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Also....those who expect to find a clone (or perceived it like one), need to realize that what a company of the size of Adobe did build its apps in a very long time, requires now certain amount of time for Affinity, too. Of course, now is easier than it was before, technology has improved, the hardware too, programming knowledge, everything... but the difference in size and resources is ... oh, wow. I have just been some hours ago checking the actual numbers and stats on Adobe.... * Geez * . I insist in my previous statement... if a company of that size and current immense power took 30 years for this, and a so smaller one has acquired what it has, in a way shorter time, I repeat, is epic, despite the current tech advantage. This is not to say anything against your decision to go back to the cloud. I think in your case and situation, it makes sense. (I would never keep using an app that crashes on my face... but besides it very rarely happens to me, even with pre alpha software, it certainly never happens in my machine with Affinity products. But can't judge your case. Must be irritating. )

Yup ! ... Totally agree with this point. (if its not said in an ironic vibe ) Meanwhile, Adobe grows in its stock value (+20% ? ) this year, acquires Marketo, is predicted a gigantic growth, etc... I'll stick with the underdog, anyway. I'm weird. I see your points, tho, more than it seems. (I just have not had those problems...)

And that's amazing. But I'd partially agree with hifred that this would be of minimal importance compared to a show stopper bug or lacking feature that avoids accomplishing certain workflows. Anyway, it is what it is, so, there's a point where every complaining user, IMO, needs to accept this, and just learn to live with the limitations of a neat product produced by zillion times smaller company, or, go back to a renting system. And not over-pressure the small company..... IMO. Because here's one important key detail... In my opinion, I think is perfectly fine to mention one feature lack for certain workflow....now, troll in bad mood -sometimes with insults- the company for not adding it, is not just unfair, is unacceptable, abusing the amazing tolerance in the forums. (not speaking about this thread, at all, btw). I mean, it one gets, or, performs a search to get/find an answer from a developer about that very lack, pending feature, then, the harassment is out of the line, imo. When is a gentle reminder, I'm totally fine, with that, also as if there's room to implement it in the moment, is more sells for them. But is totally their call and their business, you had the trial to test, and if after a careful testing you went ahead, that's entirely your responsibility. A total crash that REALLY is unrelated to your particular system (a lot of the times IS related) then, yeah, you have quite some right to get help from the devs. But I see them jumping like ninjas to help, in those cases. The point I wanted to comment to that quote, is that, that's all amazing, how it is built, but consider pros (and let's be real, is not just all the marketing, site slogans, reviews, and (have you seen the youtube ads? I have.. the only ads in youtube I see till the end! ) it is also that obviously Affinity is a more pro attempt than the legacy line! ) wont mind : A) If they have to purchase a bit more RAM and a medium-low but modern card (that's all u need, tested with cc 2018 trial). U can even deal with it with a crappy card. B) Those elegant details you mention, if they can't build the workflow needed to get the job done. But I agree, we cannot/should not ask for that much. IMO, the clever line is going to be to adapt our workflows however possible, and hopefully, the improvements they implement, will help in also making these tricks and combos we will have to use, each time less cumbersome. As I see it, for pro freelancing...Anything but renting. And well....not sure what deals better with large files... I guess a lot depends on the type of the file, what you add to it in each case, etc. I am absolutely sure PS is heavier in a number of cases. In a modern and powerful machine, tho, with enough ram, you might get more performance in PS in some scenarios. But CC eats for breakfast hardware. Indeed, that's part of the works under the hood in CC 2019, performance improve...curiously, the other improvements (out of curiosity, have been watching videos and reading articles about this update) , or at least several of them, seem to target some of the Affinity Photo strongest points: Content aware and the HDR panoramas.... "casually". And seems they've done a good work. For some of us, tho, all that means nothing, while keeps being a subscription. Also, really PS has become really heavy of handling. Long are the times of such a light wonder as it was CS 2. Even worse... it loads now a lot of TSR process largely unneeded, and which are really hard to block (but far from impossible). It all adds to the performance issue, overall. Again, all these seem to be thought for... actual workstations, where there's power for anything. But efficiency is important, also in the extreme cases....Specially in certain projects, even with the best machines. IMO, there are two typical examples, we should not generalize or over simplify... Those actually expecting the