OS1

To be fair, Corel's AfterShot is still available for Linux

It's not a question of daring. I've filed, and had fixed, issues with LibreOffice and other open source projects. I've not seen a bug reporting site for Microsoft products, maybe I've not looked hard enough or maybe they're just not interested in that bothersome lot the general public.

I've been using Linux since RedHat 5.2 and ejected WinDOS for home use when they went anal about licensing with XP. My work laptop has been purely Linux for the past 12 years, and on and off for 5 years before that. We currently have one laptop where Linux doesn't support the webcam and another where Win 10 no longer supports the webcam. However, we have many more laptops that won't get a look in for Win 11, but they'll happily run Ubuntu 21.10. I've had to rescue many more WinDOS installs using Linux than the other way around. It's very jarring when I have an IT support task on a WinDOS machine, the clunky UI, the constant disk thrashing and the unfathomable settings! I installed a Linux WinDOS look a like on an old i3 laptop for video conferencing and just left it in the conference room, no one even realised it wasn't WinDOS! I thought there'd be howls of indignation, but there was nothing. That's the laptop where Win 10 no longer supports the webcam and one of the ones which won't get Win 11, but it'll happily run the latest Ubuntu complete with webcam. Fans of any OS will happily throw mud at other OSes, without bothering to get to grips with the other OSes. There are plenty of foibles in Linux, and which ever desktop you run on it, there are plenty in macOS, but there are also plenty in WinDOS.

That looks pretty much like Plasma with a theme, an icon set and an alternative dock. No effort required really, theming is fun and easy in Linux, and there's hundreds to choose from!

Porting is the crux. Forward thinkers had an eye on cross platform support from the get go, I suspect Serif did not. Unfortunately large studios are more likely to develop their own solutions that fit their precise need than pour money in to a third party who may, or may not, succeed in making a product that ends up on your platform and exactly fits your need.

I asked that and I think the basic answer is choice of UI toolkit, i.e. it's not based on a cross platform one, and also the varied graphics card support. In contrast look at Corel's AfterShot, based on the cross platform Bibble it supports Linux, macOS and even Windows! 🙂 and generally has no issues with graphics card support.

While I would concur that there is a lack of will on the part of Serif to produce a Linux version you should never underestimate the work involved in un-intertwining the mess of business logic and UI code that many large apps end up with. A distinct advantage that AfterShot has is that it used a cross platform UI toolkit from the get go and as a result they offer Linux. macOS and even a Windows version.

In theory maybe, in practice very different UI toolkits. Much depends on how good Serif have been in separating the UI from from the logic.

Please don't overlook Corel's AfterShot. Not as high hitting as PhotoShop but a decent contender for RAW processing and photo retouching.

For video editing there's loads of choice from DaVinci's Resolve down but for DTP and photo editing the options seem to be far more limited. Personally I can get by with Corel's AfterShot for RAW pre-processing and GIMP, but I am not a professional. This is a catch 22 situation.

Weren't Apple languishing at about 2% market share not so long ago? :-) Also this graph probably doesn't show Chromebooks but that would be yet another porting exercise! ** ducks and exits rapidly stage right **

The issue isn't really the money it's the support burden Serif would incur by transporting the app to yet another UI toolkit. (I know money is all wrapped up in that as well.) If like Babel, which is now Corel's AfterShot, or GIMP Affinity's products had been written with a cross platform UI toolkit from the start then most likely there would be a Linux version as well. But I suspect they are currently supporting two UI / OS versions and the buy in from the top for another one or to port to a cross platform UI toolkit just isn't there.

Serif has never been interested in Linux regardless of potential audience size. Like so many other products the scale of untangling the UI from the logic is probably just too big. When Corel bought the venerable old Bibble and turned it in to AfterShot it was already based on an open UI platform. No idea which one but delivering the cross platform executables is taken care of by simply compiling it on the different platforms against the same UI toolkit. I suspect if AfterShot even came close to appearing on Adobe's radar, or Serif for that matter. the idea of creating a Linux version wouldn't be feasible. Probably every platform's version would require maintaining independently, I suspect the maintenance of AfterShot is a lot easier.

And therein lies the problem! I doubt Corel would offer a Linux version of AfterShot if Bibble wasn't already cross platform when it acquired it.

I also would love to see Affinity or an equivalent on Linux. I've read quite a few messages on this forum and, not rising to the obvious trolls, WINE is not an option as it won't even run the installer. I'm currently creating an OS-X VirtualBox VM, as I have an OS-X license key, which may have more success. Has anyone tried Corel's AfterShot? They have native clients for OS-X, Linux and the other platform.