8BitCerberus

I see, I see... so your work standards are higher than Apple or Microsoft? Serif? Adobe? That's pretty amazing. The old "do your own research" approach. Cool. Tell me you didn't read the article I linked without saying you didn't read the article I linked. From the article:

Pedantic semantics. 😑 Then explain it to me. Both you and Chills claim it's "completely different" but offer no explanation WHY or HOW. Not my statement, it's the statement of whoever wrote that article/response. But I will admit it's generally a statement I agree with, barring very niche cases such as a simple "hello world" program, or writing everything from scratch in assembly or binary, because just using a standard language comes with their own bugs and security holes that get patched up in later versions of those languages. External libraries being used, same issue. And if you ARE coding assembly or binary from scratch you are almost certainly even more likely to have bugs and security holes unless you are having all your code undergo thorough review with every change you make. We are often blind to our own mistakes. That you know of. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it is highly improbable.

Please enlighten me, then. Also, I read through the links LondonSquirrel posted and you have been referencing for all your criticisms of Flatpak. Here's a response https://tesk.page/2021/02/11/response-to-flatkill-org.html

This is why I said "essentially" because it's not "exactly" the same. But it is *essentially* the same. If you look a Mac app packages, often they DO contain libraries within them that may or may not already be installed on the OS. And similarly with Windows exe, if it's a standalone exe then yes it relies on the libraries it needs already being installed on the system or will require the user to install them if they're not already. But if it's an installer, often it includes those libraries that it needs, or at the very least automatically downloads and rolls their installations in with it's own. Or if it's a "portable" app, then it definitely includes any library that it needs, as well as keeping all it's settings and the user's preferences contained within it's own folder that can then be taken to any other computer and used with all the same settings applied. Which is what Flatpak and Appimage aims to alleviate, and to an extent Snaps as well. The particular dependencies that a program requires are included with the program, they are "fixed" at whatever version they need to be for the program to function as it was intended. When that program gets updated, if it needs a newer version of those dependencies, it will include those new dependencies with it's update. It doesn't matter if the dependencies are or are not installed on the OS directly, and even if they are installed it doesn't matter if they get updated/changed/removed/altered in any way that may break programs that depend on them. This is why Flatpack, et al, can run on effectively any Linux distribution. You keep saying they can't run on all of them "by a long shot"... what distributions can Flatpaks not be used on? Are there many that don't include support by default? Sure. But that doesn't mean they cannot be used. That would be like saying "oh, well, Firefox isn't installed by default on Windows or Mac so I guess it can't be used on them." The user can enable Flatpak typically with one command on effectively every Linux distribution, and often there's a 2nd, optional command to add a plugin to their distribution's package manager GUI, so they can then be searched and installed directly from that instead of the command line. No more than they do for Windows or Mac versions of their software. If they develop using a newer version of a dependency, they just include that dependency in their release. If they continue using the same version of the dependency when they're developing new updates, then they just continue using the same dependency in their release. This is no different from using system APIs on Mac, DLLs on Windows, other dependencies like .NET or Visual Studio & Xcode versions. What "maintenance" are you talking about?

Your fundamental misunderstanding of what Flatpak is is not a Flatpak problem, it's a *you* problem. I don't know how anyone can make it any clearer and you still aren't comprehending. Flatpak is essentially the equivalent of a Windows exe file, or a Mac app package. A single application package, that runs on any Linux distribution. Or at least any that support Flatpak, but that's effectively all of them anyway, so that's a moot point.

For Android and iPad, sure. Not much choice in the matter. As a general rule for my desktops and laptops, however? No.

Have not been able to sign in all week either, also on the Windows versions. I haven't tried admin mode, but honestly that would be a terrible solution if that's the case. Hopefully the devs get this sorted soon, because there should be no reason any of these programs need elevated privileges. Especially not to contact Serif's registration servers.

The... uhh... artboard/page. Seems someone with allegedly 3 decades of experience and knows Quark and InDesign inside and out would, you know... know this. The blue line is the margin indicator, same way it's done in InDesign. Yeah it's a bit annoying but it's not showing by default, you have to go to View > Show Bleed. Not "Show Guides" they're two separate options. Add a mask to the image. This one plagued me for awhile. And it certainly works very different from Adobe. But it's just a different way of thinking about it, make sure your leading is set in BOTH the character and paragraph panel. Couldn't find the Pantone color palette in ... the color palette picker? Ok.I realize it's different from InDesign but come on, it's not that difficult. I don't remember if the Swatches panel is active by default, it's been a minute since I set my workspace up, but once it's active, I find it far easier/more intuitive to change palettes in Designer than in InDesign (it's been about 20 years since I've used Quark so I have no idea how it's done currently). Does this person, of allegedly 30 years of design experience... not change their default workspace in InDesign/Quark to better match their workflow and personal preferences? That's straight up bizarre to me, if they don't, I've never met anyone that does this professionally that doesn't in my 20+ years in the field.

