Is Affinity still alive?

[AlSimm0ns]

Hi,

I am an Affinity Designer and Photo user since it has been in beta state. I started on macOS and switched to Windows and purchased all three existing products for Windows as well.

A while ago, I switched back to macOS and can still use Designer and Photo I have purchased through App Store years ago, which is nice. I wonder if I should spend any additional money on buying Publisher on macOS as well, or start looking for alternatives.

The reason why I am so reluctant is the fact that I honestly believe the product suite is dead. Why am I thinking like that?

It has been quite a while ago since there has been any updates and there is absolutely no information or news announced by the vendor. Literally nothing! To me, this is a good indication that the product is dead. Some people may argue, "they are obviously working hard on 2.0 releases of their products". Well ... no! Honestly, if this is the case, why not spreading any news or teasers to keep their customers company? This silence is not a good sign.

Now their customers are left behind with tons of files in a proprietary format they have created over the years and can't use with anything else but Affinity.

If I am totally wrong and you guys are still around and working on updates or new releases, you are currently loosing all trust people gave in you! No information is not good at all.

Please, let me know what you think.

[PaulEC]

YES – Affinity is alive and well!

As your question is actually quite similar to the question "Is Affinity dead?" on this forum, it might be easier to have a look at that thread, rather than starting yet another endless discussion!

Yes, Serif are working on v2 of the apps and no, customers are not "left behind" because there have not been any updates of v1 for a while. The current versions of Affinity haven't suddenly stopped working, so having files in a proprietary format is not a problem.

[AlSimm0ns]

Hi,

but why not making any announcement, or show a few screenshots, or anything that makes us believe that things are "ok"? It should be very obvious that this silence is not any good at all, and leaves a lot of room for rumors and doubts.

I agree with you that versions do not stop working from one day to another. But since the products utilize a lot of macOS APIs and foo, it is very likely that the product needs to be updated to make it work on a more recent version of macOS.

This threat seem to be related to ...

[PaulEC]

The problem is that Serif do make comments in the forums, but some people insist on, at best, ignoring them, and, at worst, implying that they are lying!

I don't think that Serif should have to "make us believe" anything! They make as much information public as is appropriate for any company which is working on new products or new versions of existing products.

[AlSimm0ns]

I guess when $THINGS are usually released in known cycles, there is no need to announce anything since people kind of know when releases might be expected. But in this case, I don't think a bit more transparency would harm anyone. I also don't believe that announcements in their forum are appropriate, I assume that most people may check the main website for news

Basically, the fact that there are people asking themselves what is going on is an indication that some update/news would be appreciated.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to troll in a forum or offend anyone, I am basically trying to get an idea of what is going on and open a discussion around this. Maybe there are others sharing the same thoughts ... I thought this is what a forum is intended to be used for.

In the end, I am a big fan of their products and I even bought most of them twice ... I am only looking for a life signal

[PaulEC]

3 minutes ago, AlSimm0ns said:

I am basically trying to get an idea of what is going on and open a discussion around this. Maybe there are others sharing the same thoughts ... I thought this is what a forum is intended to be used for.

That's fine, it's just that there's already another thread, basically saying the same thing, which has already run to twelve pages! It would probably be better to stick with that one, rather than starting a new one, just repeating the same things! IMHO - There's not really much point in opening a "new" discussion about something that has already been discussed ad infinitum in an older thread!

[debraspicher]

6 hours ago, AlSimm0ns said:

leaves a lot of room for rumors and doubts.

I don't buy into this argument that because a company becomes quiet means a product is dead on the shelf. This is just scaremongering. There have always been "rumors" and "doubts". The same people who love to ruminate and feed off of drama. As another user said, they can be as forthcoming as they'd like, but this crowd will feed off of it.

Serif may have a specific time in mind to announce. Maybe they need to announce alongside something else being developed that isn't quite ready yet. To be perfectly fair, we're not entitled to know until it is meant to be made public. It may be the software side is going very well, but the business side are not ironed out. There are risks to announcing something too soon.

Also I think it is not at all correct to assume most product announcements are known before they're actually announced. This is silly. The potential buzz an announcement creates is wasted if it is not timed closer to release. It tends to be more we come to "know" about anything occurring either through leaks (i.e. unofficial) or employee buzz. There is already an article to this effect. There is commentary in their YT channel that if read a certain way would seem to suggest multiple things in the works. Aside from posts here on the forum that are vague from moderators, I don't know where this problematic change in business structure actually comes from other than wishful thinking? The fact they're even willing to talk about V2 is a huge change imo since we don't tend to even know about potential feature release updates.

[AlSimm0ns]

You have some valid points, for sure. On the other hand, when I consider the pace they have released updates (specially on Windows)in the past, it has turned pretty quiet around their products.

Let's say I am just a bit too worried and need someone saying "it will be all fine, soon".

[PaulEC]

12 minutes ago, AlSimm0ns said:

Let's say I am just a bit too worried and need someone saying "it will be all fine, soon".

That has already been said, in the other thread and elsewhere!

I get where you're coming from, but, honestly, there's no need to worry! Serif is doing just fine and working hard on v2 (and APub for iPad).

[debraspicher]

10 minutes ago, AlSimm0ns said:

You have some valid points, for sure. On the other hand, when I consider the pace they have released updates (specially on Windows)in the past, it has turned pretty quiet around their products.

Let's say I am just a bit too worried and need someone saying "it will be all fine, soon".

Here you go:
 

 

[debraspicher]

Here's more... check comments:

 

[Twolane]

https://xkcd.com/386/

[PaoloT]

16 hours ago, AlSimm0ns said:

It has been quite a while ago since there has been any updates

… and in the meantime Adobe came out with InDesign 2022, that introduced inclusive language and a scalable user interface!

 

[Twolane]

Inclusive language? How does that work in a software menu?

[PaoloT]

8 hours ago, Twolane said:

Inclusive language? How does that work in a software menu?

You are not implying that /menu/ is a male word, aren't you???

(On a second though: menu is a colonial remain, with the implicit idea that someone can eat things cultivated by lower-class people in a dominated country, and served by lower-class minorities to upper-class dominating people!)

There is an ongoing discussion on Reddit:

 

 

[debraspicher]

12 hours ago, Twolane said:

Inclusive language? How does that work in a software menu?

Probably spell check. MS Office added something very similar. I disabled it.

[MikeW]

4 hours ago, PaoloT said:

... menu is a colonial remain...

Hah hah.

The Master page versus Parent page thing is pretty dumb. At least when compared to the currently still used Master terminology when scripting.

I'm awaiting the day younger people complain that Parent/Child relationship is also deemed offensive/oppressive. The bright minds at Adobe will probably change it once again to some made-up term--which still will have a Master connotation.

[Twolane]

Well, if it's no longer a men-u, can we call it a them-u?

[Mithferion]

I wonder if someone can really master all those terminology changes that people want to be implemented.

Best regards!