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Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Hi Folks.
I recently wrote to Magix asking when the next version of Designer Pro (X20) will be available.
Sadly, on 5th June 2023, I got the following reply from Magix support, and I quote.
“we have ended the cooperation with XARA and will therefore not offer any new products from this provider. You are welcome to purchase the new versions directly from XARA”
So that means Xara is now subscription only, unless Xara gives us an option to buy a perpetual licence of Designer Pro.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Promidi, thank you for sharing this depressing but expected news.
For those who are unaware of what Xara now offers, this, https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...e-of-Xara-Plus, might be now wrong about cost savings but it covers the basics.
Acorn
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
sadly expected, yes; in fact, looking at the way magix' product range is managed, expected from the moment designer pro + was released
thanks for the info, it is good to know these things so you can make sensible decisions for the furure...
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Expected but it sucks.
Xara products have been and still are a part of Magix video products, Video Pro X, Magix Movie Studio (was renamed from Movie Edit Pro, Video Deluxe in other languages) and PhotoStory. The current version has a couple of bugs in the interface between the two products making what should be and was, at one time, a fantastic feature not available with most other video editing programs.
https://youtu.be/SDg86J-WUfA
Part of this bug has been there for several years now and my requests to fix it have fallen on deaf ears. I want these fixed, then Xara can go away - no need for further updates.
It is not clear if there will be any more updates to the desktop version from Xara itself and I am one who does not want a subscription to a program such as this and I do not like or want to use a Cloud-based program. Will Xara continue with the desktop version? If so, can I subscribe for a year every once in a while just to get the desktop version? And does the desktop version continue to work as before even if the subscription is no longer active?
Say what you want about Magix, but the Xara program always came from Xara, Magix just marketed and sold it (and used it with some of their other programs). Xara has gone in a different direction and its development no longer has any relevance to the Magix line of products. Magix is not in the web design or brochure or document making business and that is where Xara has gone. Magix makes audio-video products and the synergy is no longer there. If I was Magix, I would rebrand Xara Photo & Graphics Designer as Magix Graphics. No need for any updating except to fix bugs.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
magix DAW products are very good - that is where they started, and they remain excellent; the rest I have always seen, rightly or wrongly, as 'remainder' products, milking what is near, or has reached, the end of it's life, for as long as people will buy it
whether the update service will continue is a good point - the program code belongs to xara afaik, if there is no longer 'cooperation' what can actually be updated ?
I am ok, I can do all I need with ver 15.1
If I were statrting to day from scratch I would go straight to affinity...
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Quote:
Originally Posted by
browj2
Expected but it sucks.
Xara products have been and still are a part of Magix video products, Video Pro X, Magix Movie Studio (was renamed from Movie Edit Pro, Video Deluxe in other languages) and PhotoStory. The current version has a couple of bugs in the interface between the two products making what should be and was, at one time, a fantastic feature not available with most other video editing programs.
https://youtu.be/SDg86J-WUfA
Part of this bug has been there for several years now and my requests to fix it have fallen on deaf ears. I want these fixed, then Xara can go away - no need for further updates.
It is not clear if there will be any more updates to the desktop version from Xara itself and I am one who does not want a subscription to a program such as this and I do not like or want to use a Cloud-based program. Will Xara continue with the desktop version? If so, can I subscribe for a year every once in a while just to get the desktop version? And does the desktop version continue to work as before even if the subscription is no longer active?
Say what you want about Magix, but the Xara program always came from Xara, Magix just marketed and sold it (and used it with some of their other programs). Xara has gone in a different direction and its development no longer has any relevance to the Magix line of products. Magix is not in the web design or brochure or document making business and that is where Xara has gone. Magix makes audio-video products and the synergy is no longer there. If I was Magix, I would rebrand Xara Photo & Graphics Designer as Magix Graphics. No need for any updating except to fix bugs.
John, can you potentially "integrate" a Plus version into your Magix video products or would it require Magix intervention?
Magix, as you say, has never had the resource or ability to change the Xara codebase.
