We will find out on next release ...

Don't get me wrong, I think Autodesk has its own plan and they will stick with it, however as a consumer you owe it to yourself to be vocal about the good and the bad. If changing were that easy I would already have done it (Modo needs more seasoning as an animation platform, who knows if it gets there), I am uncomfortable with the way Autodesk is leading the pack.

What Autodesk should have done with Maya & Softimage:

Softimage has most of what Maya users want except in the SDK and SDK compatibility. So Autodesk should have created a Softimage meta SDK underneath SDK's for Maya and perhaps Max so that those teams could implement their SDK’s on top of it. This way studios get to keep all their custom development and Softimage gets an even better SDK. They get one app with the very latest in modern SDK's, without a complete rewrite. Convert the Softimage GUI to QT and modernise the OS calls so it runs across all main OS platforms. To make the largest crowd happy, change the look and call the app Maya and see how happy they are with: New modern modeling workflow, symmetry, ICE, mental ray integration, rendering workflow, less workarounds, overrides, supra keys, multiple attribute editors open at once, etc

I totally agree, people should complain, or at least raise their concerns and also report bugs too. The problem is, that I suspect many customers don't do any of these things. I go and see customers all the time and it never surprises me how little contact or awareness people even have of Autodesk. I always say to people that they should try and dialog with Autodesk however they can, in whatever means they can. There are several ways, but personally I don't think its clear on the best way.

Actually I like Carl, having met him and I've seen him talk, he's had some interesting things to say. Personally, I certainly find him more engaging than some of the other execs. I agree with Ken though, Carl is being taken too literally, but at the same time perhaps he should of elaborated abit more on the context.

Speaking of Ken, in the same way many appear to be prophesying the end of Softimage with the advent of Chinny and the iother deves moving on, many Max users said the same thing about Max when Ken and others moved on from that team. Just saying

Isn't 3dsmax gonna get axed when XBR project will be near complete?

I agree but I speculate that whoever makes the big decisions at AD looks at some numbers, talks to a few field people and that's the best application for them so there goes the R&D money. Oversimplified sure, but...

He might be fine personally but this notion of making everything online only is just wrong. If that happens it will immediately be the end of my SI use.

Believe it or not, not everyone wants their work machine to be online.

Having apps online doesn't make sense to me. What if the internet goes down? Typically, these days people just get frustrated they can't stream music or check facebook but can continue to work. When the internet goes down with hosted apps then everything stops? Doesn't make sense.

Damn right! Or you get a virus. Or your comp is hacked. Or the guy across the hall trips and breaks the router (actually happened here), or a car runs over the junction box on the street (also happened here), or your clients want real security for the projects you're working on and won't allow any transition whatsoever, or you want to work away from home with no internet access or....I could go on. It's a STUPID idea plain and simple.

And Bellsay, if you see him you can tell him I said that.