They have not killed LightWave in the legal sense. They still own and are selling it as a product.
There is lots of discussion here comparing LightWave to Blender. Some similar features have been added with addons. And some discussion about things that would be still good to have in Blender. And it would be a good place to look for what those might be. I think it would be more likely to develop anything new for Blender, considering LightWave is really not available. And may never be.
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No, Blender had no part in Lightwaveās downfall. When Lightwave died Blender was still that odd little backwater free App that people took the piss out of. Back in those days I wouldāve been one of those arrogantly sneering down at Blender.
Lightwave was killed by the incompetent and disinterested management who were only ever interested in the cash cow of the Video Toaster and follow on video products. To a large extent a hardcore group of complete fools in the userbase are also culpable, theyāve have ended up exactly where those of us who jumped predicted it would end.
As the bloke in the video posted by @Richard_Culver points out Lightwave has been irrelevant for years in the professional space save for a tiny number of myopic companies who through continuing to use LW now find themselves up sh1t creek without a paddle. I have zero sympathy because it was blatantly obvious where LW was heading, for years.
I agree with pretty much everything Steve said in the video. Thereās never any finality in the VizRT statements because they know so well that there are a few clueless individuals thatāll tell themselves that LW still lives whoāll be open to being stiffed one last time.
Any sentient being knows VizRT has no interest in LW as it stands as a standalone DCC and the best that can be hoped is that its IP will be used in VizRTās main products which are f*cking abysmal and itās no wonder most companies also use C4D for creating VizRT content. If anyone thinks LWās workflow is trapped in the 90s then you havenāt seen VizRTās software, by comparison LW looks modern AF! I think the NewTek acquisition is a good thing for VizRT whoāll make use of a lot of good IP and probably offer a LW like front end to their software that would mean customers wouldnāt immediately have to also invest in C4D.
Lightwave started as a 3D title generator for video products, it looks like itās going to end life like that.
Just for what it is worth, that is not me in the video. That is Steve White. You might want to edit your post to reflect that.
Oops 
Newtek killed Lightwave and now VizRT just put the final nail in the coffin.
Just saw the threads over at the Newtek forums and on Foundry.
Well, if the likes of Ben Vost et al have been ālet goā and the official statement reads like politic-speak for āyeah, weāll sell it, but thatās itā, it is a sad day.
If people do look to migrate to Blender, itās up to all us ex-wavers to welcome them and make their transition as easy as possible. Though I recall only too well how hard it was for me, not so much to learn Blender, but to āUn-Learnā Lightwave and not try to force Blender to be LW.
You should probably create a Thread in the Other Software area that can become a LW user first point of contact and support thread.
I found (and still find) I have not sufficiently unlearned well over a decade of C4D ingrained workflows. It does take a long time to be fully comfortable in any new application. If there were other C4D users around I wouldāve appreciated othersā help in the transition.
Definitely. And this is one of the reasons I started this thread:
Welcome all LightWavers!
Also feel free to share your reasons for choosing other software such as Houdini, Modo C 4D, or dare I say it, Maya or Max.
Right now however it is really hard to turn a blind eye to Blender. 
I have vivid memories of thinking the 3D cursor was a pain and useless. Now of course, I know far better. 
I think ignoring all the shortcut keys and features and just getting the ācoreā (pardon the pun) keys in your head makes a world of difference.
Though some of the āeaster eggsā are good too, like gg followed by c, I only found that one out a few months ago! 
I canāt believe Gooseberry was so long ago!
As far as the future goes there are two applications which are truly exciting, Houdini and Blender. I canāt see past either. I own HoudiniFX 16.5 (C4D R20 never use it anymore) but Iām finding I turn to Blender with sverchok and animation nodes.
Once the Everything Nodes project brings Sverchok and Animation Nodes functionality natively to Blender Iāll probably only ever need Houdini for some absurdly large fluid sim that TBH I would rarely need. Weāll soon have a full compliment of 3rd party renderers in Blender so most of the feelings of Blender being a little island of its own have gone. Iām pretty sure every major Renderer has plans to support Blender or is already doing so.
One of the things I really like about Blender is the open communication. I can see relatively far into the future as see where Blender is heading. Having been a Maxon customer for such a long time and given virtually zero idea where C4D was going as a small business owner I really do value knowing whatās coming and also having the opportunity to discuss the features over at devtalk instead of being ignored and seen as a resource to plunder once a year.
Any money we contribute to the Blender Development fund goes much further to develop Blender than the yearly Subscriptions and Maintenance of other applications which have shareholders to keep happy.
I also think so. I started Blender with help of Richard Culvers nice intro videos and when I learned the basics of G R S and X Y Z and Shift+X Y Z it all started to fall in place. There is so many things to love about the way Blender works so I think you will just shoot yourself in the foot by alter it to function as other dcc apps.
Yes, totally agree!
Blenders edit mode performance is really bad, but at least I know they are working on it.
With Lightwave (and others) you can only hope they are working on something you want but mostly after years of silence you realize they worked on completely different things.
Thatās nice. Itās the same as holding down Alt. They should add both these keys in the help line in the bottom of the screen.
I am always finding new things!
Wow I did not know or remember that. So good to see a āstudentā surpass me. And I mean that sincerely.
You have become a treasure trove of great tips!
You posted some links of your training on the newtek forums and I followed a few of the first basic ones and it really helped me to get going. Then Iāve followed Pablo on Blender today live and learned a lot of things in the 2.8 transition. Now I use my old trial n error approach to explore Blender on the deep. Iāve also recommended your videos to some coworkers that wanted to learn Blender. 
Cool. Good to hear. Wonderful thing about Blender is there is so much data out there nowadays. Really hard to fail at learning it. Erā¦ that is if one is willing to put in the effort.
I moved over some while back, mainly because I only use Linux these days, but also because it finally began to make sense after the 2.8 GUI update.
I love the number of videos and training material there is and the rate at which it gets updated.
To all those transitioning from Lightwave or any other software, Iād urge them to consider becoming part of the development fund and give some financial support to the level you feel comfortable with.
I think one issue is people try to aim too high to start with. For me, it all clicked when I sat myself down, told myself off and came at it like a newbie to 3D. I spent a few hours just literally playing with move/rotate/scale and basic edit of points,edges and faces. That paid dividends down hte road as I could focus on the tool and not keep slipping into trying to use LW shortcuts. Then, Extrude, inset, loopcut knife and bevel in edit mode, to this day, they are the foundation of pretty much everything I do, plus HardOps & Boxcutter of course.