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Affinity Suite Updates Tool Design Concept


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Thanks for the mock-up. An updater app running in the background has been suggested before, particularly useful given StudioLink and how the apps are best kept in sync.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/21/2022 at 12:33 PM, Patrick Connor said:

Thanks for the mock-up. An updater app running in the background has been suggested before, particularly useful given StudioLink and how the apps are best kept in sync.

Oh God no, not more programs and services starting with the OS and running in the background all the time please. It's a disease carried over from Windows, where you can have more icons in the System Tray than in a busy taskbar. In 2022 there must be a better way - doing this check from inside the programs while they run or using the OS scheduling service to run a check at whatever interval.

If the program is not going to do anything important daily or even weekly, and will probably only have something to offer every few months, then there is no reason for it to run non-stop. And as I read it, StudioLink just needs to be in sync with major releases, not minor service releases.

 

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On 7/21/2022 at 3:33 AM, Patrick Connor said:

Thanks for the mock-up. An updater app running in the background has been suggested before, particularly useful given StudioLink and how the apps are best kept in sync.

I am fairly certain that some of the software I have (BBEdit and Max) check for updates each time they are started, and only when they are started. I can use BBEdit's BBEdit menu to check for updates as well. If I am not hooked up to the internet no check is made and nothing bad happens.

Regardless this is just a notification that there is an update available and I can choose to ignore the update for subsequent startups, go to the website(s) or download and install it.

The caveat is that this happens only on startup, there are people who will insist on running applications without quitting them for weeks on end. Full disclosure I am one of those people [ashamed and guilty look emoticon].

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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6 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

The caveat is that this happens only on startup, there are people who will insist on running applications without quitting them for weeks on end. Full disclosure I am one of those people [ashamed and guilty look emoticon].

Many programs often check at the start, because the programmers and the companies have chosen the easy solution of a one-off check at the start. Because everyone else does.

Then someone makes update checkers that run in the background all the time, because everyone else does.

And then someone integrates all sorts of junk into these programs, e.g. cloud services, out of self-interest and uses it as a sales channel for all sorts of other things. I don't get the feeling that there are highly trained programmers specialising in optimisation and minimal programming developing these components. There is space junk. And then there's software junk. They have more in common than you think.

But... The programmers and companies can design it however they want. Pretty much. And especially go smarter.

That goes for emojis too; I've contacted The Unicode Consortium with strong recommendation to make an ashamed and guilty look emoticon. You'll need it! 🙂

 

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16 minutes ago, Customer Feedback said:

That goes for emojis too; I've contacted The Unicode Consortium with strong recommendation to make an ashamed and guilty look emoticon. You'll need it! 🙂

The Unicode Consortium have a restraining order against me, simply because I have been lobbying them to remove all emojis from their system. I am a bit irrational about it, and may have been a tad too emotional. Things were said. Often. 

Seriously though, I agree about the junk software and its ability to cause problems. This applies to a lot of utility software too.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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The Creative Cloud badge jumping out when I’m doing other things is a little nightmare. I personally prefer more discrete ways of notifying about updates, for example when opening the app, or when running the dedicated manager app.

Paolo

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/4/2022 at 8:36 AM, PaoloT said:

The Creative Cloud badge jumping out when I’m doing other things is a little nightmare. I personally prefer more discrete ways of notifying about updates, for example when opening the app, or when running the dedicated manager app.

Paolo

 

That's exactly what I'm proposing here? I'm confused now...
My idea is a dedicated manager app like creative cloud but for affinity programs.

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14 minutes ago, angelhdz12 said:

That's exactly what I'm proposing here? I'm confused now...
My idea is a dedicated manager app like creative cloud but for affinity programs.

I was glad to finally get rid of (Adobe and) that thing Adobe created, which was a pain. Not only full of issues but was also yet another program running (and made uninstalling individual programs a pain).

