Xara, Linux and Open Source

November 17th, 2006, by Rich.

I count myself lucky that I discovered Xara’s drawing tools many years ago.

When Xara Studio was released it caused real consternation among the businesses that were producing vector art packages because it was years ahead of the competition in both features and (most importantly) speed. The main competition (Corel) was so worried, that it licensed the product and released it alongside it’s flagship “Corel DRAW!” product.

It beats me how they’re going to keep paying the bills though…

Xara's Predecessor - Artworks on RISC OS

I had used Xara Studio’s predecessor (Artworks) on a friend’s computer so I knew Xara Studio would be good, and it’s reviews confirmed it. Artworks was released 15 years ago; way ahead of it’s time.

I also owned a copy of Impression Publisher, a DTP product of the same company and used it throughout my undergrad years for submitting assignments. So over the years Xara has done me proud, and they’ve taken some cash from my pockets for their efforts. I bought CorelXARA, and I upgraded as new releases became available: Xara X, then Xara X1.

The Artworks and Xara X1 Tools, with similarities highlighted.
Each upgrade costs costs money, and although each upgrade offers new capabilities or performance improvements, not all of the new capabilities are useful to all users. What is most surprising is that despite 15 years of development, the basic toolset of X1 is remarkably similar that of Artworks in 1991. By no means is this a story of “money for old rope”; it’s more an example of brilliant user interface design from the outset.

Open Source Xara

Last year Xara released the source code to Xara Xtreme under the GNU Public License, which means anyone can download the source, build the software, and use it, or change it -all free of charge. I’ve experienced this from the inside, having once worked for a company that open-sourced it’s flagship product, cutting its revenue by 50% overnight. Xara are in a slightly different position because they are still selling the Windows product, but giving it away on Linux. There must be a sustainable business model behind Xara’s open-source decision, but it’s not immediately obvious.

An Upgrade Quandary

I now find myself in the curious position of wondering whether to upgrade to the latest release, Xara Xtreme, or perhaps I should jump ship entirely and become a 100% Linux user. Xara is (or was) the last thing that’s keeping me on Windows. I now find myself wanting and needing to edit SVG images, but the windows version can’t do it, and crucially the linux version appears to have this capability.

To pay, or not to pay

So there’s now an imbalance:

I can pay for Xara Xtreme on Windows, or
I can switch to Linux and get it free, or
I can download the source code and build it for Windows (!), or
I can wait for someone else to build the GPL version for Windows and then download that.

There’s nothing in the GPL to prohibit the re-engineering or release of a free windows version, and Xara must know this. I suppose Xara might be making more money from their bells+whistles one-click-website software, so the decision to open-source Xara Xtreme may have been a strategic self-destruct move to exit a market that was becoming infiltrated by open-source competitors such as Inkscape. It was probably a sensible decision to quit whilst ahead, and maybe make a few final windows upgrade sales as the market dies.

This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about when I mentioned that I harbour concerns about the open source business model, there are times when it hurts companies (Xara has lost a revenue stream on a fantastic product) and there are times when it hurts consumers (because Linux users get the product freely, whilst Windows users pay $80 for it).

Goodbye Windows?

So, aside from:

code stability whilst the open-source version matures, and
a little performance loss (because generic code can never be as fast as platform specific code), and
a general good natured financial appreciation for Xara
and the aquaduct…

…I can’t find an obvious reason to pay for the Xara upgrade any more, and with Windows Vista around the corner, I think I’ve found my exit point from the world of Microsoft OS’s.

Ian Kershaw Says:
November 20th, 2006 at 10:55 am

You’re spot on with your description of Xara. It’s a tool I’ve spent real money on and find myself reaching for whenever I need a tidy diagram or simple drawing.

Be wary of ditching the Windows version for now. Whilst the open source product appears to be fully featured, according to a review it is missing some important parts, namely, Xara Picture Editor, brushes as well as the clipart and fonts (which I particularly find useful) as well as being less stable.

I think part of the strategy with open sourcing the product is that their Windows product will gain from any developments in the community.

Happy drawing!

Rich Says:
November 20th, 2006 at 11:34 am

Improvements to the released code made by third parties would have to be released under the GPL, because the original source is released under the GPL; this in turn would require Xara to release any future code as GPL - so if (when) there’s a nightly Windows build from the GPL sources the bottom will drop out of the market, won’t it?

Ian Kershaw Says:
November 21st, 2006 at 1:09 pm

GPL only applies to derived works. If they can keep some of the more powerful tools separate - say as plugins in a different code base altogether - then I see no reason why they should have to release that under GPL licence? Besides, GPL refers to programs not products and Xara is a combination of things including fonts and clipart* that they may have to licence anyway.

* I’m pretty sure they own the clipart after that competition they ran with Artworks. It explains why half the clipart is fanboy art of A5000’s. :-)

On a different topic, being able to load, edit and save native SVG format files would be very cool. Not least so I could exploit the Open Clipart Library

Rich Says:
November 21st, 2006 at 2:30 pm

There’s a nice Richard Stallman article which describes the power of the GPL to force the release of software, and the plugin issue is an interesting one. The GPL FAQ has this to say on the subject:

if the program dynamically links plug-ins, and they make function calls to each other and share data structures, we believe they form a single program … this means the plug-ins must be released under the GPL.

So it will depend on whether the plugins are integrated with the Camelot message passing system, or if they are stand alone and can be called via “main”.

Ian Kershaw Says:
November 21st, 2006 at 5:34 pm

Thanks for that link - I think my understanding of GPL was at best a little fuzzy so it was good to read it up. It’s certainly got me thinking and I found this article on apache.org

It says:-

One business model that may be profitable is to build closed source software based on open source projects. Even if these closed source products are based on open source software, they will still have all of the problems of closed source companies mentioned above. The main advantage of doing this is faster development times for the closed source software since the open source software can get the product most of the way there, and then added modules or extensions just fill in the missing pieces.

Customers of closed source products based on open source software have an added advantage of lower costs because most of the functionality is free and open source. The product is also likely to be more reliable because the developers will have community approved principles and methods to build their software on.

I suppose there are working business models out there of companies that make a profit from developing open source software - though the revenue comes from support, documentation, packaging, consulting, etc.

I personally think it’s a brave move and hope it brings greater success and proliferation for Xara.

P.S. What the hell is that icon you have chosen for my avatar? It looks like a plate of cat sick with a cherry on it!

Rich Says:
November 21st, 2006 at 5:57 pm

The avatar (lovingly edited in Xara X, natch’) is a plate of sliced flour, with a single remaining central column of flour, topped by a solitary Jelly Baby. It’s your penance for leading everybody in silly drinking games at our BBQ.

Ian Kershaw Says:
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:15 am

Oh that…. hehe :-p

Chris Samuel Says:
February 25th, 2007 at 11:19 pm

Don’t forget that as Xara are the copyright holders they can dual license the code quite happily under both GPL and proprietary licenses, just as MySQL do..

boakes.org