You very well may want to. With the exceptions of Sequoia and anything that went to a subscription model, none of them are all that expensive.I am starting to get the feeling that I am going to be investing in more than one solution. It is hard to ignore Logic X. The more I look at that the more I like it. However, I am also trying to prepare for the day when my Mac need upgraded. I will probably switch over to a PC at that time because the hardware is half the price. I originally went with Mac because they were doing things better at that time. Things just worked. It is a new world now. Knowing that, I am going to want to pick a solution that I can easily move over. I don't want to have to pay a crossgrade fee to do it. That is where PT was strong for me. All I had to do was install it on both and use the iLok in whichever machine I was using at the time and it just worked.
Steinberg's licensing uses an eLicenser, but it's the same idea as an iLok, just a different physical thing. I have one of each installed inside my PC case and never think about them, but I also don't use other computers for audio stuff.
Someone else said that the grace period started a while ago, so that's cool. They do that. They also have cheap upgrades available. And they're running a sale right now....40% off IIRC. Maybe that's just WaveLab.Logic X and Cubase Pro are the two highest on my list right now. What I am not sure on is if I buy the current version of Cubase, will I have to pay an upgrade fee later this year when they release the new version? I need to get an answer to that question.
I really don't want to get into holy wars...but as for the Mac vs. PC thing....I have a different perspective.
I used OS X from like 2006 until around 2018 for music things and general use. In that time....
- When they worked, I liked them a LOT. Windows 2000 was okay, but XP through 8 were all nightmares. I switched from XP to Linux in 2004 and only went to Macs when I wanted to get into computer music things.
- Despite most of them including them, none of my MBs or MBPs ever had a working optical drive. They were all DOA. The Apple Stores were not able to offer me replacement hardware; they had to ship it off to have it replaced, and I was never willing to be without my laptop for that long. I eventually installed adapters to run a second drive (first HDDs, then SSDs) from OWC in every one of them.
- I paid for 2 Apple laptops. I think I had 5 due to major-fault warranty replacements. I had another several logic board replacements.
- Before you say that's just complimentary of AppleCare, two of those replacements came after me complaining to executive customer support after being jerked around by 2 different Apple Stores each time. None of the replacements took less than 10 days, and I was without the computer being functional for that amount of time. All of them were inside the AppleCare support windows. And none of them were from the OWC adapters or anything I did.
- Partially considering all of that, the absolute best OS X experience I had was with a hackintosh. It had the fewest issues with upgrades and hardware. I think I built that PC in 2012 (i7 3770, if that helps), and I still use it as an ESXi machine. It hosts a virtual router and some private servers to this day. It also benchmarked on-par with Mac Pros of the day for 1/3 the cost (though they were old at that point). Other than SSD upgrades, I think I've replaced one RAM stick and added other hardware as it's role changed.
- I actually built a second PC with hackintosh-compatible hardware (just in case) in 2013ish. I upgraded SSDs and RAM, and I had to delid the CPU and replace the thermal paste under it when it started over-heating a couple years ago. It ran Linux for most of it's life and runs FreeBSD now. It's my main day-job work machine. It's uptime is currently 165 days, running in the closet, and only being accessed over SSH from my Windows machine. Yes, relying on a modified CPU is dumb. But, I could replace it today locally for a few hundred bucks and have a new one running tomorrow.
- I bought a PC laptop in 2011 while I was waiting for one of my MBPs to be replaced. It's run Linux the entire time. The case has been cracked since someone knocked it off a table when it was a week old. It still works, and I still use it. All I've done to it is upgrade the SSD every few years.
Yes, it was more of a pain to set up. There are more little tweaks you have to do, mostly to get DPC latency down and eliminate spikes. You also have to do things during the installation to remove Telemetry, Cortana, XBox BS, and other things like that, apply some networking optimizations, etc.. Fortunately, SpiceWorks (an IT forum) makes it pretty easy by providing PowerShell "decrapifier" scripts that uninstall some things and adapt Group Policy to block others. It's absolutely ridiculous that kind of thing is required. But...it works.
I prefer OS X.
I don't like jumping through those hoops.
I don't like giving Microsoft money.
I prefer NFS to SMB.
I prefer zsh to PowerShell.
I like the BSD(ish) userland of OS X well enough.
There are a handful of OS X-only non-music applications that I prefer to their windows alternatives.
Getting help with anything to do with Windows is a huge PITA...at least as bad as a "Genius Bar" appointment.
But, as far as I'm concerned, Apple's hardware has just gotten worse since then. There's no way I could actually use any of the current Macs for all of what I do except the Pro. My PC does it all and doesn't bat an eye.
And, the whole computer barely cost more than an Echo III Desktop.
I want to go back to Apple. But I can't because their hardware is entry-level crap in a nice box.