How do you feel about the 365 Program?

[charliescoffee]

I think this concept is just a way to put more money into Xara's pockets without providing any additional value to me. I greatly prefer the old way. I also generally updated yearly and I've been using Xara since the Corel days, probably more than 15 years ago. I don't mind Xara getting money, if they develop a product that's worth something they should get money for it. But I think that schemes who's only purpose is to line the pockets of Xara don't do the brand any good.

[handrawn]

In any event, your Xara program will continue to work whether you renew or not...

John what I am saying is this: if when the time comes I decide not to renew, and then I deactivate the program from one of my two computers because I want to put it on a third one [work/laptop/whatever], then I will lose, because it will revert on the third computer because that is a new install - right? - I can accept it may not revert if I put it back onto the original after my licence lapses - but that remains to be seen

in short, I would no longer have activations, in the state that I paid for, on any computers other than the two activated at the time my 365 licence lapses and this is a fundamental change from the way it used to be - ok, it is up to xara to licence the way they see fit - it is up to me, what I choose to do as a result

If this your main working tool

it isn't - it is still my main vector working tool, but I can do everything I need to do in the current version, and new vector tools are more likely to appear elsewhere - xara has other things to do it would appear

I agree it would be nice if some of the glitches were fixed, and to be fair the guys like Phil have always been very helpful, even up to the most recent issue over CPU usage in idle state and I'm grateful for this, of course I am - but stripping out the web and the photo tools, which respectively I never/rarely use, not much is left, and not much has changed for a long time

I can maybe justify supporting the development of tools I am likely to use, but not a program that is skewed the other way

P&G lacks customisable keys, it lacks multi-core processor support, it lacks a 64bit version; unless you are already used to it or know no better, it is going nowhere fast relative to it's competition - hopefully xara will prove me wrong by pulling rabbits out of hats PDQ; this also remains to be seen

Apologies then to GWP for diverging from the issue of the licence here and there, but it is all connected

Maybe cash-cow was too strong, maybe hostage to fortune is better

Without the latest version, I see real problems in being a useful member of a support forum

John, I literally lost the Thread. Apologies to you and Steve for the mix-up,
Acorn

no worries I do this sort of thing all the time ... Thanks..

[digitalphaser]

I am a member of some sofware forums.
Only here(talkgraphics) I meet some members who take any criticism of Xara as a personal offense. Guys, try not to be so nervous about it! We all love Xara.

It doesn't matter how much does it cost. Many do not want to finance useless features.

For two years I use CD. CD is not so convenient as XDP. But the amount of useful features suits me. When I feel that Xara goes in this direction, then I will start to fund it again. It's simple.

One more thing. Each new version should be stable. The stability of X11 does not convince me. Sorry.


Xara's user since 2004.

[Jonopen]

P&GD is supposed to have everything, except what has been mentioned as a few additional things in DPX that may or may not pertain to P&GD; it would be nice to know what those few additional features are. Maybe someone here knows.

Here's a link to Xara's comparison chart: http://www.xara.com/uk/designer-pro/compare/

This link can easily be overlooked depending on the width of your browser:

[handrawn]

as well as whats on the chart, the pro version has 'hidden' extras such as additional methods of selecting objects....

[hseiken]

I feel like Xara is already stretching the money they can get out of Xara with the various gimped versions of what is essentially one piece of software: Designer Pro. When compiling, I'm sure they have some flags set up in the code to include/exclude during compile time because they all operate essentially the same and in the end, it all fits into a single software...if they want to earn more money by recycling the same code, they need to expand to different platform and not adopt pay-to-stay policies of subscription and dlc micro-purchases that, in my opinion, are a plague of the modern industry. The shareware model was always fine by me. People complain about trials and such, but it's a necessary evil to 'rent' in order to see if you like the program. The problem I have is when a program is never owned, and you end up just renting it forever, because that's what a software subcription is; never own it, just rent it. I know Magix tried to say this was not the case, but in the end, if you lose access to part of hte value you paid into the program for (the library), then yes, it's very much still the same problem.

Personally, I'd love to see Xara breakaway from their tether to microsoft's OS. I know quite a few people who are not at all impressed by Illustrator and miss Freehand and found Xara to be a much better alternative: Problem is, they own a Mac and I don't blame them for not wanting anything to do with Windows. I know *I* don't want anything to do with windows and Xara is literally the only thing that keeps me in it. I think maybe Xara could request a little dividend for helping Microsoft to sell such a bloated, malfunctioning OS.

[katemoir]

Guys, it’s really disheartening to see you so negative. I realise many of you aren’t comfortable with the new model, but remember you do still have the option of upgrading only when you see enough features to tempt you (you’ll get a perpetual license to that version) then rejecting updates so you don’t get access to any of the stuff we release under the Update Service. That pretty much puts you back to where you were before. Yes, the Online Content Catalog will be turned off after 365 days, but for those of you that use the content you can install the templates off the DVD, which is included as standard in Pro and as an optional extra in PGD and WDP, and even download any new templates to your Local Designs Gallery, which will continue to run after the 365 days.

But for those of you who don’t want to wait a year for updates then you can now access the new features as we develop them. Just to clarify, Photo & Graphic Designer and Web Designer Premium have been updated twice since the initial 365 release, Designer Pro (the last to be released, in July 2016) only once so far.

What’s new in Designer Pro http://www.xara.com/designer-pro/whats-new/
What’s new in Web Designer http://www.xara.com/web-designer/whats-new/
What’s new in Photo & Graphic Designer http://www.xara.com/photo-graphic-designer/whats-new/ (the last update was a few days ago, so you might have missed it – if you work with photos check out the new photo filter pre-sets and overlays).

365 has had no significant impact on total revenue and neither did we expect it to. But it will smooth out the revenue over the year and, perhaps more important, smooth the load on our support and testing teams (not outsourced to India as someone suggested earlier in this thread, but provided in-house by Xara and Magix), which can only be good news for quality. I hope you’re already seeing the results of that in the greater stability of recent versions and faster turnaround in support.

I can’t answer all the individual points raised in this thread, but I hope I’ve touched on the main ones.

[mwenz]

...but remember you do still have the option of upgrading only when you see enough features to tempt you...then rejecting updates so you don’t get access to any of the stuff we release under the Update Service...

Kate, by rejecting updates does that therefore mean also bug patches are not going to be applied, or are those separate? And if separate, how are they indicated?

[katemoir]

The original idea was to patch the base version with any major fixes and you would be able to sign in to your account and download the patched base version there - but that has some problems that we didn't originally anticipate (should have looked more closely at the proposal from Magix!) so to be honest as of today I can't tell you how that will be done yet.

[mwenz]

OK. Thank you Kate.

In your original response you mentioned you were disappointed about the negativity. I hope that you can look at all this change from your customers' point of view and understand the frustration with the new scheme--which means we too are disappointed with the direction of Magix Tricks, Xara and how this is all playing out.

Even with an active license, there are continually hiccups with the content catalog and people are not able to access it. The content system is slow in use. And even when the stars are aligned and everything seems to work fine, one cannot really search the local designs anymore and in the end, none of us that are discontent really trust in something that has such issues.

It's one thing to have an installation revert to as purchased should/when the inevitable happens. It's quite another not to have bug fixes available that are seemingly outside the scope of the 365 thingy. So I hope this is resolved.

This whole scheme is akin to what Corel tried with its Premium subscription, which was a pay up front for early access scheme. It failed for them.

Best regards, Mike