Xara on Mac OS X - another topic for 2012?

So, here we are half way through 2012. And about time somebody made another request for Xara to bring Designer to Mac OS X. :)

Let's recap...

Xara Designer Pro X, or Xara 8.1.2 has just been released.

Mac OS X 10.8 has just been released to critical acclaim only one year after Mac OS X 10.7

The Mac App Store continues it's rapid ascent, just passing the 10,000 app mark.
In January 2011, the Pixelmator bitmap graphics software passed the $1m gross mark.

But, as they say in France, the more things change the more they stay the same...

There is still no decent vector graphics editor on Mac OS X.

Two former classics are now both dead: Freehand and Expression.

Forget Illustrator; forget Fireworks, ZeusDraw, Intaglio, EasyDraw, VectorDesigner, iDraw, LineForm, Inkscape. They all get it wrong.

Perhaps the closest match to Xara would be Sketch, which recently won an Apple Design award for its interface. It is a good interface, but still not as easy to use as Xara. And it lacks a number of tools and features.

So, I am still using Xara in VMware Fusion. Most things work "fine" but there is a lot of jumping through hoops - PDF creation, printing, font duplication and so on. I dream of a native version and how much easier my life would be with all the benefits it would bring.

Which brings me to the question: what are Xara, or Magix, waiting for? At what point will Mac OS X become a market worth going after?

Personally, I think that point was the launch of the Mac App Store, January 2011. We're 18 months down the line now and if anybody had any doubts in the Mac App Store being a viable method of publishing, those are surely now laid to rest. There a market here ripe for the picking.

I look forward to any thoughts.

Thanks for reading.
matt

Matt

You are flogging an expired equine. :-)

I probably gave the same answer the last time you brought this up.

Xara has very limited development resources and I would expect them to focus on their primary market, Windows users.

Adobe has the Mac pretty much sewed up with very little competition.

Several years back CorelDRAW tried to get into the Mac market and after a few unsuccessful years dropped their Mac project.

Xara would argue that you can run Xara under a Windows simulator.

I already run it that way, Gary. It is "fine", but it could be a lot better.

This is my first thread about this, though I have posted my support and thoughts in the many other threads that exist on the topic.

There are lots of other ways of getting the app native, other than porting the whole thing over line by line as was attempted with the Linux version...

Xara could team up with Crossover, and use their software to run the app. You can already use it with that software, but there are a few rough edges (no font support, graphical glitches) that could be cleaned up with fairly minimal investment. Of course, that would still be the Windows version but it would be a start at bringing things over.

Or they could talk to VMware, Parallels or Oracle/VirtualBox and offer a "recommended solution" for running it on Mac OS X, that could be shipped with the software?

Anyway, has there ever been an official response on this?

matt

There were a few 'official' responses to the question between 2000 and 2005. Essentially the same as the one Gary mentioned. The number of man hours required to create a native Mac version is too high. The Xara Group Ltd. development staff is dedicated full time to the Windows application and cannot be spared to work on a version for a different OS.

Between 2005 and 2007 there was an open source project but few Linux and Mac developers participated.

So if they have the resources/funding for a Linux version, why not mac?

And please don't compare this to Corel's attempt. They can't seem to get anything right over there. :p

The Linux (Xara LX) project was terminated in 2007, very old news I'm afraid. There was hope that Apple developers would use the same open source code to develop a version because Linux and OS X are Unix like operating systems. Unfortunately 3rd party developers did not embrace the project.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tekarts

So if they have the resources/funding for a Linux version, why not mac?

And please don't compare this to Corel's attempt. They can't seem to get anything right over there. :p

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corel painter 12 is 'right' ;) just saying...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

corel painter 12 is 'right' ;) just saying...

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Right, I had made that observation as well. It is interesting what programs companies' decide to give attention to.

As mentioned above, since Adobe pretty much has the market on Macs, why not go in there and knock them down a bit. I guess neither Xara or Corel are big enough for that. Or maybe Adobe is just that good. I have to tell you, when I do freelance work for companies or sell stock, I stick to Adobe products and my customers expect it. That is just the way it is.

It's pretty bad too when you have software like Gimp and Inkscape which is some ways blows these other guys away. Especially the cost. :D

Enough said I guess. Not like we haven't all talk this stuff to death in the past.

in painter corel have a program no one else has - nuf said

Geeze, and I thought I was done here. ;)

Photoshop is the original digital "painting" tool. Have you tried Artrage? I LOVE that program. They have it for the iPad too. Oh geeze, that brings in a whole 'nother category....portable device apps. Hey maybe Xara......ah never mind.

you can paint in painter in a way that is as close to 'real' painting as you are likely to get

you cannot paint that way in photoshop

photoshop is not the original anything - painter [as fractel before corel took it over] has been around since the '90's too

if you think about it artrage is to painter what a bike is to a racing car

you have used it I assume?

I didn't think you'd take me so literally. :-)

Yup, used them all.

What is really funny to me is that we all talk like digital painting is like actual painting. lol

:) sorry, piont taken

[a digital airbrush is certainly easier to keep clean.. :D]

i think we should have a port of xara to beos and os2, just in case...
:p

mmm... as i understand, the true reason they stopped the xaralx development was because of Xara refusing to open source their graphics engine? i find that very logical and its a pity that devs wouldnt work in such a trully amazing application just because of purism sake.

On the other hand, Xara fails to recognize the potencial market in linux (or mac for that matter), whose users have proved more than needed their willingness to PAY for software whilst over on windoze they prefer to just "crack it". how many graphics designers actually buy the adobe or corel thing? just [mostly] companies do, if they ever.

I run Xara Designer on Virtualbox when i need to use the 3d/extrude tool. It amazes me every single time. Every single time i think "damn it Xara.. if only.." I also try not to use it cause i might fall back in and go back to windows.. just to run it :p