Xara have been referring to the XDAs (non Plus versions) as "Legacy" for quite a time.
Xara may well be in a position to rekindle these, away from Magix, if extant contracts permit.
If Xara does, it ought to ditch the inane Update Service and align all the desktop versions directly to the Plus (subscription) ones. Magix v19s would be uplifted to current Xara+ v23, painlessly.
Currently, the Plus versions are pure subscription and you lose all access to the desktop version when you stop. If one bought was the Update Service each year, there would be little that is different other that the subscription offers the latest version all the time and updates are quite high.
My main concern is when will Magix disconnect from its Help role, the customer licensing base, the Online Content Catalogue and hosting services?
I have licences going back to dot and I still use the free-access to v11 OCC.
Acorn
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Quote:
Originally Posted by
handrawn
If I were statrting to day from scratch I would go straight to affinity...
If Affinity did the web...
Acorn
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
This I knew a year ago. It was obvious. The fact that Xara and them kept it under wrap is disgusting. I am finished upgrading for now. Even though I purchased 19 after having gotten a new computer Magix told me I am back to v18. Moving on. There is more fish in the sea. To me Xara was amazing but even now with the blocks etc.. they are trying to catchup to something 5 years ago. As a user for more than 2 decades I do have the rights to express how I feel.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Thanks Promidi.
Sadly that does look like the end of the road for non-subscribers.
Slightly different thing, but I was not around to experience Xara’s marriage with Corel and their eventual divorce. Magix saying “we have ended the cooperation” actually sounds like they are the ones breaking things off.
So what do Xara say about all this? Rhetorical question of course. I’m not holding my breath for an answer!
To my mind to make a Xara subscription make sense, web hosting should be included as an option to complete the whole website building experience. Not that I do websites! But I might be tempted with that sort of package. I might even buy a new PC!
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Quote:
Originally Posted by
behzad
This I knew a year ago. It was obvious. The fact that Xara and them kept it under wrap is disgusting. I am finished upgrading for now. Even though I purchased 19 after having gotten a new computer Magix told me I am back to v18. Moving on. There is more fish in the sea. To me Xara was amazing but even now with the blocks etc.. they are trying to catchup to something 5 years ago. As a user for more than 2 decades I do have the rights to express how I feel.
If you actually bought v19 then that should be the one that you can redownload and activate. Anything less is theft.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
There are a few people saying that they don't want to pay a subscription but for a different side... I really am loving it. I had one Designer Pro+ licence in 2020 and then quickly upgraded to the "Team" package for three licences. Three people, each able to install Designer Pro+ to two PCs, for $215 - which for me in the UK is £173, and the equivalent to only £58 a year, each.
With Magix, for a single user's upgrade it was £69 in 2015, £89 in 2018 and £99 in 2020. I'm more than happy with the equivalent of £58 each (I actually only wanted two licences, and was intending on having one Magix and one Xara - but it was cheaper to have three from Xara) - the support is second to none. The chat support is virtually realtime and bugs have been fixed within a couple of months of reporting them.
I gave my unused third licence to a friend, and none of the three of us have spent more than an hour looking at the Xara Cloud stuff, we just use the desktop Designer Pro+ desktop software. The £173 divided by two is still less than Magix's renewal was.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Thanks Daniel - that is a good summary of where xara have pitched: corporate/teams who always need to be using the latest offering; and it appears to be working well for them
I have used their chat support occasionally and it has been very good, even when the questions were not just pro+/cloud; Matt is very helpful
Those of us only needing one licence though, and in my case zero website requirement and minimal requirement for OCC, it's different
A lot of the OCC you can get elsewhere, some of it for free, though if it saves time, paying could well be worth it, depends
Quote:
Originally Posted by ss-kalm
If you actually bought v19 then that should be the one that you can redownload and activate
Don't know about behzad but in my case ver19 was an update service upgrade from ver18 and the EULA is clear that I would revert to ver18 under those circumstances
since I can use version 15.1 it does not bother me; what bothers me is Magix pulling the plug on the older version activations and I'm not one 100% clear on the position regarding that, maybe someone else is ?
