On 3/17/06, Adib Taraben <taraben.a@...50...> wrote:

Hello,

I received an e-mail from the German Computer Magazine C't asking what is the progress with the XARA involvement and what is the impact/influence into Inkscape.

There are several interesting pages on the xaraextreme site, exempli gratia http://www.talkgraphics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=41

And also he wants to know if this is going into a competition between the two products.

My first reading took in 'Fusion der Projekte' which is not really a synonym for competition. This would seem to be still an open question.

I would recommend that you go by the two direct quotations from the Xara folk, but it is possible that there are other possibilities that are still under wraps.

From the Inkscape point of view, it is important to note that such code

that is in Inkscape and is GPL (pretty much all of it) will have exceptional life expectancy and survival characteristics. The same will ultimately be true of the Xara code whether the two projects merge or share personnel or do neither. This is never going to be a case of competition and the destruction of one or both projects.

Note that a big problem with drawing programs has been the use of proprietary and or non-interchangeable file formats and a number of once well known programs have simply disappeared:

Laserpaint Studio 8 Intellidraw (one of my favourites) xRes

which is an annoyance for anyone who used them and a major headache for anyone who relied on them. The same is about to happen to Fireworks and Freehand (anyone expect an Intel version of either). It very much behoves anyone in the drawing business to look to a GPL program for the next upgrade, and if that is really not possible, one which reads/writes SVG natively.

From the Inkscape point of view the big potential gains include:

* A new rendering engine * File format conversion * Colour matching

He is referring to the LIBRE-Meeting. Was anyone there?

See http://www.xaraxtreme.org/news/general_news/libre_graphics_meeting.html and there was at least one representative of Inkscape, See http://www.inkscape.org/archive.php?year=2006&month=02 (which is on the homepage at the time of writing).

I did not really read all the e-mail's about that. So can someone summarize this?

-------- Original-Nachricht -------- Betreff: Inkscape und Xara Xtreme Datum: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 13:44:28 +0100 Von: Peter König <pek@...883...> An: Adib Taraben <taraben.a@...50...>

Hallo,

leider nur aus der Ferne verfolge ich das Libre Graphics Meeting in Lyon. Besonders interessiert mich die Entwicklung in Sachen Open Source Xara Xtreme und Inkscape.

I am some way away from the Libre Graphics Meeting, but I am particularly interested in any developments on the Open Source front involving Xara and Inkscape

Nachdem Xara im vergangenen Jahr angekündigt hatte, den Code seiner Software für Linux und Mac freizugeben, kursierte meines Wissens nach die Vorstellung, dass die Communities von Xara und Inkscape eng zusammenarbeiten würden bzw. es eventuell sogar eine Fusion der Projekte geben würde.

After the announcement from Xara, it seemed that there would be close co-operation between the Inkscape community and Xara, and even that the two projects might merge.

Mich würde interessieren, ob sich die Lage inzwischen verändert hat, und wie das Xara-Projekt bei Ihnen in der Inkscape-Community mittlerweile gesehen wird. Denn von Xaras Webseiten entnehme ich, dass die Firma großes vorhat:

I would be interested to know how the situation has changed in this time and how you see each other. Looking at Xara's web page, they clearly have grandiose plans:

"Xara Xtreme on Linux will not only bring a leading-edge graphic tool to the platform, but with community assistance, has the potential to become the world's most powerful, easiest-to-use and simply the world's best graphics program."

Auf den Veranstaltungsseiten des Libre Graphics Meeting heißt es noch etwas direkter:

Speaking at the Libre Graphics Meeting they were even more direct:

"Xara's goal is simple: With the help of the open-source developer community they hope to create the fastest, most powerful, easiest to use, general purpose graphics tool for Linux (and Mac)."

Und das läuft doch in der Konsequenz auf eine direkte Konkurrenz zu Inkscape heraus, oder irre ich mich da? Über eine Einschätzung oder ein paar Hintergrundinformationen von Ihrer Seite würde ich mich freuen -- sie würden es mir ermöglichen, die Ankündigungen von Xara auf dem Libre Graphics Meeting etwas differenzierter in unserem Newsticker darzustellen.

Does this imply a competition with Inkscape? I would be grateful for any comments from Inkscape - it would mean I could present another aspect of this story.

Können Sie mir da - zeitnah - weiterhelfen?

Grateful for any timely help.

See above. It has always seemed to me that Xara would need to make careful plans if they were serious about world domination, and it is beginning to look as though this is how things will turn out. Information is trickling out onto this list and also on the Xara forums. It is possible that Xara could hire Inkscape developers, but this is hardly likely to work to Inkscape's disadvantage: Those individuals would probably work on both projects. I doubt that Charles would seek to impede Inkscape's development, but even if a dozen or so were hired away, Inkscape has over 50 committers and is one of the most healthy open source projects.

Personally, I think that it is early days yet and only good things will come out of Xara's moves. It seems that the first code drop took place in the past few days, and I for one will be downloading it and finding some time to compile it this weekend.

There are plenty of German speakers in Inkscape, and it is to be hoped that one will pipe up and fix any misinterpretations that I may have made.

Ben

A lot of that is still developing at the moment. Xara is set to give a presentation here tomorrow, and they also have another person coming out on Sunday. Once things settle down we'll probably be able to get more detailed information.

Up front, though, there are a few things I can mention. First is that Xara has several people there at the LGM, is showing what they have done so far, and have put out their source code. The other main thing is that several Inkscape people have already been spending time talking with the Xara folks, and plan to get more in this weekend.

That said, I think that the details of where the projects are going is a little up in the air at the moment. Xara's people have mainly been focusing on getting their port up and running solidly. So they haven't had as much time to look for the general areas for collaboration yet. One possible thing that differs between the projects at the moment is that Inkscape has been focused on being primarily an SVG editor, while Xara is looking at being a general art and illustration tool.

So in the near term both projects will be out there and running, with general cooperation and collaboration in mind. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll see a little more detail on things start to come out. However, my personal guess at the moment is that both Xara Xtreme and Inkscape will both be around for some time, with common parts becoming shared as make sense.

Watch for more details over the next few days.

On Friday, March 17, 2006, at 03:47 PM, Adib Taraben wrote:

Hello,

I received an e-mail from the german computer magazin asking what is the progress with the XARA involvement and what is the impact/influence into Inkscape. And also he want to know if this is going into a competition between the two products. He is refering the LIBRE-Meeting. Was there someone?

I did not really red all the e-mail's abaout that. So can someone summarize this?

Thanks,

Adib.