Vex

Steam is a particularly interesting option, IMO. Valve is very clearly committed to supporting Linux, and has put tremendous effort into parity between Linux and Mac/PC. While Valve has historically been focused on video games, this is no longer the case. This is evident by Valve's own actions, as they have promoted Steam as a full-featured app store alternative to the big guys across all desktop platforms.
This thread started in 2014, and a lot has happened since 2014, particularly in terms of Valve's contributions to Linux and WINE (their own flavor of WINE is called Proton). I just don't know enough about the technological blockers to WINE compatibility to have any realistic grasp of what might be required for compatibility. As I mentioned in one of my first contributions to this thread, my husband put in some actual effort, after finding an old bog post somewhere written by someone who got some old version of one of Affinity's products running (sort of) in Linux. We determined that there's an Affinity-specific library which is barfing when launched under WINE or Proton. There's not much we can do beyond that, unless Affinity's apps are written in unobfuscated .NET, which is something I haven't yet investigated (and highly doubt is the case here).
All this being said, it seems to me that the biggest blocker to actual feasibility here has nothing do with whether or not Linux is super cool, but more to do with the fact that hiring software engineers to port your software to Linux is no small chore, and as a smaller software publisher (than, say, Adobe or Valve or Microsoft), they don't have limitless engineering resources to throw at something.
So here's a radical idea, taking all this into consideration...
What if Affinity chose to crowdsource this effort? Not to publicly release their source code, but to essentially put out an APB for Linux software engineers in the wild to volunteer to contribute, provided they can prove they're qualified to do so. This is the kind of thing an NDA applies to very well. This proposal is, I think, functionally equivalent to the "hackathons" big companies (like Microsoft and Google) hold annually, where employees can focus their efforts on pet projects that might have nothing to do with their job description or their career focus.
Like I said - it's a radical idea, but...that doesn't make it a bad idea.
P.S. I'm proposing this with the idea that there is a nonzero quantity of Affinity users who happen to also be software engineers, either professionally, or for funsies. With a motivated enough group of people, you can accomplish a lot without having to spend a dime.

sweetie, your position on the relevancy of Linux is an opinion not backed by fact. If you were actually objectively correct, businesses wouldn't be investing millions in desktop Linux support.
Your opinion has been noted and discarded.

we've been talking about wine support from the start. Your self-righteous arrogance seems to have  blinded you to the actual discussion going on in between your hot takes.

I used to have this cat who had a real spicy attitude. She'd come into a room full of people, flop down, and start rolling around on her back and flirting with everyone, putting all attention on her. But she ALSO liked talking big game and growled and hissed a lot.
If you removed her from the room, she came right back in, demanding attention.
i don't know why that just popped into my head...

Nor is your obsession with shutting down this discussion. Oh well!

...except you're only sharing your opinion, not absolute fact. The *truth*  is that many in this thread have voiced support for Affinity on Linux. The *truth*  is that Linux is growing in popularity, evidenced by the objective *fact* that big companies like Microsoft, NVidia, and AMD invest engineering effort - which isn't cheap - to support Linux.
And much like you don't care about our position, I see no reason to care about yours. I'll continue to add my voice to the many suggesting Linux support, and maybe next time you can be considerate of the sincere participants and not derail the discussion with more self-aggrandizing "shut up, nobody cares" posts. 
It's ironic you have commented on how self-centered Linux users are. It seems you're the only one making this about you and what you want.

I used to have this cat who had a real spicy attitude. She'd come into a room full of people, flop down, and start rolling around on her back and flirting with everyone, putting all attention on her. But she ALSO liked talking big game and growled and hissed a lot.
If you removed her from the room, she came right back in, demanding attention.
i don't know why that just popped into my head...

...except you're only sharing your opinion, not absolute fact. The *truth*  is that many in this thread have voiced support for Affinity on Linux. The *truth*  is that Linux is growing in popularity, evidenced by the objective *fact* that big companies like Microsoft, NVidia, and AMD invest engineering effort - which isn't cheap - to support Linux.
And much like you don't care about our position, I see no reason to care about yours. I'll continue to add my voice to the many suggesting Linux support, and maybe next time you can be considerate of the sincere participants and not derail the discussion with more self-aggrandizing "shut up, nobody cares" posts. 
It's ironic you have commented on how self-centered Linux users are. It seems you're the only one making this about you and what you want.

...except you're only sharing your opinion, not absolute fact. The *truth*  is that many in this thread have voiced support for Affinity on Linux. The *truth*  is that Linux is growing in popularity, evidenced by the objective *fact* that big companies like Microsoft, NVidia, and AMD invest engineering effort - which isn't cheap - to support Linux.
And much like you don't care about our position, I see no reason to care about yours. I'll continue to add my voice to the many suggesting Linux support, and maybe next time you can be considerate of the sincere participants and not derail the discussion with more self-aggrandizing "shut up, nobody cares" posts. 
It's ironic you have commented on how self-centered Linux users are. It seems you're the only one making this about you and what you want.

Thanks for clarifying.
It'll be interesting to see how ARM evolves.
Qualcomm is unbelievably possessive about their ARM IP, so Nvidia or not, there's still going to be competition. I also don't know that Nvidia is inclined to turn it into a greedy moneygrab, or if they'll go the AMD route (e.g. with AMD64) and make the spec freely available.

We're talking about a comprehensive desktop operating system here, and you know it.
Your intellectual dishonesty is stubborn, I'll give you that.

