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Even there, l think that credible alternatives now exist on Linux even if it means getting used to a comparable workflow. Examples include, but are not limited to, PhotoLine+Wine, Inkscape and VivaDesigner. In my case, l use Pixeluvo which is an excellent slot in replacement for Adobe Photoshop Elements.

I would quite happily settle for the Affinity range of products, particularly Affinity Photo, just running well with Wine/Crossover. The different developers behind the PhotoScape, PhotoLine and Sagelight image editors all make the effort to ensure that their softwares run well with Wine/Crossover so that Linux users are not left out.

This is the mildly controversial bit - Cook is a bean counter accountant and since the great majority of sales have been for iPhones, he's concentrated on them and simplifying everything to cater for their reduced requirements and that regrettably that means a lot of good software has now either been dumbed down, neglected or axed entirely. His official Apple biography describes him as a Fuqua Scholar and I would quite agree with that. I'd like to think that if Steve Jobs had still been with us that he would not have gone down that route and that he would have ensured that professional Mac users were also catered for.

The old versions of Picasa are still out there for download and use or you could use FastStone. One of the unfortunate things about the current Apple leadership is their obsession with dumbing down professional grade software to the minimum level suitable only for use on Instagram, etc. I can't see either Apple or Serif Europe developing a replacement for Aperture so alternatives include DigiKam, ACDSee Photo Studio and Lightroom Classic standalone. Some people have also had success in using Retroactive to get Aperture running on Big Sur on Intel Macs.

Unfortunately, Darling isn't nearly as advanced as Wine is as a project. Running macOS command line only apps is now possible on Linux and they're working on simple graphical user interface apps now but nothing like as complex as Affinity Photo, etc yet (that is possibly years away, if ever).

^ This is excellent news and that software ought to be better known, especially since it can work well on Linux with Wine. Indeed, I'd like to see it bundled up with Wine as an easy to install Snap from the Ubuntu Software Center just like PhotoScape is. If anyone else is considering trying out this software then there are a couple of introductory guides out there for PhotoLine in English: http://www.russellcottrell.com/photo/PhotoLine/downloads/PhotoLineTutorial.pdf http://evrencomert.com/PhotoLine.htm If anyone needs further advice and assistance then help forums are available in both English and German. And now here is a screenshot of PhotoLine in action:

They are indeed interesting statistics and now all the world's 500 top supercomputers run on Linux which displaced assorted Unix variants such as IBM AIX, etc (OS X, BSD and Windows were just not contenders there). For us, the really important figure is the desktop market share and last summer Netmarketshare (they have now stopped collecting data) was reporting the Linux figure as 3.6% desktop market compared with 9.2% for macOS and 86.7% for Windows and that relatively low Linux market share is why many general commercial software providers are reluctant to make their software products available for Linux. That said, l hope that at some stage the Serif Affinity product range can become available on Linux via Wine/Crossover. Finally, Linux has gone where macOS and Windows cannot go and Linux can be now be found on two planets since the Ingenuity helicopter that's been flying on Mars has a Linux operating system:

There are some native Linux alternatives out there to try out including VivaDesigner, PageStream and Scribus with the first two being paid-for. The best that can be practically hoped for right now is that it can be made to work with Wine/Crossover at some future stage. In the meantime, there's the Adobe Photoshop Elements equivalent that is the native Linux Pixeluvo software (I have this) and the full Adobe Photoshop equivalent that is PhotolLine with Wine (it gets a Platinum rating for working so well with Wine). There are a couple of introductory guides out there for PhotoLine in English: http://www.russellcottrell.com/photo/PhotoLine/downloads/PhotoLineTutorial.pdf http://evrencomert.com/PhotoLine.htm There are images of Pixeluvo (top) and PhotoLine (bottom) below:

Right now, Serif Europe are probably, and quite rightly, concentrating on ensuring that the Affinity software products work well on the new Apple silicon Macs since that will be a large customer base for them. A DAM will probably be very low on their list of priorities because that market is already crowded with existing and very good products and so it doesn't make much economic sense to try to enter that market.

It turns out that at WineHQ, the most recent versions of PhotoLine that were tested got the best possible Platinum rating for working well with Wine and here's a quote from one satisfied user, "PhotoLine is rock solid on my Wine. Awesome stuff!". ^ I'd like to see that too for Affinity Photo.

Then that means you can use Affinity Photo, etc, right? Personally, I wouldn't go down that dual boot route but I would use, and buy, software was native Linux or that worked well with CrossOver/Wine.

