Xara on the rocks.

This represents my present feeling towards Xara software and reading through the forums over the past few months I believe it represents their views too.

• Views expressed within TG re the future of Xara go unanswered by the great and the good
• Desktop version updates are playing a very lowly second fiddle to Xara Cloud if any place in the orchestra at all.
• Xara Cloud is NOT graphic software but an entirely different, expensive beast.
• Updates have been delayed for months.
• Now we are having censorship if we post any detrimental statements re our opinion of the direction Xara is headed with threads being closed.
• I would like to think mine is a voice in the wilderness but from TG's post it's an unanswered scream of despair.
• Features are added half-cocked and then further development abandoned.
• etc. etc etc. ad infinitum

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Image Source http://oddstuffmagazine.com/storm-and-lonely-lighthouse-by-marina-cano.html/attachment/92941

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+1 Egg =D> I have no intention of upgrading my P&GD 11 because as pointed out in another thread, it's cheaper to buy a complete new version( that's if one is ever sorted out and fixed) when needed than paying for what they term an update service! As far as I am concerned the whole scenario for desktop versions are becoming an endangered species. I will wait and see but don't have much faith in Magix, I regret the day they got hold of Xara.

Stygg

+1

Have you noticed that the announcement wasn't made in the announcement section.
Guess they aren't that proud anymore

Chin-up chaps! At least a value can now be added for margin padding ;)

I agree there's not a lot in the latest update to get massively excited about, but at least there are a few things (crumbs!) to keep it going. Let's hope some of the bugs have been ironed out - and no new ones added!

what is margin padding?

take a product and sell it for x
take the same tired and outdated product, tell people it's super improved
now you can sell it for x+25%
you make a bigger margin
margin padding

rotflmao

@stygg2003

I see no evidence of Magix interfering with the development of Xara; even Xara says that they themselves are responsible for development of their products. Magix simply now does the marketing and distribution, which makes sense to me. The recent problem where Magix sent back Xara 15.1 was undoubtedly because Magix found problems with it, not because of anything that Magix did. If Magix had not done this, we probably would have been the ones complaining.

On the other hand, maybe Magix had some influence with getting Xara Cloud going, maybe not. I see Xara Cloud as an opportunity for Xara to find a new market for the content that they already have. Magix has done a similar thing with MusicMaker and now ACID (and even Movie Edit Pro) in that they have repackaged old (and new) Soundpool loops and sell them within the program. The base program is free, but you pay for both features and content, which is much more lucrative than the old model. Development has plateaued.

@Egg

I think that the basic problem is that we have not seen any "WOW" features added; a lot of nice to have, but no game changers. Is the message to Xara, please give us at least 2 new fantastic features per year, particularly in the graphics area, that have been requested many times? And keep the other features coming.

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Originally Posted by browj2

The recent problem where Magix sent back Xara 15.1 was undoubtedly because Magix found problems with it, not because of anything that Magix did.

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John, where did you get this snippet from?

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Originally Posted by browj2

I think that the basic problem is that we have not seen any "WOW" features added; a lot of nice to have, but no game changers. Is the message to Xara, please give us at least 2 new fantastic features per year, particularly in the graphics area, that have been requested many times? And keep the other features coming.

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No the basic problem is there is no engagement with Xara through TG at any meaningful level where any suggestions have been followed through.

Acorn

I read this into what Rob (I believe) indicated and that I am assuming that Xara (as indicated by Xara) is the one doing the programming of Xara, not Magix. Magix just creates the install package and does the distribution, does it not? However, Magix would also check that Xara works with their other products - Video Pro X, Movie Edit Pro and PhotoStory, and that, once installed, the program works properly (QC); if not, Magix would send it back to Xara. Logically, if the problem was on the Magix side, Magix would just fix it, not send it back to Xara. So, since the program was sent back to Xara, it had to be a Xara problem.