very same behavior... That'd be wrong. Heck, I come from handling Max at the companies, and woah, I can tell you I found Blender UI and workflows like from another planet... even more when learnt XSI....So, that's never an issue for me. Raw functionality (I mean, not RAW, lol, no photography here...), yep, more of an issue. So, the other type will be those needing to get the job done, even if takes more steps, and the icons are in other places, and the workflow is totally different., but gets the job done. I'm right there. But I think we are not in a position to "demand" those features. I think that's totally wrong. Politely suggest, yep (insisting, after getting a response about that, every day, or every time they have to pay the subscription and then leave the forums for another month, and in bad manners... that is not polite, in my book) I agree... But... My hope is that polishing the existing tools ( which they know it is needed, altho I do have a much more positive impression about the current status than many), everyone will get certain benefit in their workflows... Nope, not utterly irrelevant (strong words, in any case...this kind of bit is the kind of thing I was referring to, btw....). Sometimes a workflow gets delayed in I/O stuff, with the famous suite... Optimization in the internals can end up in much better development in the new features, and probably faster. So, nope, it is anything but irrelevant. Well, I have tried the trial... it is nice. Feels a bit too much as a toy, to me. But then again, that is really, clearly, and in the slogans previous to the purchase page, not targeted to professionals. You don't even have CMYK mode there, so... next.... ;D (to be fair, neither does the loved by many Paint Shop Pro....) Sorry, nope. At a company, obviously. They wont let me (wouldn't even hire me if denying to use PS) consider other option. As a freelancer/indy/you name it, heck no. Is not just about the money (but freelancers do not swim in money, every buck counts) is also the concept. Some of us hate to rent, and add yet another monthly bill, opposed to save some money and purchase in our own preferred moment. ( I am referring to purchases of several hundreds or two thousands, not that 50 bucks needs that. Although it does, in non first world countries.. people keep forgetting about those situations! Sadly. 10 - 12 bucks is no big deal for us, but.... ). It is even worse than renting a flat... I can carry the furniture with me if I need to move to another city ! I'd say an overall standard ( followed by corel and others from arcane times). But I do quite see that standard very much followed in Affinity apps. With its own personality, but it doesn't make it a bad experience. Just compare it to Gimp's (it does not really follow it, been the main issue of an overall nice package). And yeah, is a must , and kind of an UX rule, don't play with people trying to put stuff in places where they do not expect them... But I clearly see that Affinity does a great job in that respect. I have to agree here, it's been marketed as professional solutions. BUT... in no place as Adobe killers or even equivalents....And this is what people is demanding, not rightfully, imo. yeah... I can't deal with that, conceptually...but is not the only cloud issue, from my POV Is actually....pretty close (IMO).... So, you should be VERY happy for having all that for only 50 bucks in a single purchase, take it as my 2 cents, or perform a ninja flying kick with my advice.... ...and again, it's a WIP... people kind of take the instant photo (no pun intended) of its current status in a particular moment, it's a wrong take at it... Of course, for now you need helper tools (or would get large frustrations if need to accomplish certain specific industry workflows) , but.... I've been checking the PS CC 2019 update, and like the others (CC 2018 added the brush stabilizer that A. Photo had just added months before....and that PS users were crying for it since the beginning of times... some moved to Painter due to that (it had it since eons...years and years without it... suddenly, A.Photo adds it, months later, magically appears in PS... Coincidence? ) ...now in the 2019, I see features that were particularly highlighted in favor of AP in AP vs PS review articles (HDR panorama and content aware fill) , the frame tool is nice (not as ground breaking as the reviewers want it to be, I used to do all that with smart objects, place, masks and paste special, more powerfully thanks to also Actions) these make me feel even happier for having chosen Affinity (even if weren't already in that conviction for the "purchasing" system)... But to each her/his own. And... let's be brutally honest.... if the money is absolutely no problem for a pro, freelancer, or whatever... Why be here. Why anyone would even care to even visit the Serif's site, and not stay in the standard, market validated giant's site.... Ppl is willing to pay less, and get ride of yet another monthly payment, big or small... that's the actual truth... if not, they wouldn't dare even to loose the energy to post a 2 lines post, here.....And if they come back even with rage months later, every now and then, is because... they really, *really* want to leave Adobe... but they play the diva and "this is crap, and Adobe is superior, you losers" .Not very sincere.... IMO.