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
I had thrown in the towel long time ago. No comments.
Actually this is to Xara Staff.
Had you been honest with us and knew about this arrangement, you would have had a greater chance of users like myself to jump on your bandwagon instead of waiting for an update over a year for Magix.
Your lack of honesty and communication and business practice really turned me and others off.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
To be fair they have been baiting people to contact them, strongly hinting if not saying outright that if someone has "unused Magix update time" remaining on a subscription, that they'll give a credit on subscriptions direct with Xara.
For those who've not taken out a "Team" subscription, as the account holder you simply send an invite to someone's email address so that they can "join" your subscription. You don't see their data, they don't see yours. It would be trivially simple to take out a Team subscription, invite two friends, and deal with the cost between you.
I'm a one-man-band with an occasional part-time assistant, not a corporate behemoth. I wanted my part-time assistant to be able to work on my Xara documents, so took out the additional subscription. I saved money by taking out a Team subscription (three licences) versus a Xara and a Magix subscription or two Xara subs, so the third was a free bonus. I invited a friend to use that, she benefits, so do I - I saved money by having it!
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
I find it appalling that companies treat their customers like this. Just the other day I found a programme I use occasionally to quickly turn my photos into a gallery that I can quickly browse just stopped working because they want me to buy the new version. Now I read that if I want to use Web Designer I need to pay £150 a year. It's not my business (I design & sell oak framed buildings) but I do have a few websites of my own and a few I do for friends, family and a couple of charities so I dip in and out of Xara fairly regularly. I have begrudgingly paid for updates for the premium version over the past ten years just because I am a bit computer geeky so like to see new features (although they have rarely impressed me very much) but I'm buggered if I'm paying a £1,500 for a computer programme where I don't recoup any of my expenditure so it's the end for me and Web Designer which is a shame because despite it's many faults, I do quite like it.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
would you rather the company went out of business ?
because sooner or later that is the other option if their revenue stream is insufficient
sure some companies are rapacious, but I would not put xara in that catagory based on my experience...
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Quote:
Originally Posted by
kilo
I find it appalling that companies treat their customers like this. Just the other day I found a programme I use occasionally to quickly turn my photos into a gallery that I can quickly browse just stopped working because they want me to buy the new version. Now I read that if I want to use Web Designer I need to pay £150 a year. It's not my business (I design & sell oak framed buildings) but I do have a few websites of my own and a few I do for friends, family and a couple of charities so I dip in and out of Xara fairly regularly. I have begrudgingly paid for updates for the premium version over the past ten years just because I am a bit computer geeky so like to see new features (although they have rarely impressed me very much) but I'm buggered if I'm paying a £1,500 for a computer programme where I don't recoup any of my expenditure so it's the end for me and Web Designer which is a shame because despite it's many faults, I do quite like it.
kilo, your Xara product will not stop working. You do not have to pay anything. It is not the same as your gallery application example.
If, however, you want the latest bells and whistles, you can download the trial for Web Designer Plus and check it over.
Thereafter, you could subscribe for a period but you still retain your older product for use.
If you have made sites for your business you have had some value. The yearly updates were just your hobby.
I assume your "£1,500" was a typo?
For a business, you could write down such as company costs.
I found that for even one client in a year, my subscription was well worth it. As a Professional, i do maintain the leat software versions and the subscription model suits. As a hobyist, i get to play with the product for the rest of the year.
Compare with Amazon Prime (~£100/y), great for free, next day deliveries but I don't use it each and every day for these. I do, however, enjoy the free videos quite frequently. having one's cake and eating it.
