MattyWS

This is a direct question to the devs and/or moderators here that can answer for them. Not a debate topic.

What conditions would need to be met for Serif to make a linux version of the affinity suite? How much of a global market share would linux need? If Adobe suddenly decides to make a linux version? A kickstarter campaign to guarantee the funds needed, removing all risk? Would it take Serif themselves becoming financially comfortable enough to be able to experiment and expand?

What needs to be done to get a Linux version?

If you aren't interested in the topic, I would say the best thing to do is not get involved in the topic. ^^

Wasn't a question about wine or asking serif to make a linux version like the other topics, I'm talking about what conditions need to be met for Serif to make a native version. I'm also not interested in a debate about if it should be done, and the other linux topics have devolved into a bunch of Windows nuts trying to convince everyone that linux sucks. I'm not interested in that noise.

If you aren't interested in the topic, I would say the best thing to do is not get involved in the topic.

If you aren't interested in the topic, I would say the best thing to do is not get involved in the topic. ^^

To confirm, I am a moderator of the Affinity Forums - however I'm not a Developer or manager of the Affinity apps, therefore this decision is not mine to make.
I can only provide you with the information we are provided with internally, which I will do my best to summarise below:
As far as I understand, we have no current plans for a Linux version, and no current intention for this to change.
We unfortunately cannot comment on your 'what if' scenarios, as not only would this be purely speculative, any such major shifts in the market would likely require a large overhaul of many software companies, including Affinity - and this isn't something that I believe any company would actively plan for or consider, based on the previous market trends.
I am not aware of any current 'goal' or 'criteria' to achieve before the above changes. 
We are currently interested in continuing to improve and update the Affinity apps across Windows, macOS and iPadOS and are not, at this time, looking to develop for the Linux market.
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I do not wish for this post to be seen as a 'definitive answer' as to whether we will, or won't develop for Linux in the future, as this isn't something I can personally say for certain.
As you may have heard before, "You never know what tomorrow brings" and similar to your hypothetical questions in your original post, no one can ever be truly certain of the future and how the ever changing landscape of software development may move our current ideas.

Users are allowed to ask questions on these forums without being discouraged by others. Hovering over any users icon in the desktop version of these forums offers an ignore option (for non Staff). 

Wasn't the question of if they currently have plans and unless you're a developer I don't think you're qualified to answer the question of this topic.

If you aren't interested in the topic, I would say the best thing to do is not get involved in the topic. ^^ I don't wanna come across as a jerk by repeating this, but it seems pretty consistent that any topic here about linux devolves into windows and mac users hating. I don't go into every other topic on this forum to tell people how much I hate their needs, questions or feature requests, I'd suggest everyone not do that either.

Wasn't a question about wine or asking serif to make a linux version like the other topics, I'm talking about what conditions need to be met for Serif to make a native version. I'm also not interested in a debate about if it should be done, and the other linux topics have devolved into a bunch of Windows nuts trying to convince everyone that linux sucks. I'm not interested in that noise.

If you aren't interested in the topic, I would say the best thing to do is not get involved in the topic.

This is a direct question to the devs and/or moderators here that can answer for them. Not a debate topic.

What conditions would need to be met for Serif to make a linux version of the affinity suite? How much of a global market share would linux need? If Adobe suddenly decides to make a linux version? A kickstarter campaign to guarantee the funds needed, removing all risk? Would it take Serif themselves becoming financially comfortable enough to be able to experiment and expand?

What needs to be done to get a Linux version?

Wasn't a question about wine or asking serif to make a linux version like the other topics, I'm talking about what conditions need to be met for Serif to make a native version. I'm also not interested in a debate about if it should be done, and the other linux topics have devolved into a bunch of Windows nuts trying to convince everyone that linux sucks. I'm not interested in that noise.

If you aren't interested in the topic, I would say the best thing to do is not get involved in the topic.