Just sth you probably know, but if in some case it can be a helper tool somehow, Blender allows SVG import, and DXF export, or it used to do so. (Indeed, quite a few times I have done some auto trace of a complex emblem at Inkscape, simplified/cleaned, exported as SVG, imported in Blender, extruding as mesh, do my carving or boolean union, export as whatever (but I believe DXF is mostly for 3D meshes. Indeed, I used to only use it with elder game engines only importing those, as like STL, DXF forces a triangulation, in what is 3D meshes) . I know it has little to do with your workflow, but who knows if might get helpful at some point. Not sure what is the I/O situation now of these two formats. Also, apart from the oficial default activated addons, there are many other addons deactivated in preferences: official, community addons, you can dig the community for python scripts, etc. And the volume and variety of al that is huge. I'm using heavily lately Blender's 3D print official addon, proving to be essential for my workflow in those gigs...(is not thought for laser cutting, but some of that addon features might become helpful there, too) I have a really good friend having a laser cutting business of her own. It goes very well for her. I'll be sure to ask about her workflows next time I meet her.

PS has done so through the years.... It has been possible. Never totally, I'd agree on the absolutes.... Meaning, for example, while serving for game graphics, photography, fashion, science (medical, astronomy), etc, to quite a wide extent, in several of those fields there were always nit pickings. In one of those which I know better, painting, a lot of young manga artists moved to Clip Studio Paint, accusing PS of brush lag (it lags in the usual celeron laptops those teens tend to have, while csp is an unmatched jewel in performance in low machines) . Game people, well, I remember how Adobe PS 7 moved RIOTS ( the passionate TGA followers is not sth new....even while those workflows were quite different) against it because while previous versions had been fully supporting it, an initial 7 (no CS, previous to that, obviously) had wrecked the TGA's alpha support till some extent (badly).. I think it was fixed not immediately, some time later, with a 7.1 version. A lot of young artists can't remember that (or many other bugs in the way, like crazy crashes in 6, etc) because they weren't working with it, but in the high school or at younger ages. But PS has needed to climb all that ladder and users complaints about a lot of bugs over the years, till its somewhat more polished today's status. In a fraction of the time, AP has a lot of that solved. That's my point about is a wip, and it'll get there, just faster. I'm positive it will keep adding stuff critical for many fields, I believe even if not the purpose, as PS neither was trying hard to specialize in any specific field other than photography and maybe "some" painting stuff. IMO, the polishing affects all fields. People already have managed to adapt an image editor to very specialized, non photography related industries.

They read it. But they are not forced to go in a particular direction. (I'm not making it up, is from statements from them in the past)

@Granddaddy , for now ( I believe an Affinity DAM is planned by Serif, but that can take long) , but meanwhile, we have been given the advice/tip by a great user around here (one with a sort of Australian sort of mouse as an avatar) that a free tool (for non commercial usage, which seems this very case . And purchasable at 26$ for commercial) , which has its own long history indeed ( I remember using a prehistoric version many years ago) , as an image browser/converter, called XnView MP, is able to even open (I am not sure till what extent... but it certainly can open and convert a lot of other formats) native Affinity files ! I was even shocked to know about it. https://www.xnview.com/en/ and the downloads, please scroll to the bottom at the following page ( mac, windows and linux versions) : https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/#downloads About the software wars, I'm younger, but not so much (also, I'm with computers since very tender age) as not to remember the Word/Wordperfect wars, Adobe/Aldus/Corel, Commodore/Amstrad/Spectrum, etc....Well, in my case is more a matter to always use the optimal thing, even if the professional state of things do force a lot of us to a path which is not the most enjoyable. If my needs were only personal work, hobby, (I would not call your activity amateur, as you seem to know your tools too deeply for that term. Only that is not focused in obtaining money, neither has certain hard constraints in the commercial work world, there we can establish the differences) I certainly wouldn't mind those bits pending, to be sincere. As for that type of activity, there's a huge bunch of options, today, thankfully. Indeed, I'd rather prefer to have other job (although I'm mid way to that) , i mean, freelance activity and also job profile at companies, which would not depend at all of those bits needed. So to only use the software apps I do really enjoy more. I applaud your criteria on the matter. ( and please excuse me if my English is very messy to understand, English is not my first language)

