Im graduating with my BFA in graphic design in july. Ive become dissatisfied with adobe move to stop making perpetual license software. I own no creative software and am a blank slate so upgrading does not matter to me. Ive used adobe products mostly illstrator, photoshop and indesign for 10 years since high school. Ive done research on many companies and programs and my top picks are adobe, corel and xara. Suggest anything you think is a good replacement to adobe.

How does xara compare to adobe and its products? Im looking for a company that provides at least a few good alternatives to adobe. I know xara and corel can both import/export AI/PSD which only a few programs can do. I also like both companies web sites and the look of their products.

Im starting the xara trial version very soon. Can xara compete with illustrator, photoshop and indesign?

Corel looks like the next best to adobe but who knows maybe its Xara or some one else. Its harder to find information on xara than corel. Im asking around the forums of different companies to have customers give me honest feedback on their software. Tell me the good and bad about xara and other companies. Im not decided on who I will go with but it will not be adobe CC (cash cow). I have till july to make up my mind and want to see what companies do in next few months. New editions, offers, reacting to the market/customers and giving me a reason to look at them. Unless Corel and Xara have some epic fails i will probably switch to them but may still get a student edition (which is allowed for commercial use) of adobe design standard for 450$ as a back up or expensive file converter and get the best of both worlds but would prefer not to. Many have sworn to use CS6 till it dies so probably the next 1-3 years.