keep Reason "open"? And start a new project offline without going back to their servers?

[mataya]

I finally am getting around to using the service.

I did notice the disclaimer before proceeding... Was this not there before?

online-only.jpg

Of course it wasn't.

M

[joeyluck]

A benefit I find for myself is that if I want to be sure a project uses only REs I own, I don't login.

If I want to work on a project and use time-sensitive plugins, I login. RE trials and beta licenses are also only available via online authorization, so it's easy for me to think and operate this way already.

I do however have access to Internet connection wherever I work; whether at home or whatever theatre or venue where I work. And I can tether my phone if elsewhere.

Maybe if they made subscriptions available offline, they can introduce an option at startup to (A) 'use all REs including subscription' or (B) 'continue only with REs I own.' Or maybe they can be labeled a special way within the browser?

I think the subscription model works great when project-based, but I feel it can get messy and into that area that the naysayers of subscriptions freak out about; and that is having projects you sit on that utilize REs you don't own. I can see myself maybe losing track of what I'm subscribed to? So in the meantime, I can use this as a way to manage that.

Related: when beta testing a new version of Reason, I set the beta to the dark theme (as I prefer and use the default theme). Then that reminds me what version I'm in, so I don't get too far ahead with a project in beta, or accidentally open something and save it with the beta.

[sublunar]

My point is that the dangers that were before aren't really concerns anymore. I've been to a few pro studios . They're all connected to the internet. I even got looked at funny for bringing a hard drive once.

Eh.. they kind of are though, they're just mitigated. As an IT person, I see any such connection as an unnecessary vulnerability. And as people above me pointed out, Win10 home edition can't even disable updates, for example. Having deployed Win 10 at work, I've seen enough issues with it doing strange things on its own that I don't ever plan to use it at home as long as Win 7 still works.

For the record, I am connected to the internet in my studio. But the network cable only gets plugged into my spare machine when I need the internet down there, which isn't often. The network cable only touches my production machine when I'm downloading rack extensions or similar. As far as I'm concerned, there's literally no good reason to have my critical files always connected to the internet. Neither updates, nor hacks, nor any other Internet-based threat can happen when the cable's unplugged. That's the only kind of security I'm comfortable with.

[Soeno]

i have to be online for a lot of my new purchases, not these trials
so i wouldn`t buy anything more at all
e.g. these 9 Euro things from Skrock Music, except Nautilus, the Rob Papen things and a lot more

better to spend money in vst`s

[selig]

i have to be online for a lot of my new purchases, not these trials
so i wouldn`t buy anything more at all
e.g. these 9 Euro things from Skrock Music, except Nautilus, the Rob Papen things and a lot more

better to spend money in vst`s

You don't HAVE to be online for any RE purchases. Only for demos and rentals.

[kitekrazy]

I don't think there is an offline subscription model anywhere when it comes to software.