This is not needed at all for Affinity. Or any software program. If the installer automatically overwrites the existing version and keeps settings (which it does) no need for anything new. Especially because there's already a mechanism to detect new versions in place, so why yet another tool?

Also this is yet another software program that needs to be upgraded once in a while. So it's only pushing the same problem to a different tool and create yet another problem. And could potentially only make things more prone to errors.

I also turn off all auto-checks/-updates for update features in some software programs (not all and browsers always check). And just install when there's a new version and it's time to upgrade to a stable version and no projects can suffer from it. I also turn off notifications etc. wherever possible. I don't need all that noise and don't want too many things lurking in the background.

Love your design, but about realisation of such an app: thanks, but no thanks. 

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9 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

I was glad to finally get rid of (Adobe and) that thing Adobe created, which was a pain. Not only full of issues but was also yet another program running (and made uninstalling individual programs a pain).

This is not needed at all for Affinity. Or any software program. If the installer automatically overwrites the existing version and keeps settings (which it does) no need for anything new. Especially because there's already a mechanism to detect new versions in place, so why yet another tool?

Also this is yet another software program that needs to be upgraded once in a while. So it's only pushing the same problem to a different tool and create yet another problem. And could potentially only make things more prone to errors.

I also turn off all auto-checks/-updates for update features in some software programs (not all and browsers always check). And just install when there's a new version and it's time to upgrade to a stable version and no projects can suffer from it. I also turn off notifications etc. wherever possible. I don't need all that noise and don't want too many things lurking in the background.

Love your design, but about realisation of such an app: thanks, but no thanks. 

Thanks for replying, but everything you mentioned sounds just like a personal opinion. Sounds more like complaints than actual Concept Failure Highlights.

Disclaimer: I don't pretend to be rude with my following statements. I just want to be realist.

A tool is a tool. You use it, or don't use it.

It's optional.

The people who want it, and make use of it, they install it.
The  people who don't want it, or don't see any value to it, don't install it.

Easy as that.

Did I misdirect you suggesting the including of this tool every time the Affinity programs start? Because that's not what I proposed.

As far as I know (wow long time I left Adobe), the Creative Cloud was NOT optional, we were forced to install it and use it in order to install/uninstall/repair their software.

I'm proposing an optional and independent tool to handle installation/uninstallation/repair of Affinity software.

And now that we are throwing opinions around, let me add a new one:

I hate when I open a program and want to work with it quickly but I have to spend extra seconds while a popup appears letting me know there's a new update,
and having to think "do I need this update now? Can I update later?" And then clicking the appropriate button. It generates me more anxiety than the one I already
suffer.

With the tool I'm proposing, we can, at a convenient time, open it, and then be informed of the new updates available, either for the tool itself, or for the installed programs, and decide if we want to update, repair an installation, or uninstall a program. And we can deactivate the notifications, sounds, popups, everything.

That's all.

To me it sounds convenient, cool, useful.

And thanks for the compliments about my UI concept LOL. Wanted to follow Material Design but ended being minimalist, ditching shadows,  and respecting Affinity's UI design patterns.

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On 9/29/2022 at 8:57 AM, angelhdz12 said:

Thanks for replying, but everything you mentioned sounds just like a personal opinion. Sounds more like complaints than actual Concept Failure Highlights.

This clearly isn't personal, but my professional experience as senior in (motion) design, software development and animation for quite some professional years now and being an entrepeneur. About the contents: sorry, but we have to agree to disagree on this.

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  • 1 month later...
Quote

sorry, but we have to agree to disagree on this.

Saying that doesn't make you the gatekeeper of the truth.

Yes, you can have your opinion, and I can have my opinion and we both should respect each others opinions, but what you are doing is,
trying to use the typical "i've been doing [WHATEVER] for 15-30 years, that means that my opinion is the only true one".

That's not how respecting opinions work. You should go back to school because in you (motion) design course they failed to teach you that.

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