For some uses, and certain type of users, only (and I am one of those capable to use effectively in real world's hard work the apps already, so, am not one of the target to be convinced about their advantages...) . If you insist in another reality, imo then you are not seeing the big, pro picture.... In the professional world, at high levels (that is, a lot of professional bits, in almost every company).... Too much to cover yet (the devil is the details... in lots of workflows, professional ones, those "details" fully break it there, been reported often, if you're around the forums) , and I don't say it happily, but facts are facts. And it is supposed to be so, it is a progressive work! , it could only be expected a slow process, with all the years the other one has been dominating. I am speaking that what a business or advanced freelancer needs (forget about mere PS comparisons, go to the actual business needs) of inserting a tool in the middle of a workflow that can be self sufficient. Forget about the term of "replacement", if that avoids further open thinking. Yet though, I completely disagree with those others thinking you cannot yet insert partially the apps in your workflows already because the lack of A or B feature. You will need extra supporting applications for a while, but imo it is possible to go adapting workflows already, and we should do that (specially freelancers and small businesses, as I see little to no reason for a hobbyst to go the Adobe path, well, I already thought that once having certain level in the FOSS tools...) or , in a way, we are saying with our acts that we are happy sustaining a monopoly. Which is bad even in the cases where the giant's intentions aren't bad. Adobe is probably the most benign monopoly in software/hardware out there, after all, if I compare to at least other 5 (Microsoft, Intel, nVidia, Autodesk, Apple...all this being my personal opinion, of course) . But in the end, even so, that's not good for us. Is less options, and ppl is forced to take whatever rude change of plans with the one and only option, we've seen that. I have strong doubts for that in the professional field. Have a look at the very most high end techy art schools preparing for people for CG, games. All are workstations. Look at the companies, even right now, their work places/seats. In ten years will be all mobile? Probably! But IMO, anything past 5 years, or even 2, in IT, graphic industry, is just mere sci-fi, You don't have a way to predict reliably that long of a term such a fast changing and complex industry. Almost as hard as to predict well and in detail global economy. What I can tell you, right now, and in the future short term that we can kind of predict a bit more safely, that is, 2 - 5 years, nope, very far from that, pro work at least at high levels is yet very much desktop for a while. (that does not mean one can't work in the sofa with an iPad and transfer stuff later, pitch to clients, or whatever. Or that many pros can do their particular workflow entirely with an iPad (some CMYK related operations have some trouble with that, to name just one tip of the iceberg. ) Well, they have the power to do whatever. But is like intel with AMD's Ryzen... they can, but they would have to change certain bad habits, and are probably thinking if it's worth it, or if they can afford to keep going as they have till now ( and the competition was already there, btw, hearing some people sounds as if in a lot of places/print shops/design studios was not fully functioning Corel Draw for everything during decades, and Xara in another places/countries. But for some reason, people expect Affinity to hit quite much harder. And I truly hope is more than wishful thinking. ) IF the future is mobile [ again, I doubt it until we reach a point where what you can cram in power for hardware in graphics is really ( and I can write an entire book about why it is not so now) equivalent to the same in a tower...even then, a lot of pro areas DO require large devices, less related to the chip power, and more to the actual professional tasks' nature. Like a large screen. Which is anything but portable. And a large drawing tablet--> same issue (yeah, some illustrators love to paint on the iPad. Power to them, and best success in life. Just check on a bunch of other ones (I count on certain large and diverse personal network), and not old grunts like me, some pretty young ones, hear them shouting "don't give me anything smaller than a 22" (for a pen-display, a pen-tablet, or even just the work screen). Or large scanner. List goes on. That's PRO area kind of stuff ] , I'm sure Adobe has its big teams of highly specialized ppl, dedicated to prevent such movements when they become big enough to move a finger, and if needed, they can produce whatever that would blast any competition away ( My opinion about the PS ipad version, while they have been avoiding the entire matter for years, comfortably : They start now to open one eye, blink a little, but not entirely seeing the full threat, yet. U'll really notice when the sleeping lion really wakes up, u'll hear the roar...But again, it must be worth it for a lion to move, is a heavy animal) . That's what huge resources and money provides you with. One of the very "weak ankle" points of the giant, imo, resides in its main power... they are huge, and in a naval combat ( to use yet another colorful metaphor), that's not always an advantage. IE, I think Serif has it easier to keep going with flexible purchase models rather than Adobe, but that's a very personal opinion, I have no data. And speaking of agility, surely less dependent on a legacy decades old code base, capable of perhaps fresher developments, etc. So, it's gonna be an interesting fight (referring again to my popcorn situation) even if is repeated ad infinitum that there's no such thing as an intent to compete with Adobe in any way possible (yeah, u can totally smell that in the Aff. "and no subscription" slogan, for eons in the site (haven't checked now)...) . After all, Photo does tasks and solves problems tooootally different to PS ones, for example. ( ---> super subtle irony). IMO, yep, they're humble to assume it can't compete (so they can't be expected to cover the same) with it for now, due to the huge scope of PS after so many years of advantage. It is very unfair to demand them the same level of "coverage" just yet. Or...maybe, really, they only care about photography! ( ) (personally, no clue). Whatever, it's their call. Their business.