I seem to see a lot of Xara involvement in this forum, but I understand your point. Xara could be more proactive on the "Dear Xara" forum and narrow down the big requests to a couple that are doable in the near future, some for later, and those that they cannot do (and why not), along with engagement of the community. The problem will always be raising expectations and then failing to deliver with the next update/upgrade. Users become outraged. We don't know if Xara had more for this update that just wasn't finished in time. This happened with Vegas (now a Magix program) last year where the developers indicated that they were working on one particular main feature request (amongst others), raised expectations, and then because of technical problems, could not deliver it with the update. With the update, Vegas apologized, indicating that they ran into unforeseen problems but that rather than delay the update, decided to issue it without the new feature. Users were very disappointed. Sometimes you can't win.

Early this year, Magix opened a thread (in more than one language) requesting users to post their requests for new features for Video Pro X. There was a sizable list. Magix thanked everyone and closed the threads. A couple of months later, Magix sent out a survey to all users mainly about the type of new features they would like to see. It looked like they were looking for a sequencing of where to concentrate their efforts first, and which third party plugins to offer. One of the points on the survey (a long-standing request) showed up in a new release of Movie Edit Pro. We're still waiting eagerly for a new major update to Video Pro X (my 365 update service has expired and Magix has not requested payment to extend it, just like last year) and I'm still learning how to use the new features that have been introduced over the last year or so. Perhaps Xara could do the same, round up the requests and then send out a survey to ascertain the level of interest in each feature. Would this help? Just remember, they can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

And then, of course, deliver on some game-changing features.

Cheers John, it is refreshing to have a different perspective.

Acorn

Just to clarify on browj2's comments, he's mostly correct - we develop the codebase for Xara and hand over the code to Magix to produce the installers / market / sell. Whilst I don't want to push Magix under a bus, the delay in the previous patch was caused by problems with the installers on their side. I believe they have fixed whatever the issue is and further patches shouldn't see any delay from their side at least... hopefully.

Thanks
Rob

I stand corrected, the problem was not something with Xara but with the Magix installer. Rob, thanks for clarifying and confirming that Xara does the codebase, Magix, the installer.

:)

Just noticed the 40th update to Xara Cloud... Only in a relative short time. I actually played with it for a day. Might actually come in handy. If they don't cripple the free version over time.

40 updates... If we could only get anything close to that for Designer Pro. The flagship of this company! :(

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Originally Posted by dutchim

40 updates... If we could only get anything close to that for Designer Pro. The flagship of this company! :(

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... with outrageous update price!

And which is paying for this cloud experiment.

I still hold the opinion that even if a software isn't 100% exactly what you want and you still have to 'shell out' for another piece of software to do one specific thing now and then that this doesn't make an upgrade necessary or expected; I know my opinion is rather oldskool, but I look at software as 'what is it', rather than 'what is it and will there continue to be changes to it', especially if the version number is not 0.xxx. 1.0, 2.0, 3.1, etc. = DONE, don't expect anything more, learn this as it's own beast and that's how I typically approach using software. Unless it's still in development to get to a round version number above zero, software should just be 'finished'. I know this is antithesis for how businesses look at long term sustainability concerning revenues, but it ends up turning into solutionism with the only problem being 'how do we keep making money off of something that we've already completed?' My suggestion has always been 'significantly improve the software to warrant a new release or develop a whole new piece of software that solves another problem or fits another market niche'. As I said, though, my views are completely minority and I accept this (begrudgingly) but if the conversation comes up, I think it's still worth mentioning that upgrades used to cost more money for the company to release than now and it's become a crutch of sorts to create this addiction model that many software companies now operate under.

SEE: Lootboxes, DLC, etc. in the videogame industry to see how it can backfire horribly....



EDIT: also forgot to mention, nice work on that original photo edit...the lighting and texture is nice, but maybe the compositing could use a little more detail in blending into the photo. Very nice editorial graphic, though. :)