Please consider Linux as a viable platform - Microsoft is bleeding users to Linux because of their choices.

[TinfoilDurag]

9 hours ago, emptyflask said:

Just upgraded to the V2 suite for all platforms. I have a macbook for work, but would really like to run these natively on Linux (NixOS)! I'd even pay a little more if the apps were available there. Until then, I'll attempt to run under Wine I guess, since now I have a license for the windows versions...

Please let us know how it works for you. Are you using a winemanager as well? Is there a trial version perhaps where I could try it out myself before I commit to a license? I would buy the current license if I was confident I could get it working.

[Alfred]

38 minutes ago, TinfoilDurag said:

Is there a trial version perhaps where I could try it out myself before I commit to a license?

Yes, there is. Here’s the link you need:

https://store.serif.com/get/universal-licence-2/trial/

[TinfoilDurag]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

Yes, there is. Here’s the link you need:

https://store.serif.com/get/universal-licence-2/trial/

Thank you, I'll experiment and report back

[wizzledonker]

11 hours ago, Alfred said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @wizzledonker.

Hey thanks!

11 hours ago, anto said:

I thought it was about REAPER. I use it on Linux and Windows and it works very fast and smoothly.

Yep, nailed it 😊

[mpstaton]

On 5/11/2024 at 5:47 PM, walt.farrell said:

Therefore, if Serif does anything to help it work on Linux, they are "buying in" to keeping it working on Linux. That's an added support cost....

Or they can do what some other companies do and basically allow the community to adapt the software to Linux, (which shouldn't be a whole rebuild, mind you.)

I have a Linux Dev Machine, a Mac and a Windows machine.  Windows I only use for Excel.  There's nothing else I use it for.  Mac is for design and personal use (photo library).  Linux for whatever it can be used for, which for now is almost exclusively dev.  So, if Affinity figured this out, I would probably have no need for a Mac.  

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, mpstaton said:

Or they can do what some other companies do and basically allow the community to adapt the software to Linux,

How does the community do something like that for commercial, non-Open-Source, software?

[danilo]

On 5/11/2024 at 10:26 AM, Vepar said:

I've been using linux for 2 years now, and the only thing i have a WIndows partition for is Affinity software. There's literally nothing so advanced on Linux currently. There's a gaping hole in Linux ecosystem for professional Designer suite, and now that Affinity was bought by Canva, i hope one day, soon, there could be a linux version of Affinity software. With the relative maturity of flatpak there's no more argument of having to package the software for each different linux package manager, you can just have the one, flatpak, and honestly, i'd settle for having Affinity run through wine or proton if native version is too much to ask for.

More and more people are leaving Windows due to their anti consumer behaviour, ads, privacy concerns, and generally not being in control of the OS you have to pay for, and more and more people are choosing Linux as their new home.

There's a growing market and userbase that's just begging to pay for professional software like Affinity. Growing because of the insane decisions Windows keeps adding with each update.

Make history Affinity, be the first professional designer suite for Linux, and i'm sure a lot of people who are held hostage by an increasingly predatory OS will switch and thank you as well!

Currently, i still have my Affinity V1 licence, for my work that's enough, i still don't need what V2 has to offer. But, be it V2 or V3, please make it happen, it can't be that difficult to make it work on linux.

True, so true!

[fde101]

9 hours ago, mpstaton said:

Windows I only use for Excel.

Another option in your case is to use the Mac version of Excel and eliminate Windows, if that is all you are using it for.

That would also get you down to two platforms.

[mpstaton]

2 hours ago, fde101 said:

Another option in your case is to use the Mac version of Excel and eliminate Windows, if that is all you are using it for. That would also get you down to two platform

I really hate to say this, but using Excel on Windows is dramatically improved from using it on Mac.  It's a feature not a bug.  

[wizzledonker]

13 hours ago, mpstaton said:

Or they can do what some other companies do and basically allow the community to adapt the software to Linux, (which shouldn't be a whole rebuild, mind you.)

I think, related to Linux deployment the only sensible choice would be to do something like DaVinci Resolve and only support the software suite on one distribution, pinned to a version. Bug reports are only accepted for commercial partners who are using the VFX reference platform, CentOS and the like. I feel like the whole varied environment would be a lot of what affinity is worrying about. 