Acorn
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
OK Acorn, accepted that it's different to the gallery example and maybe I was a little harsh due to the gallery programme's actions but I think I've found a better solution now anyway so I'm happier than I was ;-)
I don't have a problem with the programme makers improving their product and as I mentioned I have paid for the upgrades on Web Designer over the years and my £1,500 wasn't a typo, it becomes a £1,500 programme if I use it for 10 years. I still use a very old copy of Photoshop because I don't need the extra bells & whistles of the updated versions but Photoshop don't throw up a nag screen every time I use it which I think is the thing that annoys me. If my car manufacturer sent me an email every few weeks to say I could now have tinted windows or racing seats at an extra cost, I think that would also annoy me.
I'm getting old - a lot of things now annoy me.
Anyway, I've bitten the bullet and bought the new version as I wanted to see how well the new 'blocks' work. They seem OK but not sure how much I'll use them as I rarely build brand new sites but we'll see.
At least this upgrade seems to have kept all the paid for add-ons which have disappeared a couple of times in the past and taken me ages to get back again.
Kilo
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
I've had a problem with accessing the Content Catalog for a couple of years with both Xara Web Designer and Xara Designer Pro (not the "plus" versions).
Despite contacting Magix a few times they have never come back with a solution.
I contacted Magix again last week and they replied that Xara has taken back support.
Now I have an active update plan for Web Designer that provides me with nothing. I can't remember the last time an update was released so it's been wasted money.
I'm not too sure about the plus versions as I avoid subscription-based software. You don't have to subscribe to many before it becomes a lot of money each month.
I have other web design software and I'm seriously thinking about switching to them for all websites. One of the main reasons I like Web Designer is because of the freedom of design - the others don't necessarily offer that.
Whinge over.
= Steve
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Quote:
Originally Posted by
stevegill
I've had a problem with accessing the Content Catalog for a couple of years with both Xara Web Designer and Xara Designer Pro (not the "plus" versions).
Despite contacting Magix a few times they have never come back with a solution.
I contacted Magix again last week and they replied that Xara has taken back support.
Now I have an active update plan for Web Designer that provides me with nothing. I can't remember the last time an update was released so it's been wasted money.
I'm not too sure about the plus versions as I avoid subscription-based software. You don't have to subscribe to many before it becomes a lot of money each month.
I have other web design software and I'm seriously thinking about switching to them for all websites. One of the main reasons I like Web Designer is because of the freedom of design - the others don't necessarily offer that.
Whinge over. = Steve
Steve, no one should be left to drift. Contact Xara who will get it sorted for you. The more information you provide, the easier for all.
1. XDA users sometimes install through a blocking firewall. The trick is always to run the XDA the once as Admin.
2. The next check is whether you can see the Online Content Catalogue - try https://downloadsv18.xara.com/web/catalog/index.html - this is a look-see, not a solution.
3. The final one is the right-click pick of 'Download All' on the blue folders in the Local Designs gallery. This saves all your paid-for content, templates and widgets to a local cache.
4. The second final one is none of the Magix Update Now nags will actually work. You will still get them so now is the time to stop them nagging as covers in earlier threads.
I jumped ship from Magix to subscription Xara quite a time back and have never regretted it.
If I had not and was sitting with a live v19 with no application updates, I would be shouting for a refund from Magix. It sold you the product and whether it or Xara ultimately coughs up is immaterial.
Get your XDA OCC fixed and stick with that. The better option, that does cost, is to go subscription.
Acorn
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Hi Acorn,
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Acorn
Steve, no one should be left to drift. Contact Xara who will get it sorted for you. The more information you provide, the easier for all.
1. XDA users sometimes install through a blocking firewall. The trick is always to run the XDA the once as Admin.
2. The next check is whether you can see the Online Content Catalogue - try
https://downloadsv18.xara.com/web/catalog/index.html - this is a look-see, not a solution.
3. The final one is the right-click pick of 'Download All' on the blue folders in the Local Designs gallery. This saves all your paid-for content, templates and widgets to a local cache.
4. The second final one is none of the Magix Update Now nags will actually work. You will still get them so now is the time to stop them nagging as covers in earlier threads.
I jumped ship from Magix to subscription Xara quite a time back and have never regretted it.
