mvlad

It's not a good business move for Serif right now. The situation may change in the future. No, they've already said their point, that is they do not have any plans to release a linux version at the moment. Other things simply take priority over a linux port, and that is perfectly understandable. They have a reputation to upkeep and delaying bugfixing and feature updates for the existing apps in favor of a linux port would make them look bad. They've already said they do not want to go that way (donations and the like) when the kickstarter was mentioned. I'm sure they've looked a bit into it and saw it as needing to change many things, otherwise if it was as simple as using a wrapper there would be no reason to hold back a linux release. Someone mentioned somewhere that performance in a VM is abysmal. No one is arguing against people throwing away windows in favor of linux in case Affinity were to release on linux, what people are arguing is their number. Unless it's a few thousand people or so I'd guess they wouldn't raise the priority of a linux port.

That might not work.

Because people are curious? If you see a car that looks cool, would you not go for a ride in it (if given the chance) just because it doesn't have cup holders? I wouldn't say people are complaining that they don't support Linux, people are complaining because they are given a straight answer without any arguments to back it up (they don't necessarily need to back them up, it's their property we're talking about). People are frustrated that they aren't given a choice to have a proper argument. If there are people who just complain that they want a Linux version and they want it fast, sure, that's petty, but most people here who argue for a Linux version already have Linux in mind for different reasons (ease of setting up different stuff, UX, UI, the openness of the platform). That is a fair argument, however people here are rooting for Serif to win another fight against Adobe and have the first professional level design software available on Linux and I have to somewhat share their sentiment a bit. When all you see is reasons serif *should* have a Linux port and they don't even make the pre-existing stuff compatible with stuff like WINE nor do they give a public statement (even something like "we've noticed the growth of the Linux platform, however we're a small company, we can't afford to the business venture a Linux port would be when we have all of this other stuff to work on") then you do get a bit frustrated. This is turning into an echo chamber, with people talking to a wall who keep raising their voice, just in case the wall might hear them and reply (weird af analogy I know but bear with me)

I'd say that last question doesn't work that well, firstly because the answer could simply be everyone else is waiting for someone else to test the waters rather than bite the bullet and try it out (especially in affinity's case where the fact that the core of the app was platform-less and the apps are therefore modular was quite a boasted feature). Also, gravit exists. It's quite a good tool, it's just not ready for professional use I'd say, it's more of a hobbyist app. Personally I don't think serif will make it in time to the Linux market, and by the time they do, web-based tools (like figma, gravit, invision) will have had enough time to develop and gather attention, therefore becoming primary tools, at least in the Linux and/or freelancing markets. I'm honestly sad about that as an affinity user, but as someone who would love to be able to work on the go easier and across multiple platforms, web-based design apps seem like the future.

@Keith Reeder Please use multi quote. If you press Quote on a second message it adds it to the message you're currently writing. I'd say it comes from both. People have this certain image of Serif in their minds: "Serif is the underdog, it's the company that will overthrow Adobe and will be better than it in *all* aspects!" and then when facing reality that no, Serif in fact wants to do its own thing and does not always value outpacing Adobe as much as the quality of its products, there is frustration brewing. I personally have followed some news in regards to the windows Serif apps and I know there are still issues that need to be fixed ASAP and I understand fragmenting the development team at a time like this would thin out the teams even more. So I understand why Serif has this "Sorry, but we currently have no plans to release on Linux" mindset on the matter. They're simply prioritising quality over quantity. At the same time, I also feel like (because of this back and forth frustration) Serif has come off on the wrong foot and could, to certain people, give off the impression that they are against the community when in fact they have their priorities in a different order. They've said before that they wouldn't want to have a half-assed port (when asked about using WINE to make affinity work on linux) so they clearly want, in case they actually do plan on making a linux release, to have it working on par with the windows and mac versions. The community however is so hungry for a linux Illustrator/Designer that they would take some buggy release over nothing. So I personally think that there's a bit of a communication issue here. The community sees serif as anti-community and fearful, whereas Serif sees the community as demanding and possibly ignorant because they misinterpret certain things. From that of course it's only a few steps to take to labelling the opposition. Of course this is just my take on the matter. The point they were making isn't that you can't on Windows and Mac, it's that it's easier to do it on linux because apps don't have to work around the OS as much as in the aforementioned two. I'd say you're misinterpreting what they're saying in order to have another point against them. They were simply pointing out that they would pay for an extra license if needed. The reasoning is besides the point. Now that's just insulting and I'm not going to address this "point" any further. That is not as relevant to this topic, but I'm going to point out that older people have a harder time learning new things. My mother for example has such a hard time with phones that not only does she not want outside the android bubble, but she doesn't want anything that isn't samsung's skin either. It's just harder for them to get into new stuff. Anyway, to me your stance is clear that just as you point at frustrated linux users, you yourself are of the same state of mind, just in the opposition, although as is the case for both sides, there are good arguments and gibberish arguments.