Just let the community figure out packaging for different distributions! They’ll work around all the distribution specific bugs for you (hint: that doesn’t happen on other platforms)

Edited June 3 by wizzledonker

[Laura Ess]

Quote

Just let the community figure out packaging for different distributions! They’ll work around all the distribution specific bugs for you (hint: that doesn’t happen on other platforms)

I like this idea. I'm using Mint, but I could easily change that on one PC to accommodate whatever distro was chosen.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

I’m pretty sure AI crap is about to start getting shoved down Mac user throats, too.

I’ve been an avid Mac user since 1987. Using Photoshop since v.1 and Illustrator not long after.

Switched from Quark to InDesign as soon as it was good enough.

Then Adobe became an ouroboros human centipede and I jumped to Affinity.

MacOS is in danger of becoming everything it was designed against. It’s been quiet and respectful of my work and attention. It’s been respectful of my privacy. But there’s a good chance that’s ending, and the thing that has kept me from switching to Linux is the lack of functional creative tools. The existing ones ooze contempt for the users, where Affinity is effective and responsive.

It will fast become the reason I continue to use MacOS.

I don’t like being trapped by billionaires’ fads.

MacOS is already a Unix. Windows isn’t. It can’t be as big a jump from MacOS to Linux as it is from Windows to MacOS.

[Frozen Death Knight]

Mint or Arch would be my go to choices for installing Linux (currently looking into doing so on one of my hard drives for dual booting). Having Affinity being supported on a single distro at least would make the transition easier, since I stopped using Photoshop altogether long ago on my home station.

Having some support for SteamOS I think would be a good idea as well if you want a portable Linux version using the SteamDeck. Assuming that Affinity would ever get its own Steam release which would make Affinity more popular among game developers. At least that's just an idea.

[lashman]

4 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Having some support for SteamOS I think would be a good idea as well if you want a portable Linux version using the SteamDeck. Assuming that Affinity would ever get its own Steam release which would make Affinity more popular among game developers. At least that's just an idea.

yes, that's a great suggestion, actually! i would absolutely buy the entire suite again on steam, it would be worth it for the automatic updates alone!

 

even adobe sell their Substance suite on steam, so i see no reason why Affinity couldn't do that as well

[yesreallylinux]

It'd certainly be nice to see Affinity on the web like Adobe.

[fde101]

17 hours ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

if you want a portable Linux version using the SteamDeck

The Steam Deck is great for what it is, but its form factor is not conductive to graphics design work.

There is already a portable version in the form of the iPad versions of the entire Affinity suite, not much value in expanding to the Steam Deck.

It would make a *LOT* more sense to expand to Android, but Serif has already pointed to several reasons why they are evidently not perusing that option at this time.  Making it work well on the Steam Deck would likely require it to be running in desktop mode connected to an external monitor and pointing device (if not keyboard), at which point you lose most of the portability advantages it might otherwise have had.

 

On the other hand, if Serif were to modify the Windows version just enough to work well under Proton, then distributing that on Steam might be one way to get around the Linux support issues...  it would be the Windows version, and it would open up use on the Steam Deck as a side bonus, with what should in theory be a relatively minimal amount of effort?

 

17 hours ago, lashman said:

it would be worth it for the automatic updates alone!

It can also be a downside, however, as it can make it much more difficult to back off to a previous version when problems are found in newer versions which impact your ability to work.

[lashman]

55 minutes ago, fde101 said:

It can also be a downside, however, as it can make it much more difficult to back off to a previous version when problems are found in newer versions which impact your ability to work.

not at all - plenty of developers add previous versions as "beta" branches, it's really simple to do. Euro Truck Simulator 2 is one example, you can go about 30 versions back (but there is no limit to how many a developer can have)

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/application/branches

[LinuxMint]

I also just switched over to linux. I have everything I need on Mint and everything has been working great. I bought a lifetime license to davinci resolve and the only thing I'm missing is a good photo editor/design software.