If I had not and was sitting with a live v19 with no application updates, I would be shouting for a refund from Magix. It sold you the product and whether it or Xara ultimately coughs up is immaterial.
Get your XDA OCC fixed and stick with that. The better option, that does cost, is to go subscription.
Acorn
1. I don't think it's a problem with the firewall (Webroot Secure Anywhere) as I tried installing as admin with the firewall disabled.
2. Yes! I can see the catalogue that way.
3. You know, I've tried that several times in the past and always got an error message. But this time it worked!
4. Yes I noticed that.
I'm still considering the subscription version.
Thanks for your help. :-)
= Steve
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Quote:
Originally Posted by
stevegill
Hi Acorn,
1. I don't think it's a problem with the firewall (Webroot Secure Anywhere) as I tried installing as admin with the firewall disabled.
2. Yes! I can see the catalogue that way.
3. You know, I've tried that several times in the past and always got an error message. But this time it worked!
4. Yes I noticed that.
I'm still considering the subscription version.
Thanks for your help. :-)
= Steve
Hi Steve,
Acorn provided all the good, helpful tips. If you still continue to have trouble accessing the content catalog, then please contact us through the chat at www.xara.com or through the email form at www.xara.com/contact-us
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
There is a form at the bottom of the page for Magix users to get a discount from Xara here:
https://www.xara.com/welcome/
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Daniel
The £173 divided by two is still less than Magix's renewal was.
The obvious difference is that if you get sick of paying your renewal to Magix, you will still be able to use the application. If you stop paying your subscription to Xara, your software will stop working. So it's dead money that you will have to pay every year, year after year. OTOH, you could have chosen to update your Magix Designer Pro every second or third year without any problems so, in reality, you are much worse off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
handrawn
would you rather the company went out of business ?
I can't say I'd give a damn. For the longest time I bought every paid upgrade, even though 90% of it didn't interest me at all, out of loyalty to Xara and a desire to see it improve. That all ended when they handed it over to Magix and now it wouldn't bother me in the slightest if Xara went under tomorrow, except for the fact that I'd need to authorise any new installations down the line, which they have made as difficult as possible.
Anyway, I reverted to the last version I had on CD, Designer Pro X9, and I can hardly tell the difference between that and the last version I paid for (in 2020). There has been so little useful improvement to the product in the last 10-15 years that I just don't care any more. And there is no way I am going to a subscription model. It makes sense for corporate customers but not for hobbyists or freelancers.
It's not like Xara is an industry-standard product that I need to keep updated. I've been using it for 25 years or more now and I am yet to meet another professional who has even heard of it. This is literally true - I've been talking up Xara since 1998 or so and in all that time, working in motion graphics for film and television, I have never come across anyone who has heard of it. I could use any version I liked and it wouldn't matter to anyone but me because I will always have to export my work in a format that other people can use.
To be clear, I love Xara and it is just about the first application I install on any new computer I buy but I can't remember the last time there was a new feature I thought was worth having. Maybe Xara X, or X1? Sure, I use some of the new features now and then but I don't think I'd be any less productive on Xara X than on the latest version. It's a very mature product and I feel absolutely no need to keep it up to date any more, so there is no way I am going to pay a yearly subscription.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
hi there mr bones
my qestion was somewhat rehtorical but... if say xara did go out of business and their servers were no longer there to periodically confirm activation status, would the earlier versions still keep on working ?
as for the rest of it, I have versions 11 and 15.1 that I keep going back to, because xara changed things I would rather they had not [such as dropping the merge to single page on PDF import] I stopped at 18/19
there are other programs
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
That is the one issue we'd have but if they went out of business without changing the licensing system so we could keep using the applications, that would be a pretty low act.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
hypothetical, but if they went into administration it would be up to administrators as to whether there was a cost-benefit to creditors in doing such a thing... if, indeed, thay thought about it at all...
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
This is to summarise the state of play with the end of Magix delivery of Xara products:
- The Xara Desktop Application (XDA) comes as one in a range of Magix 'legacy' products or Xara Plus product.
