Next time you want to buy a newer version of CorelDRAW you'll either have to buy a new full version license ($499) or get on their subscription program ($198 per year).
This is assuming that the option to get a perpetual license exists in the later versions as well. May only be able to go with a subscription. And that they subscription price stays the same as well. Adobe's has gone up after all. Just depends on how far down the line we are talking about. Although Corel's pricing seems a little high for what you are getting, but that could just be me.
While it's much cheaper to stick with the software you have there are obvious hazards to doing so. If you're running CorelDRAW on a modern version of Windows there is always the chance some new "upgrade" Microsoft forces on users could break an old copy of CorelDRAW.
With the rolling release nature of Win 10, any new update can break any program at any point. While it is more likely to happen with a legacy program, make no mistake, it can happen with a new program. And breakage has happened on even MS' own software with an update on Win 10.
Win 10 is about as "safe" as Arch is, perhaps even less so, because you can still tell Arch to only do security patches and not feature updates, where is with Windows you can't do that. Bare in mind, this comment
is not an endorsement to switch to a different platform, to think that it is, is wrong (I feel compelled to strongly indicate that). This is mainly to illustrate just how bad it is in general to have "mission critical" software/hardware running on rolling release (essentially beta software) OSs.
The same thing can happen when buying a new computer. Security holes can be discovered in old software. Corel is only going to maintain their newest stuff out of choice. They're only going to patch old software if a really catastrophic vulnerability is discovered.
I wouldn't expect them to do that even with catastrophic issues either. If something isn't supported, can't expect patches like that. What MS did lately for XP and Vista users, they shouldn't have. They did, but they shouldn't have.
You can run an older OS in virtual machine software, but it's best to run such a thing not connected to the Internet since it's not secure at all. Some people might be able to work like that, but it's extremely far from practical for everyone. Some of the best stuff from Adobe Creative Cloud doesn't work without an always-on Internet connection.
I'm sure that I'm at the top of the list for both comments (maybe the only one as I'm quite outspoken for both). The worst being internet connectivity. That is the biggest vector of issues. Period. It is. Run perpetually connected and just accept that it is an issue and with the rolling release nature of Win 10, issues with updates are going to be very real and very likely to happen twice a year. And subscription models are also very much rolling releases, even Adobes is now as they are only allowing as far back as x-1 at any given time.
Bare in mind some of those benefits that exist now that require an always on connection, may not exist in the next version. I'm not saying it won't exist, but the potential for it not to exist is far greater, due to it's rolling release nature. Shoot, there could be even hard coded features that exist in one version, but not in the next and with the mandate of not running older then x-1, at some point, "you" are going to no longer have that feature that you need/like. Things get deprecated and removed and now don't have the ability to stay on that version that still has it.
Now, going back to the VM part, since we are talking about VM'ing legacy software and depending just how far back that legacy software is, it may not have a need for an internet connection anyway, as the features derived are negligible or perhaps non existent. If using a properly spec'ed computer for VM'ing (I'm actually able to run a VM within a VM and that second VM is damn near native performance), it is actually far more stable then keeping older hardware to run everything on bare metal.
I've said it before, but this is a VERY VERY STUPID move on the part of Corel, or much more likely their vulture capital owners (Vector Capital). Hedge fund firms do a great job ruining companies.
This is part of the same issues with wants going on with openSUSE as well. openSUSE, like RHEL (or now should I say IBMEL, since IBM bought RH?), and Ubuntu (Canonical) are all company owned, it's very much a risk for all of those as well, just openSUSE is owned by this type of company.
I ended up being forced into buying an upgrade from X5 to X6 because of an OS update. I think it was the change from Windows 8 to Win 8.1. X5 wouldn't load at all.
This issue happened for my mom as well, but it was a direct fresh install of 8.1, not just the update and doing a fresh install of X5 with manual moving of files from the disk (not all moved over) would fix the issue. I had the same thing with an embroidery program as well. A dll file didn't move over from the disk and once it was manually moved over, it worked just fine.
Longtime CorelDRAW users probably should start double-saving artwork in other formats, such as EPS or PDF as a safeguard. Most applications external to CorelDRAW do a terrible job opening CorelDRAW .CDR files. I'm not suggesting this out of a motivation of just being angry at Corel. It's a matter of just keeping those assets alive and usable.
This is something that I would recommend regardless of the software in question when dealing with proprietary master files.
So, with the possibility being very real that Corel could go bust, it's a big murky question what will happen with those activation servers required to make copies of Corel X6 and later work. Saving down to earlier formats like X5 is one option. Saving to PDF, EPS or AI is another.
If saving down to an earlier version, make sure to finalize any new(er) effects that may not translate to those earlier versions, if they were used.
As to activation servers, that is one way that they could also strong arm anyone with X6 to current on a perpetual license is that they could shut those off for anything I would say older then X-2. That shouldn't disable your current install (but it's not like a "kill switch" couldn't have been programmed in there), but it would prevent you for re-installing after a bad update or going to a new computer, regardless if it was still compatible with the version of the newer OS and you still have at least one of your activation seats left.
