New development since going open source

**AntonM** · 14 February 2006, 01:08 AM

I'm enjoying Xtreme but I haven't seen anything special in terms of new developments mentioned in this forum since Xara went open source with Xtreme, although there have been a few hints here and there.

Is there another site where such information (or even "what's cooking") is available?

**jens g.r. benthien** · 14 February 2006, 08:08 AM

yes, here:

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=18493

**AntonM** · 19 February 2006, 05:18 PM

That thread discusses Linus and Mac OS, as far as I can see. That's encouraging if you are an Apple fan, or own one (and I do like Apple computers, having used and written programs for the Apple ][e way back in the '80s), or are a Linus fan (and I'm getting there too).

But I imagine that many of the rest of us, who still use Xara on Wintel PCs, were kinda looking forward to seeing some of the goodies hinted at when the (old?) forum was asked what its members didn't use Xara for, or what they'd like to see in it (where did those threads go?).

I realise that Rome was not built in a day, and Xara continues to be my all time favourite application. No doubt a lot of the programming brainpower is going into an Apple version and a Linux version, and that will obviously broaden the market, which is a good thing. But it would be comforting, and probably even exciting, to know what develeopments are in the wings for the existing platform, or not -- either way, we would al least know.

**pauland** · 20 February 2006, 08:47 AM

I think that I'm probably one of those luddites that can't see any benefit to Xara going open source at all - probably the opposite - lets hope I've got it completely wrong!

Paul

**jens g.r. benthien** · 20 February 2006, 09:32 AM

Paul,

Linux will gain more market share soon: with the new Windows version 'Vista' many of today's computers will be absolete, because graphic cards, bus widths etc don't meet the specs to run Vista. For example my laptop won't be able to run Vista with the fancy GUI, and I can't upgrade the graphic card. So I'll run Win XP Pro for a while and then switch to Linux. If you read the forums in Europe, there will be hundreds of thousands of users who will switch. For most of them it'll be easy, because they don't need an illustration package or CAD at all. And the rest of the applications - from spreadsheet to word processing to network technology - runs better on a Linux system. So if Xara will be available for Linux, it will boost the user base - like the packaging of CorelDraw in the early times of the Windows PCs.

In addition the open source model makes sense because a large coder community will jump in and develop new extensions or plug ins for Xara on the *nix side - which in turn will be included into the next Windows version as well.

Windows still has a hughe market share, but only in the US, CDN, Europe. In China, India, Far East, Africa, South America and even Spain the big shift towards Linux already is in progress, in Germany the government and the communities already switched to Linux.

Let's face it: if you would have to purchase the operating system separately, you'd think twice befor you'd spend some US$ 130 for a naked OS (Windows) or US$ 10 for an OS that comes with more than 4.000 applications (Linux).

just my two cents...

**pauland** · 20 February 2006, 09:55 AM

Interesting points, though I doubt many are ditching windows anytime soon.

I'm skeptical that many developers will jump towards open-source Xara and it seems to me that the implication is that Xara development is now being palmed off to the outside world. Where will the incentive really be to develop Xara further? Where will the 'vision' and direction of Xara as a product come from? Open source requires that interested parties co-operate together to produce an enhanced product. This requires co-ordination and commitment to a development community to work - it's not a case of getting development effort for nothing. I don't see any of that coming from Xara.

Xara is by far my favourite graphics software and I'm concerned about it's future.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I hope I'm wrong... ;-)

**gwpriester** · 20 February 2006, 12:33 PM

This was included in the monthly Xara Newsletter

Other Xara News: Xara at the Libre Graphics Meeting
Xara are co-sponsoring the first ever Open Source Libre Graphics Meeting in Lyon, France between March 17th - 19th. Apart from sponsoring the event, we'll be giving a presentation on Saturday 18th at 11.00, and there'll be a second opportunity on Sunday at 2.00pm to attend a more informal demo and discussion with the CEO, Charles Moir. That aside, Xara staff will be on hand throughout the 3 days to demo both the Windows and Linux versions of Xtreme and to answer any questions.

Entrance is free (of course!) so this is the perfect opportunity for anyone interested in graphics to meet developers working on creating free graphics solutions. Visit libregraphicsmeeting.org for further information on the meeting and xaraxtreme.org to find out more about Xara's Open Source initiative.

**pauland** · 20 February 2006, 01:19 PM

Well, maybe I'm doing Xara a disservice..

Bon chance Xara!

**pauland** · 20 February 2006, 01:55 PM

On a similar tack - as a software developer what would be likely to motivate me to work on Xara open source, I wonder?

**MEB** · 20 February 2006, 03:27 PM

Originally Posted by pauland

I think that I'm probably one of those luddites that can't see any benefit to Xara going open source at all - probably the opposite - lets hope I've got it completely wrong!

Paul

That´s exactly what i feel about all this.
I´m willing to know how can an open-sorce community join efforts to bring some advanced drawing tools to the program. This is not open office or firefox, the type of programs that everyones uses... It´s a specific tool for drawing, that requires a well organized and coordinated team of programers, working together in the same place, with the same goals and programing techniques to get an optimized and stable code. At least that´s what i think about it. Xara Xtreme is actually a great program with a lot of advanced features (interactive tools). The type of things the program needs to become better are even more advanced or complicated (an interactive gradient mesh tool for example). How will the open source community be able to develop something of this nature (keeping the same level of quality of the other interative tools (gradients, transparency tools etc)?

Like pauland i hope i´m completely wrong....!