- Magix XDAs are purchased and kept as license to use forever.
- Xara Plus XDAs are subscription-only at this present time. There is no indication whether a licensed standalone XDA will ever appear.
- Xara's logic will be simple:
- Only ever one XDA Plus version will be supported at any time. When you have a problem, Xara will advise you to ensure you are on the latest version before dealing with your problem.
- If you have a Magix problem, it will be recorded and advised if known or new. The only remedy on offer will be to go subscription if already fixed.
- New problems will be added to the backlog for Xara Plus only.
- Xara Cloud (XC) is even simpler - it is one master XDA hosted in the Cloud so only one version to maintain.
- Should XC ever approach Plus functionality then the XDA will die off.
- This is what you should do or have done with your Magix version:
- Download all of the folders in the Local Design gallery - store as Cache on your machine. Copy out onto external media as well.
- Install an allowed second copy on another machine or virtual machine to preserve your current version.
- Failure to do either impacts your access to the On-line Content Catalogue, which will expire, or you will revert to your purchased version.
- Always keep a licensed version activated. Always deactivate, never uninstall. Always keep your purchase email and XDA serial number recorded.
The rest is your decision on how you mainly use your XDA:
- Graphics - keep your Magix version running for as long as possible as very little has been added since v15; some would argue even earlier.
- DTP - use another product as Xara's offering is fine for small documents and flyers. As someone with technical authoring knowledge, I cry as to what could have been.
- Web - my personal focus. I get paid to build sites so I am considered a professional. As such, my clients would expect me to be current. This is good as equally, I would expect them to want theirs to be as current, requiring a maintenance provision.
- Even as a pensioner hobbyist, I would consider the cost of a yearly subscription to be paltry.
- Say you only have just one personal site or support a community site then the cost of a domain and monthly charges for a decent service provider is comparable.
- Now get someone to build and maintain your site or instead you use your XDA and factor the difference for the first build and all those changes you discover.
What should I get?
- Do Nothing - fine but eventually something will break or change.
- Buy Affinity - Designer, Publisher and or Photo - difficulty UI, middling support.
- Get free Xara Cloud - nothing to lose.
- Subscribe to Xara Plus XDA - when you stop, you can fall back to your working Magix XDA.
Xara is a business. You are a customer, not a client.
Acorn
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
I have every confidence in Charles & Kate Moir not leaving their last 20 years' worth of work high and dry should anything happen to them and/or their company.
I disagree with Bones that it's dead money that I pay year after year. Arguably that's what the money I paid to Affinity was for their PC and Mac programs, and their new v2 suite of all their programs - I never spent enough time learning them and only use them as a glorified batch converter to export HEIC photos to JPEG.
Xara Designer only has to save me four hours a year to pay for itself, and it comfortably does that. The subscription covers support too, something we didn't really have properly before. I'd love new non-web features and also stopped buying regular updates when it was money to Magix, but like Bones said, I like the idea of supporting Xara directly. I value time and work that people put into things - after all, I only have time and work to sell and people pay me!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BONES
For the longest time I bought every paid upgrade, even though 90% of it didn't interest me at all, out of loyalty to Xara and a desire to see it improve. That all ended when they handed it over to Magix and now it wouldn't bother me in the slightest if Xara went under tomorrow
I don't follow why it'd not bother you if post-Magix Xara went under tomorrow when you supported pre-Magix Xara. Before Magix the updates around that time seemed to be all about brushes and Photoshop plugins - I never used those. Magix-era updates seem to be all about webpage export - I don't use those either.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Acorn
Should XC ever approach Plus functionality
That seems... unlikely!
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
@Daniel, nicely put.
Acorn
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Quote:
have every confidence in Charles & Kate Moir not leaving their last 20 years' worth of work high and dry should anything happen to them and/or their company.
but Xara Gmbh is not their company; it is a venture capital based entity that followed on from Xara Group Ltd; what would happen if it went bust is a question I can only ask...
