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GuernseyMan

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  1. This thread is coming up for 5 years old. I've got software which runs on Windows, some on Linux and some on both. For most of the Windows software that I have there is a thread like this one which follows the same tired format. Someone asks for a Linux port, the company says categorically that it has no plans to do this then there is an entitled stream of posts about how they will regret it when Linux finally takes off and how, if they port it, there will be a sudden exodus to Linux. It's an attempt to pander to the company's ego as how important they are in the global software market. There's the "It's easy to make it cross platform" comments when the writers clearly have no idea just how complex a major software project is. Especially trying to re-engineer software to run on a new OS after 5 years of development. Even the "Well just make it work with Wine etc., because that will be simple" won't have any effect. No company will change the code of it's commercial software to make it run on an unsupported system. Serif couldn't care less that 318 people have voted for Affinity Photo to run on Wine. The final nail in the coffin for all of these threads is that the company knows, better than anyone, that they just won't have the sales from a Linux version. At the moment even the most optimistic statistics puts Linux market share on the desktop at less than 5%. In some industries it will be higher, sciences have always traditionally favoured Linux as the the VFX industry but its still not enough to warrant throwing resources at it when there are a host of unresolved issues (look at the other threads on this forum if you don't believe me). "When my daughter wanted a pony I said no. Even she stopped going on about it after a couple of months" I'd like them to port to Linux but really, this thread is just pestering now. It's serving no purpose other than making the Linux "community" look entitled and naïve.
  2. I do, and I would hazard a guess that Serif do as well; being as they are in the business. If they have a separate machine to run software that doesn't run on Linux then they can obviously run the Affinity applications on that machine, should it be a valid part of their workflow. This is a good example of an industry running the software that they need whilst being agnostic to the OS. The problem with this is that if this industry as a whole uses, say, 500 licenses and Serif make them available on Linux they will just move to Linux when they need a new license. That's no additional sales for Serif. When v2 comes around Serif will be selling Linux licenses rather than Windows/Mac rather than in addition to. At the risk of repeating myself, Serif know their market and will act accordingly. They will only move to Linux when it is clear that not being in the Linux market will affect their sales. They have information which we don't about their demographics, based on proper market research. It has stopped being a thread about Affinity products on Linux and just become a general evangelise about Linux. You don't need to convince me, I use Linux, but my workflow includes Linux and Windows (whatever works on each) as I consider the OS to be immaterial. I spend my time using software not mucking about with OS settings.
  3. I agree with a lot of what you've said, and I hope that eventually they do release a Linux version. I just don't think the time is right. I'm not sure about doing the "correct" thing as the proper terminology here. It makes it sound as though Serif have some sort of moral obligation to support Linux when they don't. There are two correct courses of action for any company: The one which gives the greatest benefit or the one which does the least harm. Up to now Serif have said they have no interest in a Linux version and I assume that is a sound business decision rather than some kind of arbitrary dislike for the OS. The thread is kind of winding down a bit, and there has been a lot of off topic, and sometimes quite rude comments; from both sides. Serif have been remarkably patient, there aren't many companies that would put up with users actively promoting the products of competitors on their forums yet this is exactly what we've seen. In the UK we would consider that bad-form. Serif are not Google, or Valve or a Government body. They are a small company with 200 odd employees (that's about 200 employees, not 200 employees that are odd!) Valve are currently cash rich if their latest financials are to be believed so can throw money at a project, if it fails they can just walk away. Their core demographic is gamers who are notoriously fickle about hardware and software (prepare to see a mass exodus to Linux if they think they can get an extra couple of FPS, and then back again when Microsoft brings out the next must-have feature for gaming on Windows).
  4. I think a lot of users wouldn't care. If they did care then Adobe wouldn't be successful with CC subscriptions, Microsoft would still be selling Office in a box with disks and Autodesk couldn't command the eye-watering yearly extortion that they charge. At the moment I'm about 50:50 Linux/Windows. In the future I will probably migrate to Linux more and more if I don't like where Windows heads but, at the moment, it's still a useful tool for me. If anyone (who isn't particularly tech savvy) asked me which operating system to use "right now" I would struggle to recommend Linux, unless they had someone on this forum to do tech support for them! I've seen a lot of forum discussions "Windows vs Linux" and it always gets to the same point. The Windows guys are always idiots who "don't know any better" and the Linux users are portrayed as just nerds who spend all their time messing around with the OS and not actually doing anything. The truth is usually somewhere in the middle. It is very disingenuous to suggest that someone has chosen an operating system because they are just stupid or don't know any better. Most people make a decision about what they want out of their computer based on their personal needs.
