I'm quite happy with Xara X as it now is and am not really sweating the lack of an update.

Xara hasn't crashed on me in months. I find it a dependable old friend and a joy to spend time with. I must admit I predominantly use the older features and find them extremely flexible. Of the 'new' features I really like the profiles, drop shadows, contours, and bevels; but, I never use the names gallery and I rarely use brushes. (That means I still have functionalities to explore and learn to use effectively).

I've been a Xara user since version one of CorelXara. In that time I've never needed to contact their technical support. I suspect that relative to software manufactures, Xara gets very few requests for technical assistance relating to Xara X. If the phone was ringing off the hook (costing them $$$) with bug-related issues they would likely have a higher priority to fix those they know about.

I suspect Xara X isn't a high priority at the Xara mansion. If you think it should be - put yourself in their shoes. Think of any new development work on Xara X as a serious financial investment - they must pay programmers for work which will bring in no new revenue for a year or two. How good an investment is it? Clearly they have to anticipate significant returns on that investment for it to be worth their while. Would a update that takes them two person years of development time provide adequate return on investment? I don't know.

If we really want to see them invest in making the product better, let's help them expand their sales. Tell people about Xara. Show them what you can do with it. (Xara encourages this with their generous XaraClub commissions). Maybe we should all be posting personal galleries at all those sites that willingly host them. That would greatly expand the numbers of people seeing what Xara can do. Perhaps some of them will discover Xara too. Such efforts on our part can only help keep Xara under development.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>