I think Serif's long term plans are perhaps more (happily) ambitious than you might think.... I think most of the basic polishing is going to be done, and I am not in a hurry, as I have a bunch of alternative tools, which I indeed already know in depth (I've done corporate image design at a company with the 3 foss main ones, gimp, inkscape and scribus (and helped by video and 3D ones, too!), with quite some high level of intensity, stress and requirements, so, after that, what I would not be capable of . With those factors combined , you become a "rambo" of the graphic apps, haha ). But the size of the pool of new clients to be grabbed once a) firstly the more important bugs are fixed (I can work without that, ie, the brush related stuff I do it elsewhere) b) keep evolving adding firstly those features which are key for entire niches, I mean, the size of target users gained would be huge, and I am not saying this to "convince" Serif (nobody will, imo, and we should felt relieved knowing that), like in those Linux threads, or web wysiwygs, or whatever . But yepp, I agree partially, I'm more than sure that what we both are saying here is boringly redundant to Serif, that has its plan and order for things. I don't complain, I mostly predict stuff will be there, in its given moment. (so, is always a positive vibe.... ). My main point is, the more it gets of those points covered, the larger of a global influence (and I am indeed one of those believing the suite IS a potential, very serious threat to Adobe) and the damage it'l make in the giant's land.... I think it already is grabbing a lot of potential users from it. IMO is not a matter about if it will remove large chunks of the target users to A., is a matter of when , or at which rate it will grab them. I am not in a hurry, so I'll just calmly grab my popcorn (or my cereals bol, if I'm realistic about my actual habits) and watch it happening, with a huge smile on my face.....

ehm....nop, that sentence was not referring to the whole world of fields where a 2D application can be used (from medical, to CG, general science, fashion, photography....) nope, I was mostly talking about video game art making world, as was what Matty was referring mostly to ( with the Substance apps, probably Zbrush, PS, etc) . It was a very very niche comment from someone -me- that have worked quite in that one.... about getting into (or planning your life for that) video game art making jobs, which btw , have the companies pretty saturated of people now (specially in game characters making) and I was mostly implying that it can get to be a very hard life, and extremely far from what a lot of enthusiastic kids think it is.... (but I bet there's not a single "kid" in this thread, maybe neither in the entire forums...)

For market reasons. There's a large pool of users they could grab, and are acquiring a part of those already. Because is the nature of a business. Because the oficial marketing slogans (several currently in the site ) tell a bit of a different version/story of that, which you mention or has been said by others in the forums. A buyer has option A and option B to do the works, be it for hobby or the much more pressuring situation of bringing food to the table. If the developer does not want to be compared, that's fine, but the potential customer, have no doubt, will evaluate things that way, like it or not... Because the key here is that there's entire huge industries built around Adobe's ways, UI, workflows, pipelines, et, etc, etc. Yes, you can trash/ignore all that, or... adapt to it cleverly, to grab more market, more user base (steal it, indeed, rightfully tho, it's business). For that is not needed to discard a more original and modern approach while aiming to cover the same needs, as those are common, is not like Affinity is going to invent those needs and requirements. Those are there, very complex and evolved at companies through decades, tightly tied to Adobe , fully covered already by Adobe. But the combination of the purchase system, and several other little advantages, might worth by a large difference to many, that's IMO the key. The catch up need is very obvious, several fields need to fill the gaps (bits of those corners to polish: tga, dxf, stuff needed for certain color separation uses, several matters in digital painting (even for a very basic set of that), some pending but planned tools additions in AD, the fast evolution in Publisher to "catch up" whatever they can in Quark's and ID's territory, etc... ) . IMO, being realistic is a need, here. For a lot of people -me included- and a lot of uses, it already is worth it, a lot (but even I need a combo of tools). For others, that catch up is something they will wait for to jump wagon. A bunch actually can't till some stuff finds time to be implemented. With catching up, I guess is never meant to do internal code the same, or same UI, is only aiming to the results and cover what is needed to be covered for professional work in several areas. Is a work in process, and it took Adobe really a long time. (Serif seems to be quite faster, despite the size)

