Thanks Acorn, you are a good arbitrator and ambassador for Xara.

I also feel a bond with Xara because of the investment in time, learning, enjoyment and artistic achievement I have had in past using P&GD.

Paying Magix around £25 a year for an upgrade (if I wanted to) was fine, but as an occasional user nowadays, even with a substantial discount, I can't justify taking out a subscription. If I made websites or did paid design work it might a different matter.

I do hope sometime in the future Xara will reconsider and release a non-subscription standalone version of P&GD. Maybe even a 'lite' version that doesn't compete too closely with their flagship "+" versions, but does have a few updates now and then. (that's the dream!).