How do you feel about the 365 Program?

[Jonopen]

...Wait until there is something that is useful [then upgrade]. This is basically the same as it was before...

Agree. If nothing significant is added through the year, then why change to the 365 marketing model? To me it just complicates and confuses things and make end users wonder what exactly they buying into. It seems to me Xara expecting extra sales from previous users with expired licences that have since bought new PCs or had a disk crash?

[handrawn]

... expecting extra sales from previous users with expired licences

maximise the revenue stream that was suggested when 365 was launched as I recall, like tying the program to a specific computer as in OEM OS

it is now 10 years to the week, quite possibly the day, since I joined TG - a lot has changed, a lot more must have changed since members such as Gary P joined the fore-runner of TG the name of which I forget

but I don't ever see Xara talking in advance about possible features [let alone public betas as serif are doing] - this 365 model will actually bring that into focus and exacerbate it should it really turn out to be a damp squid squib [actually I rather like the idea of a damp squid, that at least makes sense... ]

[browj2]

I believe that the main reason that Xara/Magix gave at the time was that it would help even out the revenue stream over the year, rather than having a huge spike of revenue when a new version came out. New users would have renewal dates one year from purchase, so this would work with new users. Existing users would likely have the anniversary date not longer after the date that the new version came out when the 365 program started, so there would be a spike. But it would be less pronounced over time, especially with those who would not renew at the anniversary date for whatever reason but wait until later. I can understand this, but Xara and Magix have to understand that their loyal customers expect useful new features during the year.

Here are a couple things that have gone wrong on the Magix side. In a patch for Movie Edit Pro (365), they forgot the update selection in the menu. If you have turned off the news button, you don't see the message, will not get a patch or new features, and you will be displeased and refuse to renew - you would never get any new features even if you did renew. For MusicMaker, Magix issued the 365 version in March of last year, I believe, with new features, and then came out with more new features and content in August. That was when I upgraded to the 365 version. Since then, Magix has released the following new "feature:"

"Customize your version of Music Maker Premium with more than 100 Soundpools, high-quality effects packages and over 20 software instruments. Log in to the Store directly within the program and add new content in a few clicks."

There is a tab for Instruments, one for Soundpools, and one for the Store. Under Store, you have all of the Soundpools and packages that Magix is trying to sell you. So the new feature that you got was more advertising for new content that you could buy. Really!

Imagine the cry of outrage from Xara users if the content that Xara added over the last year showed up adverts to purchase it.

As for me, my main use of Xara is making masks and graphical overlays for Magix Video Pro X (or Movie Edit Pro) by using the feature within the movie editor that opens Xara in animation mode and then brings the result back into the video editor. One can reopen the object from the video editor which opens Xara, to make changes. Almost works perfectly. I showed Magix 2 bugs several months ago that have not yet been fixed and it looks like they won't be: 1. Clicking on the button to return to the editor causes Xara to crash (not always the first instance, but happens consistently with the third instance). The work around is to use the menu of the upper right X. Stupid of Xara/Magix to not have fixed this. 2. Using an art brush brings a non-functioning XAR object into the movie editor. Trying to reopen it causes the movie editor to crash. Without a fix for these, there is no point for me to renew.

John

[Acorn]

If you don't renew, you are going to lose a lot more than you possibly imagine.

To check, switch off your Internet and try and build a site page.
Other than hunting through screeds of resource, you do not now have a Find utility.
Download all the resource you can and burn to a DVD.

Make a note of all the new updates following your purchase that you used to build, design and publish your signature site.
Editing thereafter won't work should your version roll back to the purchase date version you bought.
No Xara Publish so learn how to use Filezilla.

Acorn

[hseiken]

If you don't renew, you are going to lose a lot more than you possibly imagine.

To check, switch off your Internet and try and build a site page.
Other than hunting through screeds of resource, you do not now have a Find utility.
Download all the resource you can and burn to a DVD.

