Snapseed

In view of the issues that you've mentioned, I'd suggest looking at the krita-artists(dot)org website to if you can pick up any useful tips and good luck there. For anyone who has no option but to use Gimp, then I suggest heading over to Youtube and the Davies Media Design channel where they have loads of free Gimp tutorial videos.

You can understand why even today why some people prefer to use the old Adobe Photoshop CS2 + Wine rather than use Gimp (hence the logical desire for Affinity Photo). That said, have you tried out any of Krita/Pixeluvo/PencilSheep/Fotoxx depending upon your requirements? All of those softwares are available either from the Ubuntu app store (the first three) or Synaptic Package Manager (the last one).

I fully agree with your excellent points. For example, if I used Microsoft Office with Wine, I would expect no support whatsoever from Microsoft and similarly if Affinity Photo worked well with CrossOver/Wine, I would not expect any support from Serif either. For example, if Affinity Photo ended up working well with CrossOver/Wine, I would still fully expect the Serif team to only list Mac, Windows and iPad under their Tech Specs headings and in these forums I would expect them to state that no direct support for Linux users would be offered either. I would be fine about all of that.

Until the two sets of developers actually start talking to each other*, no one knows precisely how much or how little effort will be required to make the Affinity set of software products work well with CrossOver/Wine. If it's only a few minor tweaks then all well and good but we don't yet know. *I really hope that can happen.

Irrespective of whether Serif chose to highlight it or not, if one or more of their three Affinity products ended up working well with CrossOver/Wine then that would bring in more $$$, €€€ and £££ from Linux users buying the Affinity range of products to use on their desktop PCs and laptops so it is worth talking to the developers involved with CrossOver and Wine.

That is a fair point to make but I think it would be better from a technical point of view if Serif Affinity developers started off initial informal discussions with CodeWeavers developers directly because they market CrossOver which is basically an advanced commercial version of Wine (improvements do get fed into Wine in due course). That would be a win-win for Serif Affinity (more customers for little effort) and for Codeweavers (more sales of Crossover that gives access to a first class photo editor, etc).

With respect, those are, and should be, two entirely different issues and insisting that Serif Affinity starts producing software directly for an operating system that only commands 3% of desktop operating system market share is quite rightly going to get a definite No! for an answer. Getting the Serif Affinity apps to work with Crossover is possibly going to be an order or magnitude or two or more cheaper and easier than full operating system ports. For example, the developers of the PhotoScape image editor will not ever make a dedicated Linux version because Linux's market share is so relatively small that it's just not worth the effort. However, they do make the effort to ensure that PhotoScape for Windows works reasonably well with Crossover/Wine, so much so that there's now an official PhotoScape Ubuntu Snap. I think it is wholly unreasonable at the present time to ask Serif Affinity to port over their apps to Linux. I also think though that it is perfectly reasonable to ask the Serif Affinity developers to at least make the effort to start off some initial, informal discussions with Crossover developers to see how/if the Serif Affinity apps could work with Crossover/Wine and that would be a win-win for everyone. Serif Affinity would get more customers (including me) and desktop Linux users would be able to use the Serif apps without dual booting or the use of a virtual machine.

Thank you and that's good news. Even though I'm a 100% Linux and Android user, I do understand that it's not yet economically viable to produce native ports for either of those two operating systems. I do have just one polite request please if I may. Would it please be possible to at least start off by having some initial, informal discussions with the CodeWeavers developers to see if there are any ways that the rather good Affinity apps could work with CrossOver/Wine so that they could be used on Linux computers? Could you at least try that even if the ultimate answer turns out to be that it's not technically possible and could you please let us know about the overall outcome of such discussions? Thanks!

Unfortunately, there are those who are detached from economic reality and who refuse to recognise that such a fragmented software ecosystem with additional specific manufacturer customisations and fewer updates means it is much less likely that Serif Affinity will ever develop their products for the Android operating system because it just isn't viable to do so not least because it involves so much extra effort on their part.

That policy approach is fine as far as it goes but Samsung Corporation are still villains for abandoning so many phones and tablets and leaving them without more modern Android versions even when the devices concerned can readily accept those updates.

Indeed, not only do you get just 4 years of security updates from Google itself for any particular version of Android, the problem is compounded by individual Android phone and tablet manufacturers insisting on customised (others might use the term bastardised) versions of Android and these manufacturers often support their products for even less time with updates than does Google. Therefore, there is an almighty hot mess of multiple Android versions and customisations around that can create an even more difficult situation for app developers, so much so that I think that Android versions of Serif Affinity products are even less likely to happen than Linux versions which itself is very slim to zero. Under those circumstances, the best thing to do is look for equivalent Google Play apps to the Serif Affinity iOS apps that have good ratings and try them out.

While I get that porting over the Affinity products isn't yet an economically viable option due to Linux's relatively small current market share, I don't think it is being unreasonable to ask the Serif Affinity team to have some initial informal discussions with the Codeweavers developers to see if it is possible to make the Affinity softwares run reasonably well with Crossover/Wine. The answer might still be 'No' but at least they will have tried. The Windows-only PhotoScape image editor does work well with Wine so much so that there's now an Ubuntu Snap version. If, for example, Affinity Photo also came in a bundled Snap, then I would have already bought it and it would already be running on my desktop PC. PS l should add that the PageStream desktop publishing software is also available for Linux. It has an old school interface a bit like Serif's own PagePlus software and l have not tried it out.

I see now and since you really do need professional software to do your work then that leaves only two practical solutions - use Windows 8.1 or 10 that are both currently supported or use macOS on Apple products. I know that Apple computers are expensive and if Windows is less than satisfactory for you then I'd suggest trying out a Macbook or iMac at an Apple store or trying out a friend's Apple computer. I know of people who have bought refurbished Macs, etc. from reputable suppliers to lower the purchase cost and that has worked out well for them. In one case, a friend of mine used to have a Windows desktop PC and I'd be regularly helping her out with computer issues but she switched to a new iMac (and very nice it is too) and I haven't been called out once to assist her. Similarly, I only ever had one Linux (Ubuntu) request for help and that was solved. I think that says something about the stability and reliability of the Unix-like operating systems.

Personally, I'd prefer them to maintain and improve their existing rather good product range not least because there's no shortage of quality DAM softwares and RAW editors already out there. Indeed, it could be risky for Serif Affinity to try to enter existing very crowded software markets.

^ And Lo! We have The Sound of Silence (as Simon & Garfunkel would say).