You really are grasping at straws now, aren't you?

That's an X window manager, not an OS.
...guess which OS uses X?

There is ARM Holdings, which owns the core IP and basic instruction set for the architecture. In practice, it's somewhat like a consortium, with other companies sitting on the board of directors, buying licenses to manufacture their own chips, and adding to the design.
If Nvidia does buy ARM, they can't do anything to keep Apple from using and building upon their ARM chips, though Apple may be obligated to disclose any additions or tweaks they've made to it, which Nvidia and other licensees can later use for themselves.

No change here, but perhaps misunderstood.  The entire industry has been copying "the other guy", being anyone else (not Linux specifically) since the beginning.

The entire industry has been copying the other guy since the beginning.

Desktop compositing, virtual desktops, package managers/app stores...

But your entire role in this thread has been to derail it, insisting that there's no legitimate reason to even entertain a discussion about Affinity on Linux. That's dumb. Unless you have special insider information from Affinity on the subject, you're not actually contributing anything to the discussion; you're just posting so people have to pay attention to you.
Yes, and your understanding of that market, I'm guessing, is based on news articles and public data that doesn't actually deep-dive into industry research.
I've done that second part. And I'm telling you your entire premise is flawed.
This alone shows how little you actually know or understand about Linux, and I'm betting you've also never actually written desktop software. You don't actually know what you're talking about on this one.
That wasn't my point though, was it? Why don't you re-read what I wrote and use context clues to understand why I mentioned this.
Is that what I said? You've come to a thread where people are discussing the merits and potential of Affinity on Linux, and your only contribution to this thread can be summed up as "shut up, nobody cares."
Rude.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha you are totally full of it, and this is enough evidence for me.
Linux is a VERY popular operating system for crypto miners, and Nvidia's GPUs have been held captive by the crypto market for several years now. Nvidia also continues to release - and support - a solid Linux driver, and they have contributed to Valve's efforts to make Steam cross-platform.
I know you really want to be the expert here, but you're not.

A LOT of things YOU take for granted on Mac and PC started in Linux, many moons ago.
Not everyone chooses an OS based on whether or not it has the latest greatest gimmick.

But your entire role in this thread has been to derail it, insisting that there's no legitimate reason to even entertain a discussion about Affinity on Linux. That's dumb. Unless you have special insider information from Affinity on the subject, you're not actually contributing anything to the discussion; you're just posting so people have to pay attention to you.
Yes, and your understanding of that market, I'm guessing, is based on news articles and public data that doesn't actually deep-dive into industry research.
I've done that second part. And I'm telling you your entire premise is flawed.
This alone shows how little you actually know or understand about Linux, and I'm betting you've also never actually written desktop software. You don't actually know what you're talking about on this one.
That wasn't my point though, was it? Why don't you re-read what I wrote and use context clues to understand why I mentioned this.
Is that what I said? You've come to a thread where people are discussing the merits and potential of Affinity on Linux, and your only contribution to this thread can be summed up as "shut up, nobody cares."
Rude.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha you are totally full of it, and this is enough evidence for me.
Linux is a VERY popular operating system for crypto miners, and Nvidia's GPUs have been held captive by the crypto market for several years now. Nvidia also continues to release - and support - a solid Linux driver, and they have contributed to Valve's efforts to make Steam cross-platform.
I know you really want to be the expert here, but you're not.

But your entire role in this thread has been to derail it, insisting that there's no legitimate reason to even entertain a discussion about Affinity on Linux. That's dumb. Unless you have special insider information from Affinity on the subject, you're not actually contributing anything to the discussion; you're just posting so people have to pay attention to you.
Yes, and your understanding of that market, I'm guessing, is based on news articles and public data that doesn't actually deep-dive into industry research.
I've done that second part. And I'm telling you your entire premise is flawed.
This alone shows how little you actually know or understand about Linux, and I'm betting you've also never actually written desktop software. You don't actually know what you're talking about on this one.
That wasn't my point though, was it? Why don't you re-read what I wrote and use context clues to understand why I mentioned this.
Is that what I said? You've come to a thread where people are discussing the merits and potential of Affinity on Linux, and your only contribution to this thread can be summed up as "shut up, nobody cares."
Rude.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha you are totally full of it, and this is enough evidence for me.
Linux is a VERY popular operating system for crypto miners, and Nvidia's GPUs have been held captive by the crypto market for several years now. Nvidia also continues to release - and support - a solid Linux driver, and they have contributed to Valve's efforts to make Steam cross-platform.
I know you really want to be the expert here, but you're not.

Yet they spend the time and effort to release and support their hardware drivers right alongside Windows.
It's not just the Linux community. Nvidia's kinda known to be a bit rude to everyone else. They did quite a bit to piss off Apple too, to the point that they now refuse to support any Nvidia hardware on their machines.

That's basically the thing that matters here. not if Linux users do or don't live in an alternate universe and how many cross-platforms does one use ect.

Substance Painter and Designer.
It's understandable why Adobe would choose to support Linux on this front. It has a big footprint in the 3D movie/game design industries, but doesn't draw much attention from the graphics design crowd. Hence why the aforementioned apps are available, but Photoshop and Illustrator aren't.
Linux's biggest weakness isn't that it's some also-ran OS only used by FOSS zealots, rather, it's that it's use case doesn't cover all demographics. 

And that's why we're here, voicing a need within a community.