Hi,
I just got (another?) email from Xara - the one as above, from Ana... it's most confusing, even despite having a text-chat with Xara several weeks ago...
They offered me the 50% life-time discount. When I pointed out that I had only just renewed the annual update-service (just for WebDesigner) with Magix, Xara offered me 16 weeks extension for free. OK, not bad, but they'd based their math on the full cost, thus halving the free extension period! (It's not a huge amount of money, but the principal is core to building trust). I asked about the Magix/Xara relationship, the future plans, bug reporting, fixing etc, etc. - none of that was answered.
The only thing that I was tempted by, was that support (for Pro+, inc WebDesigner) was with Xara directly, seemed to be better, and has a UK office (I think, if I recall correctly??). Just the improved support alone is tempting. I have spent many, many hours collecting screenshots, reporting bugs, fathoming a work-around etc, for Magix support (by email). Quite often a response comes many days later (in the middle of a project - not good), and often with an initial response of either 'its supposed to do that' or 'please send more information' (to which I usually respond with "see my 3rd email already sent" or similar!! Grrh). Not that I blame the support staff!
I am more than happy (addicted?) to collecting info to help solve a bug that leads to a fix. But when it mostly seems to fall on deaf ears...
The Pro+ web/collaborative aspects could also be great - to smooth working on web pages with remote clients, but that needed me to assess by use of trial software... and I've put that on the back-burner for now...
Overall, the key factors (for users and their clients) is the long-term strategy for the software, support and training/learning options (I've found the help to be somewhat 'all over the place', but perhaps I am expecting too much!?)
The Magix-supplied WebDesigner is still powerful software, but the 'querks' made it a horrid experience on occassions, especially when they're so obvious and probably relatively simple to fix in code. Let's hope Xara find their way.
Cheers
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