The 21 September edition of Computer Active ("the UK's best-selling computer mag" is how they describe themselves - www.computeractive.vnunet.com) has a group test of "Top drawing software".
The review is not too keen on Xara2 - or rather on Corel. It says "Corel bought the rights to market this program from a company called Xara, but the question we have to ask is why? Corel has never seriously promoted Xara and the only way to buy it is to download it from the web." ---bit about cost snipped --- "which would be a bargain if you didn't have to keep going back to the website for the fonts, fills and clipart you usually find on a program's CD-ROM."
It says that Xara has two great strengths - it runs smoothly even on slow processors and with limited memory. And it can save drawings as static or animated web graphics. The only serious weakness is the inability to create Adobe Acrobat files.
In conclusion they say that one should wait for the autumn release of Xara X - it has stacks of new features and will be available on CD-ROM.
No mention that the agreement with Corel is finished. But all in all they like Xara.