Petition to bring the Affinity Suite to Linux

[Nebbed]

Many creative hobbyists and professionals have grown tired of the Adobe Creative Suite, myself included. From the overly aggressive subscription fee, to Adobe's rampant push for AI integration which has led to well-justified privacy concerns, it has caused the general sentiment over Adobe’s Creative Suite to become increasingly negative. And thus, it has led many people to switch to the Affinity suite with Photo, Designer and Publisher. Which provides all the essential features needed for professional graphic design, for a reasonable one-time price. 

For similar reasons, in recent years, many have grown frustrated with Microsoft Windows. Myself included. From random updates that Windows pushes even when you don't want them, to advertising pushed onto users that have already paid for Windows, to security concerns, and even to privacy concerns due to Microsoft's push for AI integration onto Windows with Copilot. Currently, the Affinity suite is available on Windows, macOS and iPadOS. However, more and more creatives are unsatisfied with the platforms Affinity is available on. With Linux's user-base growing more and more overtime, we want to see the Affinity suite officially supported on Linux through its various distributions (or distros for short). Even supporting just one popular distribution, such as Ubuntu, would allow you or the community to support it for the entire ecosystem, via projects like Linux Flatpak.

Additionally, it's worth noting that people are already using the Affinity suite on Linux via Wine, with limited success. It has issues that are virtually impossible to resolve without a native port however, and it isn’t a particularly elegant solution. People are invested in your products, and the wants and values of the Linux userbase align strongly with Affinity's market. The most recent public statement from Affinity regarding Linux support was from a staff member in an FAQ back in 2019. But a lot has changed since then, and thus, this push for Linux has only grown exponentially… For instance, the general userbase for Linux has more than doubled, from less than 2% in 2019, to nearly 4.5% of all computers worldwide now.

There is ever-growing evidence that the Linux community wants the Affinity suite ported to Linux, and are willing to pay for a Linux version of the Affinity suite if official support is made available. We want to show the Affinity team at Serif that this is in fact the case. And we hope that through this petition, we can make the Affinity suite on Linux possible.

#AffinityOnLinux

https://www.change.org/affinityonlinux

Edited January 23 by Nebbed

[Komatös]

@Nebbed 

 

[Nebbed]

14 minutes ago, Komatös said:

@Nebbed 

 

In its current state, the Affinity suite on Wine is not stable enough to be sufficient, especially with Designer and Publisher (Photo's okay but still it's got problems). Thus the push for a native port to Linux. I've already spent the past week trying to use the Affinity suite through Wine, and it was a nightmare to use with performance and stability issues.

Edited January 23 by Nebbed

[Jan Klima]

I would love to see Affinity on Linux - not sure if the devs realize but there is NO DECENT graphics software for Linux. Literally NONE. And if anyone brings up GNU / GIMP - think twice before you do - its not in the same league...not even the same sport I would say.

 

These days - I do most of my work on Linux but when I need some gfx work I have to restart to windows which is pretty annoying 😞 

[Pšenda]

 

[Pšenda]

8 hours ago, Nebbed said:

With Linux's user-base growing more and more overtime

I've been hearing similar enthusiastic reports about the "massive" departure of users from Windows and the "huge" growth of Linux users for 30 years now, and so far it's still not a big deal. Regardless of the fact, as has been stated many times here (for example here https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/226834-can-we-crowd-fund-a-linux-version/#findComment-1331797 and in countless other threads about Linux), the actual number of users is not at all significant for application development and its profitability.

See also

 

Edited January 23 by Pšenda

[PaulEC]

People have been expecting Serif to base decisions on an imaginary voting system for years; I suppose getting up petitions to tell them how to run their business is no worse! 😉

[Winduss]

I don't think a petition is gonna change anything, however it would be nice of Serif to test Affinity in stock Wine.

It's the same with games, you don't necessarily have to make a Linux build, or even give support to Linux users, but as long as you at least test and verify that it works in Wine/Proton, users will be happy enough to use it.

I do run Affinity on Linux, a custom Wine build and even then it still occasionally crashes and suffers from certain memory leaks.