They have enough on their plate sorting Mac, Windows and OSPad fixes out  without adding Linux to the mix.
Is it financially worth it? while there are a lot of linux desktop users is it financially viable to make a paid for system that caters for 4-5% of the desktop OS market and then deal with the compatibility of the major desktop distros e.g. Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro, Fedora and Arch and all their baby sub distro's and, while there is a hive of linux bees ready to get their busy fingers on the keyboard and into the command line to solve all the issues that come up, I don't think enthusiasm will sustain development.
Caveat: I have been known to be wrong    

When you say it flashes, like what constantly or every time you move the cursor over it or just once in a blue moon?

This is probably because linux users actually want to use linux, while most windows users are stuck with what they got from the store.
 
I've noticed the loudest anti-cross platform people in this forum often say they totally daily drive Linux, but if that were true they wouldn't be so against their favourite softwares coming to Linux. Best guess is they just use windows and want to get a leg up in the debate like "guys come on I totally use Linux daily and it's awful no one should use it, I should know because I totally use it myself, please don't make software for me or Linux even though i totally use it." - Seems sus.

Cross platform software should be encouraged and celebrated.

You don't understand how software works. Certainly not the costs.

This is true for practically all software, including open source software - the license (open source or not) allows you to make use of code (source or binary) that belongs to someone else.
This is not to say that there are not other reasons to avoid various commercial licenses, but this matter of "ownership" is not one of them, since you will face that unless you write 100% of the code yourself, or buy the company or (often the case) the set of companies that own the [pieces of the] product you want to use.  Microsoft likely does not own 100% of what ships with Windows - for example, they too are paying to license fonts from others, to be able to include them with the operating system.  Apple does the same thing.

I see this thread turned into a windows vs linux fanboy style flame war and I'd like to just step in and say people should take a breath. If you use Windows and you love it and would never switch to anything else, good for you! You have the Affinity Suite on your OS of choice. This kind of topic is not about you and you gain nothing from trying to gatekeep what Serif does. You already got what you wanted from the start.

This thread is about the people that daily drive a different OS that is severely lacking in the photo/vector editing side of things. I'm one of those people and I've made do with what I have (I use substance designer, krita and darktable for my image needs). It would be absolutely fantastic to have a good image manipulation software like affinity but even more so, I'm really missing affinity designer.

I honestly think affinity would dominate the space if they made linux versions of their suite. It would be the best. There is practically no competition.

As for people who are saying no one uses linux so Serif shouldn't bother, that hasn't stopped Autodesk from having Maya or Houdini, it didn't stop Epic's Unreal engine or Unity engine having native linux versions. It didn't stop FOSS projects like Blender, Godot, Gimp and Inkscape either. There's all kinds of professional software that has linux native versions that are maintained to this day alongside windows and mac versions, from massive corperations to non profits. I don't think anyone can say "no one uses linux" because obviously, we do. The desktop marketshare is rising to 5% if it's not already there, and for gaming it has overtaken Mac. There are whole companies banking on Linux like Valve, System76 etc. It's not dead and it's not dying, the linux marketshare is ever growing and IMO shouldn't be ignored.

My reasons for using linux is because it's faster, sleek and completely under my control. I don't agree to the windows ToS. Anyone that uses windows has no control over their system, heck you don't even own windows, you are licensed to it which MS can revoke at any time they want. I'm a professional game developer (3d artists specifically) and I, along with many others, are fast realising this is an option we can take.

This thread isn't about what is better out of linux mac or windows. mac and windows users already got what they want from Serif. Please stop bothering to gatekeep and let people discuss the topic at hand, which is that linux users want and need a suite like affinity and would welcome Serif!

I disagree that comparing gimp and blender is unfair. I specifically said gimp needs to have that backing to succeed, not that gimp isn't succeeding despite having some kind of backing.

Also if the "default" is not user friendly thats the problem of the application not people IMO. Why would it be non-user friendly by default on purpose?