It is really excellent news that you have found a practical and capable alternative right now that works well 🙂

To be fair to it, is much easier to use than Gimp that comes with a distinct learning curve plus it has loads of plugins to enhance its capabilities including G'mic, Topaz filters and other Photoshop filters. It is also free and donations are welcome.

I've only seen this in forums and on Youtube and it's also apparently possible to run Paint.net on Linux using PlayOnLinux but I've not tried it.

But I'll bet you'll find that it pretty much does what Photoshop does and that it's light years ahead of Gimp. If it helps (although they are only in English), there are a couple of introductory guides out there: http://www.russellcottrell.com/photo/PhotoLine/downloads/PhotoLineTutorial.pdf http://evrencomert.com/PhotoLine.htm I do know of people who use the old Photoshop CS2 with Wine rather than use Gimp.

This is only my own view, based on official Serif Europe comments such as on Twitter, and so I think there is little to no chance of getting a native Linux version of any of Affinity products in the near future because of Linux's tiny desktop market share that currently makes it both uneconomic and highly speculative to port over any of the Affinity products to Linux. That said, I hope that the relevant sets of developers concerned can cooperate to at least see if it is technically possible to get the Affinity softwares to run reasonably well with CrossOver/Wine and l think that is a more realistic objective. For example, the native Windows Photoscape image editor works so well with Wine so that it is now an Ubuntu Snap in the software store. In the meantime, I'd suggest looking over at the alternativeto(dot)net site to see what other software options are open to you to try out.

That said, the most efficient workflow might be achieved by using the same machine for processing and editing. A positive start along that route might be, for example, looking into how Affinity Photo could possibly work well and CrossOver/Wine and I hope that at some stage a constructive dialogue between the sets of developers concerned can be developed.

Personally, l think it's unfortunate when open source advocates claim that Gimp is the equal of Photoshop, etc, when it quite clearly isn't because it still lacks important and necessary features. In your case, it might be worth trying out the native Linux Pixeluvo software and/or the Windows version of PhotoLine with CrossOver/Wine and see how you get on with those two softwares.

Then what could happen under those circumstances is such studios banding together and agreeing to fund full time Linux developers at Serif Europe to produce Linux ports of the wanted Affinity softwares that can then be sold back to the studios and a wider audience including the rest of us Linux users here. In the event that such a funding offer is declined, the funding and developers could then be directed at Gimp, etc to bring it up to the same professional standard of Affinity Photo, Paintshop Pro, Photoshop. etc.

In the meantime, you might like to look at VivaDesigner, Canva and PageStream that are Linux-friendly.

That is a fair question to ask and while macOS and Linux are Unix-like cousins as we can see from the diagram below, Apple's macOS has very significantly diverged from its BSD origins to become a closed, proprietary operating system that has a kernel that's different from both BSD and Linux, that has a different graphics stack from both BSD and Linux and Apple's own Metal application programming interface is their own hardware acceleration 3D graphic routine that is unlike the Linux and BSD open source equivalents. Basically, it's just as difficult these days to port software over from macOS to Linux as it is from Windows to Linux.

Serif Affinity currently regard it as uneconomic to develop for Android because of the fragmented operating system versions and the huge variety of technical variations on each range of phones from all the different manufacturers. No amount of potential crowdfunding initiatives will change those facts. Indeed, even Adobe only support a very limited range of devices and Android versions - Android9 + Android10 on specific Pixel, Samsung, One Plus, Oppo and Sony Experia devices and that's it.

It's not that Serif Europe won't do a Linux version; the real issue is that it's just not economically viable to do so at the present time because of Linux's small, general market share on PCs and laptops for everyday use. Personally, I would be very grateful if, for example, Affinity Photo could work well on Crossover/Wine and that would be fine for me. That would be a far more cost efficient way of delivering Affinity products to Linux users and that is what we should be politely asking for.

I think the best way to think about it is that macOS and Linux are Unix-like cousins but are not identical twins. Not only does macOS have separate BSD origins, its kernel and graphics stack are completely different so what will work on macOS will not work on Linux and vice versa. Therefore, if someone really needs to have Affinity products for their work then the only options are Windows or macOS or Linux but only using either of the two other operating systems in a virtual machine which takes up extra system resources.

Thing is, there's already a ton of DAM/RAW edtor softwares already out there and it is just a matter of finding one that suits your individual workflow. For example, professional photographer Joe Cristina has endorsed Affinity Photo as a repplacement for perma-rental Photoshop CC and he was using Exposure X5 with Affinity Photo.