The End of FINALE

[hautbois baryton]

What will likely happen is some clever folk on the internet will crack Finale 27 so it doesn't require authorization, and Finale will live on on the dark web as shareware. It happens to other abandonware.

(EDIT: feel free to remove if talk of piracy is shunned, I'm not advocating it)

[MichelRE]

it doesn't matter anymore anyways.
MakeMusic declared that they were changing it so there would be no limit for the authorization.

[Fred G. Unn]

I was wondering if SmartMusic would also die if Finale went the way of the dodo.

I think SmartMusic sales sort of exploded during COVID lockdown. I know the local public schools where I live are now using it. That's probably MM's current revenue stream and I assume one of the reasons they are killing off Finale is to focus all resources on it.

MakeMusic declared that they were changing it so there would be no limit for the authorization.

I know they backtracked and that's their current position, but I have to think at some point in the future they will change again and discontinue it. When? I dunno. 2 years? 5 years? Certainly I wouldn't expect to still be able to install Finale 10 years from now. And that's assuming some OS update doesn't render it incompatible if you aren't keeping a legacy system around to run it. At least for me, I feel like the clock is ticking to get my 14,000+ Finale files all saved as MXL and PDF. After the current backlash they experienced this week after announcing authorizations will cease in 1 year, I feel reasonably confident that we'll have at least 2 years, but anything after that is a gamble IMO.

There was a bug in the PC version of Finale where they changed the font naming structure of Maestro Wide in the mid-00s, that caused previous files that used that font to open as gibberish. I thought those all had to be opened one by one and the font swapped, until this week when I sent one of my older files to a good friend (Harry Connick's copyist) who opened it fine on a Mac. I wish I had known this when my kids were younger and we still had a "family" Mac Mini, LOL! I was due for a new laptop anyway, so I bought a MacBook yesterday with converting old Finale files as one of my primary motivations for the switch. (Unlike some PC users I've never been opposed to Macs, and use Apple for everything else, just opposed to Mac pricing! Bit the bullet and got one.)

[Hector Pascal]

Today I went to look at the Finale Forum (https://www.finaleforum.com), but it was not viewable on my computer, and I am wondering if anyone else can view it? Hopefully, it's just a temporary outage.
Cheers,
Hector.

[David Ward]

I clicked on the link at 12.10 GMT and immediately got through…

[OCTO]

I know they backtracked and that's their current position, but I have to think at some point in the future they will change again and discontinue it. When? I dunno. 2 years? 5 years? Certainly I wouldn't expect to still be able to install Finale 10 years from now. And that's assuming some OS update doesn't render it incompatible if you aren't keeping a legacy system around to run it.

Buy a very cheap computer (can be even a desktop), install Finale on it, authorise, see everything works well and put it in basement for a long time storage.  Use HDD (spinning one) so that the data is retained.  Or just buy an extra HDD for your computer, install everything on it, and disconnect it from the motherboard.
I have still an iMac from 2007 with Snow Leopard that works well (but not in use).

[John Ruggero]

Buy a very cheap computer (can be even a desktop)

Oh no. There's only so much obsolescence one can take in two weeks. Next, it's desktops.

[OCTO]

In desktops we trust!

[MichelRE]

It always seems so odd to me.
I refuse to use a laptop simply because the screen is far too small, and I hate the constrained feeling of the tiny flat keyboard.

I always upgrade my computer to a powerful desktop, never to a laptop.

But then, I work from home, so I never really need to be on the road with work stuff (although I DO have access to a powerful laptop - my spouse's), I rarely ever make use of it.

[OCTO]

I think, for running Finale, you don't need a very strong computer.  I have had a laptop connected to the external monitor and keyboard for years and it worked well.