While that is true, not taking one action shouldn't mean you have to take the other. I was personally looking forward to Akira, from a distance. It looks interesting though it didn't seem to be anything more than gravit to me. I'm personally looking forward to Serif's future endeavours, and if possible at some time in the future, at least make the suite wine-compatible (although if I understand correctly the core things that do not work are some proprietary API functions, so that might not be feasible even if Serif wanted to go that way).

I'd say one of the reasons Akira in particular failed is because there is no history. All we have is a promise and a few mockups, whereas Serif had proven itself more than capable to develop something good.

Tbh in terms of ui, while that is better than before, I'd still use gravit over that kind of ui. Of course gravit is a valid vector app choice for Linux right now (and one of the strongest imo) but affinity is beyond that.

having the algorithms baked into AD would make for a better user experience than having to use a separate panel to do the things you want.

Krita is a raster software, I know about krita, I use it over photoshop when it comes to illustrations, but that's not a design tool. It is their choice whether or not to switch to another os, and if they're comfortable with windows that's fine by me. I think what me and the other linux users are arguing for is the people (like myself) who already want to switch but are held back by one component, in this case a capable design software (There is Gravit but it can't be compared to Affinity Designer) Why IS mac preferred though? Is it not personal choice too? Because, in terms of design, the only differences are one video production software and one UI software (Sketch). In terms of other features they're all subjective. As before, it would at least put linux in view to a few users that would otherwise not even look at linux as a main OS because of its lack of professional design software. That and the users who already want to make the switch but can't. True it would not make a small dent in short-term, maybe not even in long-term, but it would make linux have another area in which it is a viable competitor to windows and mac (I am in no way arguing for a philantropic gift to the linux community in form of a port, I understand the costs and the high possibility of low returns + further fragmentation of the development team that is already behind on fixing issues of the existing releases) I can understand that, my family is also not that tech-friendly however the argument lays heavily on the distro you use, because lubuntu looks extremely similar to windows in many regards so that is quite an easy distro to get into, but something more exotic like standard gnome or elementary might be seen as quite hard to get into. Either way that is a story that is not specific to linux, we are not saying linux is the holy grail of OSs and everyone can switch to a linux distro and is encouraged to do so because every other OS is beneath any linux distro. You would have the same problems getting someone to switch from Win to Mac and vice versa. Also, this issue is more about less than tech savy people, they always complain because they can't get into something, but i'd argue if you can figure out the mess that is adobe's UI for its apps then you can figure out that the taskbar looks slightly different or that in order to install something you go do it another way. Other than that, linux has been getting more and more user friendly, to the point i've seen a few testimonials of people not having to use a terminal at all, or even if they had to it was basically copy-pasta (nvidia drivers for example) Ditto on that, I have close friends who also do design who don't want to even try affinity, not even talking switching to another OS.

How would regular people know if they prefer mac and windows over linux if they can't even check out linux precisely because there is no professional design software on it?

Hate to be the "ackually" guy, but there is nothing religious about having a solid preference based on personal experiences and overall trends. I personally like linux more because I can personalize it more and I don't really have issues with updates (*cough* deleting the My Documents stuff with the october update, the overall mentality of Microsoft where they're more or less releasing beta-ish updates to the stable channel), nor do I get Candy Crush and Minecraft preinstalled with my linux distro. Also, calling us linux zealots and our OS preference "religious fundamentalism" in order to demean our points only serves to show how close minded you yourself are, not in regards to operating systems or portability, but in regards to accepting other people's opinions as equally valid opinions as yours.

Just popping in to say that was most definitely sarcasm.

Anyone tried with wine 4.1?