  5. None of this has convinced me that my primary OS should be Linux and, anecdotally, that goes for most of my friends. I have a distro running ATM, Mint as it happens, which I use to tinker around with for "fun". However all my "real work" is still done on Windows. The software just works and I don't need to worry about what display protocol I'm using or needing to tweak Wine or any other esoteric settings. It also means that I can get support from the developers that I've paid good money to. Even if something works under Wine most Devs are of the opinion that you're on your own when something goes wrong. People I know who run small businesses are generally not tech-minded. They're very good designers or architects or business consultants but just need an OS that works out of the box with the minimum of setup. They don't even want to decide on a distro as it's too much of a hard choice, especially as my Linux evangelist friends all recommend something different. I also don't need to worry about a "particular set of developers" screwing things up for me. Both OSs have their faults and their benefits. For work, at the moment, Windows is the lesser of two evils.😉
  6. I'm not being unfair to Linux. Linux is a piece of software, just a tool to run other software. Don't anthropomorphise it. I pointed out that any given community, when it gets to a certain size, creates factions within that community. The "Wayland Project" is just a faction within the Linux community that wants their view to take precedence. The "Anti Wayland" group resists that. Youve said as much yourself with your comment about the Linux Foundation taking a more active role in guiding and focussing development. It's human nature, and always will be. Certainly not an insult and definitely not unfair.
  7. I didn't blame the developers, their statement is correct. It's an issue with the nature of open source projects once they get to a certain size. There are always vying factions. The fact that you agree that Microsoft or Apple would not get away with this behaviour speaks volumes.
  8. This is the problem. The Windows version just runs, the Linux version means you have to jump through hoops to get it running. I use Linux but this just puts average users off and any kind of commercial deployment becomes a nightmare. Basically the software house says, "It's not ou fault, a group of unnacountable people have made changes to some distros of Linux and broken it!" I'd be happy to tinker around with this but a lot of people wouldn't/couldn't. I don't like proprietary software or OSs but at least they're generally focussed and someone is accountable when it goes wrong. That's what professionals are after.
  9. But why, that's the question. What money could there possibly be from this? If Serif have any business sense, and I would suggest that they have, they will go after the largest market segment they can: Adobe users. How many Adobe products are on Steam? How many Adobe users run Linux? You might be able to get Adobe CS working on Linux but it won't be supported. If it's not supported then it won't be used for production in any professional company. Why would Serif support a gaming platform, which isn't their core demographic, so that they can target the 1.4% of gamers on that platform which run Linux? I enjoy using Linux as much as the next person but the reality is that without market share software houses won't write, or port, software to Linux.
  10. The vast majority of my friends, anecdotally, who have Macs also have iPads (a number of my Windows using friends also have iPads). Once you've bought into the Apple ecosystem you may as well continue. I would think that anyone who buys Affinity products for Mac will simply buy a copy for iPad, maybe not to do serious work but certainly to be "cool". I don't see that same kind of loyalty with Android devices so there probably wouldn't be the cross selling opportunity. And yes, its weight of numbers which means that Serif prioritises iPad over Linux. I'm on quite a few software forums and they all have a thread like this one. What it all boils down to is that it's not worth supporting Linux; the money just isn't there.
  11. As a Linux user I can confirm that we don't get out much 😃
  12. If you use these stats, which I'll take as read, then Serif have a product which is usable on 91.35% of all desktops by supporting two versions. If they supported a third, Linux, that could rise to 93.54%. Even more if the third OS was Chrome! Linux has increased from 1.91% market share to 2.19% market since 2012. That's a 14% uptake or about 1.3% per annum compounded over 10 years. I'm a Linux fanboy and really enjoy using it but I have to admit, it's not gone anywhere in the last ten years and I don't blame Serif for not getting involved in it. I'll continue to play around with Linux and do real work on Windows.
  13. Working under Wine would be nice. I would welcome it. BUT It's never going to be in a commercial company's interest to tout "works with Wine" as a selling point. Imagine the flood of animosity toward Serif if they broke Wine compatibility with an update. "I bought Affinity Designer to use on WINE with FreeSpire, now with update 1.9.24 it's stopped working. What are you going to do about it?". If they can't use it as a selling point then why would they waste resources on it? When I started in the IT business my boss told me on the first day "Use the OS you need to run the software you want to, don't run an OS then try to find software for it". I believed him then and I've seen nothing in the last 40 years to change my mind!
  14. You've made me break my "three posts to a thread" rule. It's more of a guideline really but helps to keep me sane. This thread has really gone off the rails. What started as a simple request has suddenly turned into some quite passive aggressive insults. Serif had been publishing software for over thirty years. I've bought all of their software for at least twenty years and always found them to be exceedingly professional and capable. The comment that they somehow don't have the bottle to "take a risk" is ridiculous. It's easy to be brave when you're betting with someone else's money, resources and reputation. None of use have any idea what analysis they've done on this and so we have no idea how much of a risk they would be taking. To say that they've somehow painted themselves into a corner by incompetently writing code that can't be ported is pure conjecture as well. We don't even know for sure what tools/engine they've used. This isn't Serif's first rodeo, they've been at this a long time. Any attempt to chide, or otherwise shame them into doing what you want won't work. What do you expect them to do at the next strategy meeting? Port the software to Linux because someone on the forums said they can't do it or that they don't have the bottle. Try to keep it civilised (I'm english, that is spelled correctly).
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