[Graphics Software] Has anyone used Xara Xtreme? Particularly on Linux?

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starhawk

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Hey, bear with me on this, I've a bit of background to lay out, and I'm also something of a windbag. This will not be a short post with minimal detail!

So I'm thinking of moving to Linux... and for a long time I've "known" that the only graphics software that's really good over there is someone's little side project called The GIMP. (Your sarcasm detector is rightly going off.)

Problem is, although I'm something of an artist, I don't really dig the bitmap/raster stuff, and The GIMP is Photoshop For Linux Because Adobe Won't (although, The GIMP makes a little more sense to me). I've always used a Linux-less program called CorelDRAW. I currently have version 13 (CorelDRAW X3) on my XP install.

I refuse to use Wine to cater to companies that don't think Linux is significant. There was, BTW, a version of Corel 10 for Linux, but (a) it's rather a relic at this point, and (b) it doesn't matter since that copy has disappeared from the Intarwebs entirely as of some time ago.

So yesterday I trip across this --> http://xaraxtreme.org/ Someone else's little side project, porting the latest version of an apparently very well known and elderly line of graphics programs... to Linux. Xara Xtreme is something I've never heard of, but the interface /appears/ Corel-like (which is very good) and it certainly looks more capable than Inkscape (which is awesome, because Inkscape is basically MS Paint gone vector at this point, simply in terms of what it can and cannot do).

I'm going to try it out myself, but I want to know if anyone on here has used Xara Xtreme before, at all, either in Windows or in Linux. (Apparently Xara Xtreme predates Windows a bit, but I don't need to hear about that necessarily, since I'm not planning to run FreeDOS over here, nor am I porting CP/M to my Dell Inspiron 6400 ;) )

Whatever you can tell me is helpful.
 
OK, I give up. 202 views and not one reply. That's not a thread, it's an insult.

odoe, just close this, please -- I'm tired of looking at it.
 
To tell you the truth, this is the first time I've heard of Xara Xtreme. I would have to give it a try on my Linux partition some time and see how it compares to something like Adobe Illustrator.
 
Oh god, Illustrator. I fucking hate Illustrator. I've used it exactly once, and I hope never to do so again.

Here's the thing. The node tool in CorelDRAW, which lets you change the shape of curve objects -- it only works within one curve object at a time, by default (you can select multiple objects in X3 but it's pretty awkward). So if you do a marquee select (rectangle with dashed outlines) it only selects within that one object.

Illustrator, by default, marquee-selects FUCKING EVERYTHING in the box, on every layer ever. It makes me absolutely crazy. I'm consciously trying not to go insane right now as I'm just thinking about it. DEAR GOD WHY.

EDIT: ...oh, and they FUCKING HIDE the option to turn that behavior off. I'm told it's *somewhere* but I refuse to use that software long enough to find out how. It also fucks with the colors between Corel and AI. WTF.
 
I refuse to use Wine to cater to companies that don't think Linux is significant.
Click to expand...

because in the world that uses Adobe products, it is? OSX and Windows are the main markets, more so OSX even though it has no benefit for years now over windows variants.

GIMP is also nothing like photoshop, that is like comparing openoffice to MS office.

Unfortunately, this is the reality of wanting to use only linux...
 
Last version of MS office I used (2k or 2k3, don't remember) was actually a LOT like OpenOffice -- I still remember that the only two things I couldn't figure out at first were tabs and margins... and I'd gotten it figured in a couple hours.

TBH the only thing in OpenOffice/LibreOffice that I don't like is the presentation app -- Impress does not impress me. Or at least, it didn't two or three years ago, and I've not had reason to go back and check in with later versions.

GIMP is like what Photoshop would be if Photoshop made sense. I swear that Adobe used a random-number generator to decide the order/placement of tools in the Photoshop toolbox. I've never figured out the organizational scheme --if there is one to figure out at all-- and I've long since given up trying.

Also... if Linux is insignificant, why did I hear (somewhere...) that RedHat was the most popular OS for enterprise use ever, as of a year or two or three ago? If the big corporations use Linux, then it must not be insignificant to them!
 
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