I think the recall announcement as well as the targeted ads within an OS you paid for is pushing a lot of people like myself to linux. The fact that you can use tools to disable some tracking and bloat in windows but an update can re-enable them is incredibly frustrating.

 

I'm using an email account that will be deleted after this post but if linux support ever comes I will surely sign up again and buy a license.

 

-edit-

 

Just saw that I can change my email after registering. So if Linux support ever comes I'll just change my email to my active email instead of deleting this one and creating a new account.

Edited June 6 by LinuxMint
Found user info settings.

[AnnPoppingspree]

Please get us some flavor of Linux support. Preferably a native build, or some kind of per customized installer to work it with compatability tools. 

 

I work with private information for work and after the Recall uodre for Windows, I've been switched to Pop! OS, which I think is based on Debian.

 

If this had to be a v3 thing then sure, but please. 

[Komatös]

2 hours ago, AnnPoppingspree said:

If this had to be a v3 thing then sure, but please. 

For the time being, ReCall is only intended for laptops with the new Snapdragon processors. In addition, ReCall is not delivered in activated mode; customers must activate this feature themselves. And in the countries of the European Union, ReCall must be uninstallable.
Following the many criticisms regarding security, Microsoft will now encrypt the database and the timeline can only be accessed with Windows Hello (biometric query).
Access will be blocked as soon as the device detects that the authorized user is no longer in front of the laptop.
 

[Frozen Death Knight]

Been sitting in Linux Mint since about Wednesday. Surprisingly decent, with some issues here and there such as my external audio interface and some software not working out of the box. Have yet to attempt a completely proper install of Affinity besides running the Wine installer and it failing instantly, but it will be my next step soonish to see how it performs.

I sure hope Serif/Canva will really consider porting Affinity over to Linux or add additional Wine/Proton customer/dev support to their staff. From my personal standpoint I will still have to work with Windows 10 until I have Affinity either working on Linux or somehow finding a better alternative that supports Linux. Been able to transition fairly well into the Linux ecosystem already so it's only a matter of adapting things as they come.

One thing's for sure, I will do everything in my power to defy the future that the likes of Microsoft and Adobe crave.

[yesreallylinux]

If Serif/Canva are interested in getting their software working on Linux, Codeweavers are the ones to talk to: https://www.codeweavers.com/portjump

1 hour ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Have yet to attempt a completely proper install of Affinity besides running the Wine installer and it failing instantly, but it will be my next step soonish to see how it performs.

The official version of Wine doesn't support a few features Affinity needs yet. But ElementalWarrior has done the work of patching Wine to work with Affinity.

Have a look at this thread for how to set it up:

I haven't tried it personally but lots of users have had good luck with the method.

Wanesty has the guide here too, which is a better way of following it in my opinion: https://codeberg.org/wanesty/affinity-wine-docs

[Thomahawk]

A yes from me too. Would I have a good graphics studio for Linux I could finally escape the Apple dominion. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful already, Affinity did set me free from Adobe at least.

[Ontos]

I've recently turned to daily driving a Fedora-based distro, and Affinity Photo 2 was one of the things I purchased to avoid the Adobe ecosphere when I was still on Windows.

I tried to set up Affinity Photo 2 in its own personal Windows virtual machine, but I've been unable to get it to work. Affinity Photo 2 crashes whenever I try to open a file. But having a Wine-compatible update to Affinity Photo 2 would be worth it.

[TylerCode]

Came here to jump on this, just bought Affinity thanks to the deal where they are roasting Adobe. I've had to keep a stupid Windows machine around to remote into for years because of PS. I don't want to keep giving Adobe money with all this BS they are doing. 

However, I'm really not interested in keeping a Windows machine around (thanks to the BS that MS has been doing)

 

So I am here to beg for a Linux version. Looks like community efforts have gotten it running but the amount of hacks required is astounding.

 

Edit: Fedora 40 with Intel Arc graphics if anyone at Affinity is keeping score. 

Affinity seems pretty goated so far and really seems like the last piece I needed to ditch Adobe.

PS - Affinity
Illustrator - Affinity
Audition - Reaper
Premiere - Resolve

For substance, just buy the perpetual versions on Steam.

Edited June 10 by TylerCode