Make a note of all the new updates following your purchase that you used to build, design and publish your signature site.
Editing thereafter won't work should your version roll back to the purchase date version you bought.
No Xara Publish so learn how to use Filezilla.

Acorn

And this right here, these workarounds are why people are more and more moving away from Adobe. There's only so much people will put up with this. Someone will always be die hard and just stick to their favorite tool no matter how poopy the changes make them feel, but overall, just in the last couple of years, I've heard nothing but complaints about Adobe's business model affecting their workflow, breaking their files, corrupting aspects of their templates and all of this. Personally, I'm not really into the clip art, tho some of the clip shapes are useful, the more generic they are and lend themselves to edits (i.e. arrows and the like). But even this...again, why does this have to be hooked up to the internet and why is everything based on micropurchase, dlc and subscriptions? Why are we having to pay year round for software that we used to not have to do that, only to have to also pay in bandwidth and lost time for server downloads when it should already be localized?

As I said, Xara's engine stands head and shoulders above every other vector illustration tool out there. There's no contest in my book, even without new 'fangled' things like 'puppet warp' and grid transforms. Those are tricks, those aren't tools and Xara accells in tools and they're about to make that less and less obvious the more they bloat it out like they have been and combine that with subscription, what little market they have they can basically say bye bye to. People like me will start considering rolling back to older versions just to get around this mess altogether. I don't know how the full Designer Pro/Web Designer stuff deals with FTPs, but as you said...if I end up getting the full suite, if I know in the end if I don't upgrade I'm gonna lose the convenience, i might as well inconvenience myself now just to be used to it. So thanks for that heads up.

[browj2]

If you don't renew, you are going to lose a lot more than you possibly imagine.

To check, ......
No Xara Publish so learn how to use Filezilla.

Acorn

No Xara Publish? That is not a new feature that came out after purchasing XDPX(12 or 365). I expect to still be able to publish my web site as before and as I could in the previous versions. Do you have confirmation of this from Xara?

I received a DVD with XDPX (didn't we all?). I just did a reinstall of W10 and had to reinstall everything, so instead of the download version that I used last time, I used the DVD to install. All of the content that was available is now in my Local gallery. before the anniversary date, I will go and download everything that I may not have and probably won't ever use, and back it all up.

As for the websites, I haven't used anything that is new - only text updates. My Xara hosting will continue and I will pay for that next January (see my post about my problems with using the coupon).

So, for me, I don't foresee any real negative consequences of not upgrading. I rarely go into the on-line content as it is.

What else do you foresee as problems of not renewing?

[Acorn]

My bad, I meant no publish to a Xara-hosted location.
Sorry about getting the detail wrong but this is my point, until it happens, we are guessing what gets disconnected and what the impact will be.

On the DVD content, there was a period where not all of the business templates were provided at it overflowed the DVD size. I never got a DVD as I was an upgrade.

Acorn

[browj2]

My bad, I meant no publish to a Xara-hosted location.
Sorry about getting the detail wrong but this is my point, until it happens, we are guessing what gets disconnected and what the impact will be.

On the DVD content, there was a period where not all of the business templates were provided at it overflowed the DVD size. I never got a DVD as I was an upgrade.

Acorn

Hi,

I also upgraded each year starting with XDPX9, X10, X11 and X12, on-line, and each year Xara sent me a DVD, and with the exception of X12, a laminated shortcuts reference card. I don't recall paying an extra for this CD/DVD, it just came. However, each time I installed the downloaded version, except for the reinstall of last week.

As for hosting.Xara, if you have the free access, it will disappear. If you used the coupon that also gets you a web site domain (M website package) along with hosting.Xara, that remains for one year from activation, and then you either pay, or use a new coupon as I just did. Of course, if you don't renew your main subscription, there will be no free coupon for the M website package one-year subscription. I wonder if there will be a coupon for this even with a renewal.

The other thing lost will be the Premium access to the on-line Designer. Client editing should still continue, as it is free.

John