I haven't used Scribus or Xara for a while. I do have a lot of files in Xara and I'm worried I might lose access to them at some point due to previous version licensing / serial stuff. I just don't know what to think when I've had trouble installing in the past. But it looks like at least Scribus can open .XAR files. I opened a file that I would say was ehh moderate, not too simple, not too complex. Had embedded images, line art and text. Well it opened and the objects orientation and location seemed intact. embeds seemed fine. It just opened with File > Open. No special import or anything. I did NOT try exporting or sharing files backwards. If it doesn't save back to .xar, I bet pdf or another suitable file will share ok in a pinch. This is good because Scribus will be around indefinitely even if somebody loses access to Xara and thus their historical work.

I read about the update on a linux or libre software blog. Here's a mention about Scribus 1.6 and it mentions xara files there too. https://9to5linux.com/scribus-1-6-op...a-major-update