Man, I have been getting that a lot on this forum... We ask for the methods of our workflow to be better or just possible, explaining exactly why it currently isn't viable in AP and get remarks from other forum goers like "just do this 50 step thing using these 5 other applications, whats the problem?". The problem is always quite simple, the solution is always clear... yet people on this forum seem addicted to resisting feedback on behalf of the devs and it washes out the discussion.

If people dont agree (understand) with feedback, requests or constructive criticism of the topic, don't bother coming into the topic just to disregard it.

Okay, so what exactly is not working in Affinity Photo when you need to edit files with an alpha channel?
EDIT: nevermind, now I understand what the problem is.

They could very literally have made affinity work like native through wine tbh. I know Serif said they won't be supporting linux, but it could have been kinda simple. Like some of the latest and greatest videogames that are being released with day 1 steamdeck support are actually just windows games, even though steamdeck is linux. That's how easy things are getting. Serif could dedicate a little time to wine development specifically for their product and be done, everyone on linux would have a working suite worth using.

Heck my company doesn't support a linux version of our game, but when it stopped working on steamdeck after an update my colleagues went out and got a steamdeck, fixed the issue and released a patch *just* for linux support, despite being a windows game. This honestly is how it should be. with software development. Devs should be passionate about getting their product into the hands of people that want it.

Yea, I've accepted that Serif have chosen not to support the Linux platform (regardless of if I disagree with that choice it's theirs to make). No need to act out and try to punish them for it. I just wish they'd develop their applications in such a way that it would be truly cross platform (or at least make it work via wine)

I disagree that comparing gimp and blender is unfair. I specifically said gimp needs to have that backing to succeed, not that gimp isn't succeeding despite having some kind of backing.

Also if the "default" is not user friendly thats the problem of the application not people IMO. Why would it be non-user friendly by default on purpose?

The deal is good, £90 for all of their software on all supported platforms is a steal to be fair. Linux sadly isn't one of those platforms, though I would still love for it to be. Anyways, I guess with v2 they've kinda cut off any chance of using affinity on linux for now.

Gimp needs more than some love. Gimp needs to either be build from the ground up or be taken on by a decent company like Blender has. Without a decent backing, Gimp is nothing. Progress on updates are extremely slow and the updates that are coming according to the roadmap are minimal, meanwhile Blender is blazing forward taking over the 3D industry with every update they bring. It's a real shame tbh. 

Krita is great but limited to its own thing, hand painted raster images. Inkscape is not very intuitive, especially compared to the likes of Affinity Designer, but I respect that its a good application once you learn how to use it.

In the end like 1stn00b said, darktable is a great photo editor (specifically only photo editor really). It's a shame there's nothing really like Affinity Photo or Photoshop for us on Linux that can be taken seriously. These days I really just use darktable for editing images in batches, substance designer for channel packing and photopea if I need to do any random image manipulating thats not too heavy. The Affinity Suite on linux would just be awesome. There are millions of linux users out there wanting this and even more people who don't realise they want it until it comes.

 

is that to say that this MSIX will not be installable on linux via wine at all? D: I had high hopes. I purchased the full v2 suite anyway in the hopes it might work on linux, but I do have an ipad/thinking of getting a macbook as well so it's no major loss... but I do daily drive linux so it'd kinda suck if the devs went a route that blocks us entirely

They could very literally have made affinity work like native through wine tbh. I know Serif said they won't be supporting linux, but it could have been kinda simple. Like some of the latest and greatest videogames that are being released with day 1 steamdeck support are actually just windows games, even though steamdeck is linux. That's how easy things are getting. Serif could dedicate a little time to wine development specifically for their product and be done, everyone on linux would have a working suite worth using.

Heck my company doesn't support a linux version of our game, but when it stopped working on steamdeck after an update my colleagues went out and got a steamdeck, fixed the issue and released a patch *just* for linux support, despite being a windows game. This honestly is how it should be. with software development. Devs should be passionate about getting their product into the hands of people that want it.