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
@daniel. Well put. I was on the web design upgrade train for the most part. Now every year I do the pro+sub. I receive my updates, and design pretty well everything I could ask for. I have Affinity photo and publisher.
Folks wanted Facebook headers and posts, along with Instagram bells and whistles and they have it. There’s lots going on behind the curtain with pro+. Worth every nickel to me. I can understand the Magix frustration; but one has to understand that companies, like us, evolve. When pro+ came around folks yelled it was Adobe. Well, it’s not. Affinity folks want a web program too.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
I am going to quietly and gently say that what bones [I understand] and me too are saying is that everyone now seems to think xara is a program for web design; once it was not.. those were the days
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
Yeah, that's a bit of a thing, isn't it? To be fair, i used to use it quite heavily for that purpose but my band abandoned our website a few years ago (in favour of Bandcamp and Facebook) so I no longer need those features. What really irked me, though, was the increasing focus on templates and clip-art galleries and all of that stuff I will never, ever use. These days Adobe seem to offer free access to Adobe Stock for professional subscribers, which makes Xara's efforts look completely amateurish. There were also a few little things that really peeved me, like the changes they made to the text toolbar that hid away features I use all the time (tracking).
Xara will always be my go-to, nothing else comes close for speed and workflow and after 25 years I know it like no other application I use. But I don't have nearly as much need for it these days as I used to. Mostly I use it for mundane things like word processing - keeping lists, writing out song lyrics, etc. The only creative use I put it to is making album artwork for my band and a couple of others on the same label as us.
Once upon a time, everyone I showed it to at work was amazed at what it could do - think about features we had 15-20 years ago that no other structured art package could match - but these days those things are commonplace so now people see it as some quaint little thing the old bloke in the corner uses. (That's me, I am more than twice the age of everyone else in my department, older than most of their parents.) Xara lost their technological edge years ago and I'm not sure what they can do to get it back. Without it, upgrading doesn't seem like a good way to spend my money and for the few hundred bucks I might make from it in a year, a subscription would be downright fiscally irresponsible. That's just the way it is, for better or worse.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
I have to say Xara+ now seems to be very focused on Real Estate website features. The ongoing premium to keep it alive is definitely not for me. XDP18/19 is good if you already have it and just want to do something quick, but I find trying to do fancy effects frustrating and I seldom need XDP's website features now, as BONES says, social media is easier.
Affinity Designer and Photo work excellently together and suit my personal way of working learnt from years using CorelDRAW. The Affinity apps start up promptly and don't have the constant threat of huge delays or failing to proceed like anything linked back to Magix. XDP18 and 19 do handle PDFs extremely well, but so do Affinity Designer and a slew of PDF editors.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
I have both Designer and Photo and I really hate them. Photo is even clunkier than Photoshop, which I wouldn't have thought possible. I also have issues with it when exporting images - I often get white rectangles of varying sizes randomly placed in the image, kind of like it was doing bucket processing - where the image is split into smaller areas which are processed separately, usually sent to different CPU cores/threads - and some of the buckets didn't give a result.
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Re: Sad update for users of the perpetual licence of Designer Pro X19
I've certainly had annoying thin white borders appear on edited pics in XDP, but no 'unwanteds' in Affinity. They'd likely jump on that and find the cause if you send them samples. Might be a RAM or graphics driver issue. Mostly I keep my edits simple, but when I do use clever effects in Affinity they work well. Bringing in photos, adding graphics and text into the Affinity apps, resizing them, changing transparency, selecting borders, etc. all work so much better than XDP because the handles and borders and control points all stay visible and the effects just work without crashing. I love that. XDP was very nice for me back in v11, but they kept messing about with the UI and Magix became intrusive.
I know what you mean about buckets - I recently sampled a picture resolution enhancer from Nero. The online version works fairly well, but results from the installed app are nowhere near as visually impressive and as you describe, it writes new files out from a matrix of little blocks... really s.l.o.w.l.y!