I've never been so impressed by a commercial software application in terms of bang for the buck that it seemed only right to proclaim *why* I bought it let alone happily paid RETAIL for it.

I first heard about Xara when I came across it as a featured download using Automatix on Linux Ubuntu. After trying it out I was impressed, all things considered given it's beta-like state.

I wanted to know more about this company that donated such a quality application to the Linux community. I had never heard of Xara, and after doing a bit of google here and there, I downloaded the trial edition for Windows XP.

I made all 30 days of the Windows XP trial edition count. It was probably one of the most productive 30 days I had all year in terms of collateral development. What an awesome, impossible to describe application. And friggin FAST at everything it does.

So I bought it. I wish it cost less, but even at $249 it was a decent deal compared to some of the other monsters with horrible customer service I've been compelled to buy.

I don't know if the Linux version was intended to operate as a sales generator for the commercial Windows version, but if that was the idea - in my case it worked.

Cheers.