I sometimes show my students what Xara is capapble of. They are often impressed by its speed. Illustrator sucks and they all know that, but I can't whole heartedly recommend Xara to anyone until they resolve file format import and export issues.

It's unfortunate, because I'm in a good position to recommend Xara to people who could easily become die hard Xara users, but I want to spare them the file format nightmares that I have dealt with.

But Xara in the hands of anyone who knows how to use it will blow away people who are accustomed to Illustrator.