Hi,

i hope you can understand, what i like to say, because English is not my nativ language (I'm from Germany, if you like to know).

I agree with you: shame on them.

As long as not all players play by someone's rules, it's a unfair game.
I understand your point of view. You see a Company that have created a great kind of Software to make money with it. Thats ok. You also see that this Company like to share a big part of this software with the community, and thats a great Idea. This Company is worry about the posibillity, that they can't make money with their work in the future, if they give every part of this work free. It's ok.

But this is only the perspektiv from the Companies point of view!

Open source developners also like to share their work, but thei like to make their work free aviable for everyone. An yes, thats also ok. But if this Developners wort, for free, on xara xtreme, thei can't be shure that their work ist free aviable for everyone.

But it's not free for Windows users

But, as example, a future version of Linux can break the usability of the closed source component. Only the company have the control if they fix it or not. But companies and Managers can change.

You say, shame about them, because:
- They don't like to work on a Software for free, thats partly cloused Source

- They dont't like to work on a Software, that don't match their point of view what free software is.

- They don't like to work for free on this Software, cause the free linux edition, with his Work can be unuseble, if the company someday lost the interesst in a community edition.

- Under this conditions, they are not willing to work for free to make xara xtreme better, cause of the risk that, in some time, his free work is only aviable in a commercial, closed source product, and they have get no mony for it.

Opens Source developners are not the sklaves of a company. Many examples show, that a cooperation between a company and the community can be a win win situation. but only under conditions, that both sides can apply.

For example, open office is totaly free, but sun can make money with staroffice, it works.

The idea from xara was good, but you can't really think, that somewone have to work on xara for free, if the conditions don't match theire interrests.

Somewhere on this forum i read, some time ago, that the open source modell isn't fair. I think, thats wrong. Many Open Source Developners have get a Job, cause a Company like theire Work. Many of this Companies pay for Open Source Developners, cause they use theire software and like to help with money, to make this software better.

Open Source ist not better or lesser than closed source software. But the idea is a very different. Thats like "Share" against "Get". Both is ok, and in both systems many People can live from their work.

I hope you Guys can understand both sides, than we all can learn something for the future

Tarabaz