Exactly.... some people only see the short term issue, to pay 12 bucks now or not. The thing runs way deeper. Even while I do think that some cases, like a complex workflow with Substance, Quixel, Zbrush hotlinking with PS or etc, do totally need PS, as everything has been designed with that tool in mind, by the other companies, when building the chain of work since day 1 ! But... not just for supporting or not TGA format, for quite some other reasons. Just like I also advice people in the other route, just willing to have a job in the mainstream (triple As, or at least, just not small studios) game industry (and surely fully disconnect at home, not touching a computer other than in the weekends, for sanity, and survive with good health more than one year) that they HAVE to go with the industry tools , PS, just as they go with Substance or ZB. Freelancers and indies? yep, I get it, you (we) have room to decide, but if part of the plan is getting into a mainstream company later on... is these exact brands, and absolutely no other (Autodesk included).. Any other thing is fooling oneself and loose time and chances. Now, for freelancing in less rigid fields -or for games where the thing is not so tied to those packages- and when there's zero plan to go (or go back ) to the mainstream game industry ? Heck, then Affinity all the way, and whatever else to support it in the form of "combos".... For going mainstream, if that's the dream (eeek) , I wouldn't save bucks, quite the opposite, or you wont reach anywhere. (bucks in formation, masters, books, seminars, fast hardware to learn, etc, etc, etc). But I'd get information about what that entire world is like, really, beforehand. (probably no reader is that situation around here, seems the majority of Affinity users aren't millennials, to say the least. But you never know. )

I've been also a game artist for a bunch of years, several companies and later, freelance. Seems is not a case of you working at a company where all gets paid for you, but is your own freelancing or whatever. So, you are forced to pay the subscription, as in your case, you can't avoid it. Well, as stated above, the advantage in time in favor of the giant is over 30 years (or 25 -27 as we are speaking about the difference, tho not sure when Affinity started)... it will need time to catch up for some fields completely (and unless Adobe performs really badly in the future, they'll be farther away at that moment, but at least, Affinity will have the main stuff well covered, even if not as many bells and whistles as Adobe, that probably will be a constant. But I don't really mind that, and to explain why, would need a way, way longer post ) , but it's a math problem : years, amount of money, size of both companies, number of programmers at each, etc.In several fields, or niches inside certain fields, there's no other solution than one of these : A) Adopt later B) Use a combo of apps. Tho B is a must in any case, with any suite, for complex workflows... But imo, B is possible even in your case, combining certain converters (XnView, etc) and other utilities. Just way too cumbersome for a workflow as complex as game art these days (I'm assuming you work with Unity and etc), is probably not worth it saving the 12 bucks per month, for now, in your case (if we speak only about PS/Photo).

Oh, sorry, I had forgotten about this post and those findings, when it was mentioned the Wine possibility in the other thread... I guess as since very long ago I discarded Linux for my 2D and 3D work (am using lots of open source apps, but in Windows) that I don't really pay enough attention to these findings (I do, but I flush the cache...). As too many key, vital things depend on the production tools, the OS used being extremely secondary, as to be tied to those huge limitations in Linux available software. When and how someone in the Linux community will create anything featured/stable/fast in workflow enough in the several graphic fronts I need it, and at the level clients, market, milestones and all require, I dunno. As in Linux there are fantastic apps in other areas (system admin, network, coding, etc). That's the most shocking : That as demonstrated in other areas, Linux world and the community obviously count on great, outstanding programmers, as individuals, groups and companies (and having worked myself at a Linux focused company for almost a decade, I can tell you, it moves now a lot of money (as companies have been seeing the huge advantages ('cost' per seat and global maintenance of the code, mostly) of open source and free software, recent years), quite enough to make a coordinated effort, among companies, organizations and users to produce whatever the graphic suite they wished... if they really wished it....). And with that said... By average, I have waaay better opinion (thoroughly tested) about the current alternative to Photo/PS in that OS, Gimp, and also about the vector package, Inkscape, than perhaps a 95% of the linux users complaining here about their situation. And Blender/Wings3D are my actual everyday tools, saving the day with every freaking gig, work done for very (rightfully so) demanding people. So, not that I am one of those disliking the OS overall situation (for complex workflows, at least) without having had full experience with its available software, for many years. I wouldn't blame (as the majority of the linux users who post here have (not all with the same intensity) the habit to do) so much these commercial Windows/Mac dev companies. The blame is IMO often assigned to them, very unfairly. The culprits are "at /home" , imo.

it's highly unimportant, anyway