xara.com getting even further from the Xara DEsigner products?

[JJJayhawk]

David, that is a good choice.

I bit the bullet, took the $99 I had originally spent on Xara via Steam (which I refunded), and contributed it to a purchase of a boxed copy of CorelDraw 2018. It was purchased from Canada, so in American money, it's a heck of a lot cheaper. I know it's a good program, similar to Xara, but it has a built in clip-art library in the boxed version and is being supported by the company.

I also like Affinity a lot, own it for mac and pc, and I think you've made a great choice. It's not as mature as Xara or CorelDraw, but it is really well supported by the company and I look forward to future Affinity products.

I do love Xara's ease of use and am continuing to use v. 12, but I can't build my business around a toolset that I can't rely on and I can't support a company that only leases bug patches. Corel and Affinity patches are permanently available. Hard drives come and go, software needs to be reinstalled on occasion and good customers shouldn't be punished for that.

[Daver1]

David, that is a good choice.

I bit the bullet, took the $99 I had originally spent on Xara via Steam (which I refunded), and contributed it to a purchase of a boxed copy of CorelDraw 2018. It was purchased from Canada, so in American money, it's a heck of a lot cheaper. I know it's a good program, similar to Xara, but it has a built in clip-art library in the boxed version and is being supported by the company.

I also like Affinity a lot, own it for mac and pc, and I think you've made a great choice. It's not as mature as Xara or CorelDraw, but it is really well supported by the company and I look forward to future Affinity products.

I do love Xara's ease of use and am continuing to use v. 12, but I can't build my business around a toolset that I can't rely on and I can't support a company that only leases bug patches. Corel and Affinity patches are permanently available. Hard drives come and go, software needs to be reinstalled on occasion and good customers shouldn't be punished for that.

I agree there should be no leasing of updates.

[Daver1]

A while back I was recommending Affinity Designer and Photo.. Good program. Companies today need to start listening to their customers and stop going cloud crazy.. It's a dead end. No one wants the cloud for their programs.. Clouds might be good for spying but they are not good for peoples programs..

[handrawn]

but a lot of customers do want cloud based services - in general terms they tend to be the younger generation[s] maybe, but they are there... the question is, will Xara make a success of it in the face of the competition... ?

I use cloud for all sorts of things from google maps to acronis backup - I don't want to use it for design work... but say in studio animation, which is done by lots of people in lots of different locations, cloud is an important tool

[haakoo]

Uhm,call them all stupid https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/04/t...oud-is-coming/

[webmaster]

I think we've reached time-out for this thread, since we've long since strayed from the original question (summary: why can't I find the desktop products on xara.com - answer because Magix now handle sales and distribution, see http://www.xara.com/uk/press/2017-10-23/).

However whether the cloud has a future or is a passing trend sounds like a great subject for off-topic!

Kate Moir