Goodbye Xara

[vkenner]

So, please; VKenner, stay! So please, Xara, keep in touch with you real users. And so please, all members of this forum, be loyal to your choice and this community. Help each other, give advice and let the software be what you are ...

Michael,

thank you for your words and your opinion on the development of Xara Designer.

I want to express it once more. My intention in my first post was not and is not to bitch against the software and absolutely not against the forum. I highly value and respect it's members and the way they discussed so many topics over the years.

But I wanted to state that I came to the conclusion that Designer is being developed in a direction that is not of interest for me right now. I emphasise that the original core of the program as a vector tool that also handels pixels is very good and I will keep using my version 11.

If Xara/Magix came to the conclusion that the current direction is the best way to reach new users and increase sales to pay the bills this is absolutely ok to do for them. I'm just not going along.

And that's exactly why I'm in this discussion here about leaving Xara, romancing Affinity Designer and frankly, some remarks that remind me more of brand loyalty or a bad marriage rather than a designer picking out tools for an assignment.

Gary,

interesting you read my reference towards Affinity as romancing. Written word is so much open for interpretation. I decidedly mentioned this program because I want Xara to see that other developments by other companies are recognised by their own users.

And speaking of a bad marriage. Even if I like the program the lack of development (with vector tools) over the last two years indeed made me feel a little frustrated. And thus you found a good metaphore for my decision to split up ;-)

All the best,

V.

[iamtheblues]

I make a conscious effort to avoid contentious threads, or those which could potentially fall into that category. This one hasn't gone that way...yet, so before it does,
I'd like to say that the Super Moderator (Floating) writes a lot of common sense about Xara and brand loyalty in general. Like Gary, I tend to pick Xara Designer from my toolbox as first choice,
no matter what the project might be. Alongside Xara I'd also use CorelDraw, Illustrator and Inkscape, if I feel that something can be accomplished more easily with the tools that Xara doesn't have.
The way things are now with varying subscription models, which I abhor, I shall more than likely stick with the version numbers of most of the graphic software I own and only upgrade if a must-have feature appears in a newer version of any of the above-mentioned.
With the addition of Affinity for Windows there seems to be a shift in my perspective. Whilst it isn't perfect, it is cheap, and with my future finances being unknowable with Britain's exit from the EU, as a Spanish resident, I will have to rein in the horses of expenditure for the foreseeable future, so Affinity may be the way forward for me.
Of course, this doesn't mean that I have to forsake the software I already have. Between them all I've got a lot of choice. But gone are the days of anticipating the next Xara or Illustrator releases, the cost is unjustifiable to me (and the subscription models just too complicated to bother with). But at around €50 or so, Affinity is cheap and if the version improvements are tempting, I shan't sweat too much at splashing out for a new version.
Bob.