I just finished installing Ubuntu linux for future java development work and saw this:

http://www.xaraxtreme.org/faqs.html

That's impressive. For me CorelDraw > Xara > Illustrator > Inkscape (so far). Illustrator will continue to be my standard because, well, I own it and it is the standard. But I'll never do bezier editing until Adobe gets a clue about how awful and cumbersome its program is.

I certainly hope the Xara folks stay alive. That's a risky thing they're doing.