Q:WinXP Users, will Xara stop being "sold" and be all OpenSource for Win soon?

[marcus_u]

Hi,

Will we no longer have to buy upgrades? Even WinXP (or whatever the next OS is)

Is Xara on the verge of becoming like OpenOffice.org? Free forever?

Thanks,
~Marcus

[michaelward]

As I understand it we will probably get to a point where there is a free version of Xara for Windows, but it is also likely that there will be a paid for 'premium' version that contains features that Xara have to pay a licensing fee for (think pantone colour support, pay-for plugins, etc.)

Seeing as Xara is giving away a full version of Xara XS on some uk magazine cover discs this month then I shouldn't be too far off the mark

[amoore]

Seeing as Xara is giving away a full version of Xara XS on some uk magazine cover discs this month then I shouldn't be too far off the mark

What exactly is "Xara XS"? I've been trying to sort that out since I first saw the reference.

[michaelward]

It seems to be a cut down version of Xtreme (as there is an upgrade path) - but I will take a look this luch time and find out.

[Charles Moir]

Xara XS is a cut-down version of Xara Xtreme and you can obtain it for free from the cover-mount CDs from some UK and I believe some foreign magazines. It is not time limited demo, but is a fully functional drawing program, that's just missing some of the more recent Xara features.

Our plan is to provide versions covering the a wide price spectrum, from free, upwards, on all platforms. It's possible that some future variants will costs more than the current $79 retail price of Xara Xtreme.

And this will likely include the Linux platform as well, where there is a free open source version available already, but we expect one day to provide premium versions as well that contain closed source components as Michael has mentioned. A classic example of this is the PDF exporting capability. This requires a closed-source third party component that we license and so versions that contain this PDF export feature will always cost money.

So you will be able to choose your price point. But to get the latest, most feature-full, supported versions, there will always be a premium to pay for that.

[michaelward]

That clears that up - thankyou Charles.

[outofspacero]

my question is when will the new premium version arrive?
I mean oviously you are working a lot on the open source ports of xara xtreme, but are you still working on a side on a more enhanced version of xtreme?
i mean this program is awsome but there are still so many gaps that could be filled, like better text handleling, dpt style functions, multipage suport.. will stuff like this be seen in the next xtreme version around this time next year? I mean as xara became opensource, i really expected for modules to have been attach to xtreme already, knowing that a lot of people from the forum were waiting to develop some new features for the program, and yet no news on that or on further development.
Nowadays everybody is giving a sneak peak of upcoming features, maybe one or two, like indesign is with it's cs3 development or even photoshop, so i guess some little info from the president of the company could at least make some xtreme users exited on upcoming releases.
Just a though,
David

[amoore]

Xara XS is a cut-down version of Xara Xtreme...

Thanks, Charles. I've passed the info on.

Allison