Adobe always does their own thing to break standard/open formats and make them only work with their programs. They do the same with svg and even tiff. It’s been a source of great frustration for me the past couple decades as a graphic designer and web designer working with them and trying to integrate standards compliant software/technology.

I know the original post was from 2017 when this option wasn’t available, but if you want to avoid cloud services and using iTunes, now it’s possible with the Files app to connect to a local network share or NAS, and you can copy files that way. Affinity’s file browser currently doesn’t see them yet, hopefully in an update we’ll get the full Files app functionality, so you can’t directly save to a network share (nor open files from a network share). But as a workaround for the time being, you can save them to any location on you iPad, then switch over to the Files app and copy it to the network share you have mounted. Edit: Another option that again wasn’t available in 2017, is to use a USB stick or HDD/SSD. And again, the Affinity file browser doesn’t see these when mounted, so you’ll have to use the same workaround above, just copying to the mounted drive instead of a network share.

It’s doing that because you used the gradient overlay, instead of using the gradient tool to fill the color as a gradient. I’m not sure why, specifically, they would be treated differently, but I just tested with both and when I use the gradient tool it works as you are expecting, but using the gradient overlay fx it works as you are currently experiencing.

You’re comparing one month of Adobe CC to a one-time purchase that has been good for the last ~5 years for Affinity. Using USD, In 5 years you’d spend $3000 for Adobe CC vs. $50, $100 or $150 for Affinity (depending on if you want one, two or all three Affinity programs). Even in the very worst possible scenario, if Serif were putting out full version upgrades every year (1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0, etc.), you’d be looking at $50 - $150 / year vs. $240 or $600 / year for Adobe CC ($240 if you only need one Adobe program, or $600 if you need more than one). No matter how you look at it the Affinity programs are not anywhere close to what you’d be paying for Photoshop and Illustrator. Now, they’re also not as full-featured, and there are some different workflows you will have to adapt to (such as text on path being in Designer but not Photo), and there are some outright missing features that will need workarounds, and some of those features will eventually come, either in a point update (free) or a full version update (paid.) In general, the Affinity programs will be more than enough for 99% of people. There will always be that 1% who absolutely need every single niche feature of the Adobe programs, and unfortunately for them there is no alternative.

Indeed! I was really looking forward to integrating the iPad apps into my daily workflow, but until these things are resolved it’s looking like I’m only going to be able to use them in a much more limited capacity. I guess one somewhat positive thing from this is it gives me time to start embedding images in my most recent documents, instead of linking them like I have been. I’m not thrilled with the increase in file size that’s going to come of this, but I’d really hate having to re-link images every time I change from iPad to computer and vice versa. I did a few years going back and forth between a PC desktop and Mac laptop with the Adobe suite, and that first week or so constantly re-linking was a nightmare. Now that I’ve been all PC desktop and laptop the last several years I’ve gone back to linking images. Oof!

ON1 should be releasing their mobile app this year, and it would be worth checking out when they do. I think it’s slated for Q1. I’ve been checking on it every few days and no joy yet. If it’s anything like their desktop version, which has finally replaced Lightroom 6 for me (I refuse to subscribe to CC and it pisses me off that they moved LR to CC even after saying they weren’t going to) it will be a great photo manager/organizer and alternative to LR, even if not a full DAM (something like Bridge is a DAM, LR is not a DAM) They’re also going to have a sync between desktop and mobile, that is currently working in beta and works well between my laptop and desktop. I don’t know if it’s going to be a paid service though when it’s fully released, I would hope they allow LAN/WiFi syncing for free and only charge for a paid service if you sync through their cloud or have some cloud storage like CC... I wouldn’t pay for that service, personally, like I won’t pay for CC, but if they keep LAN/WiFi free I’m happy to continue with that.

Having both the iPad and Desktop versions, sometimes it would be nice to have consistency between them, but so far I haven’t had much trouble finding my way around the iPad versions. However this just blew my mind: How do you not? Do you start from scratch for everything, with each new piece? Do you not have recurring clients that have things like logos and common graphics like social media icons or UI elements you need to use over and over in other designs and mockups? Do you just keep cluttered files of common symbols to copy and paste from? As a working designer, the symbols and assets are a godsend. I’ve been using them since they were first introduced into Illustrator so many years ago, and they’ve become a sort of bare minimum requirement for my consideration of alternate programs. I used to keep those cluttered files of symbols and logos, UI elements, social media icons, etc. It’s so much better having them built in and available right from the program, even if just to save the hassle of having to navigate through my file system to open them.