[Snapseed]

On 1/23/2025 at 2:49 AM, Nebbed said:

Many creative hobbyists and professionals have grown tired of the Adobe Creative Suite, myself included. From the overly aggressive subscription fee, to Adobe's rampant push for AI integration which has led to well-justified privacy concerns, it has caused the general sentiment over Adobe’s Creative Suite to become increasingly negative. And thus, it has led many people to switch to the Affinity suite with Photo, Designer and Publisher. Which provides all the essential features needed for professional graphic design, for a reasonable one-time price. 

For similar reasons, in recent years, many have grown frustrated with Microsoft Windows. Myself included. From random updates that Windows pushes even when you don't want them, to advertising pushed onto users that have already paid for Windows, to security concerns, and even to privacy concerns due to Microsoft's push for AI integration onto Windows with Copilot. Currently, the Affinity suite is available on Windows, macOS and iPadOS. However, more and more creatives are unsatisfied with the platforms Affinity is available on. With Linux's user-base growing more and more overtime, we want to see the Affinity suite officially supported on Linux through its various distributions (or distros for short). Even supporting just one popular distribution, such as Ubuntu, would allow you or the community to support it for the entire ecosystem, via projects like Linux Flatpak.

Additionally, it's worth noting that people are already using the Affinity suite on Linux via Wine, with limited success. It has issues that are virtually impossible to resolve without a native port however, and it isn’t a particularly elegant solution. People are invested in your products, and the wants and values of the Linux userbase align strongly with Affinity's market. The most recent public statement from Affinity regarding Linux support was from a staff member in an FAQ back in 2019. But a lot has changed since then, and thus, this push for Linux has only grown exponentially… For instance, the general userbase for Linux has more than doubled, from less than 2% in 2019, to nearly 4.5% of all computers worldwide now.

There is ever-growing evidence that the Linux community wants the Affinity suite ported to Linux, and are willing to pay for a Linux version of the Affinity suite if official support is made available. We want to show the Affinity team at Serif that this is in fact the case. And we hope that through this petition, we can make the Affinity suite on Linux possible.

#AffinityOnLinux

https://www.change.org/affinityonlinux

This question keeps coming up and the answer is always the same. There is currently zero chance of Serif Europe making Linux versions of their good products because the desktop market share for Linux is so low (4%) compared with the likes of macOS (14%) so the potential customer base is just not there yet.

In the meantime, you can use the Hartmut Doering's VM method to get successfully get the Serif products to work in Linux (it's better than dual boot):

[thoxy]

My perspective on Linux's 4% market share is the following:

The main reason for Linux's limited adoption is that users typically stick with their default platform, which is usually Windows. The average user won't bother changing their operating system, and often they wouldn't even know how to do it on their own.

Another significant factor is that many users require specific software that only works on certain platforms. This reinforces the use of the platform targeted by software developers, which is predominantly Windows. This creates a cycle where users remain locked into Windows because that's where their essential software runs.

This situation makes it difficult for users to migrate to Linux, as they're effectively blocked by software studios' choices. Linux's market share grows so slowly because software companies rarely release their products for it.

While there are some positive examples like DaVinci Resolve and a few others who compile their software for Linux, they remain the exception rather than the rule. If software studios continue to ignore Linux and maintain their head-in-the-sand approach, Linux's market share will remain stagnant.

Linux is destined to remain in the shadow of its counterpart, not because it isn't pre-installed on machines, but because software is rarely developed for it. This self-perpetuating cycle continues to limit Linux's growth potential. That's my view on the matter.

[Rob Seib]

It's funny to me those saying "zero chance" or what not. Likely? No. But imagine if 10 thousand people would be willing to pay for it? (would it be enough? IDK! Is it likely to happen? IDK probably not!). All I'm saying is, you don't know until you try and that's what he Change petition is for. It's called getting data. So sign it if you want to, don't if you don't.

[-iain-]

Best petition the Linux Foundation first, that they decide upon and invest in a solid desktop shell. The UNIX style bourn shell is not going to cut it as the stable API for a desktop application.

On 1/23/2025 at 3:49 AM, Nebbed said:

For instance, the general userbase for Linux has more than doubled, from less than 2% in 2019, to nearly 4.5% of all computers worldwide now.

 

This percentage doesn't seem to have changed so very much, depending upon who it is that you ask and in which context:
 

"Science and computer science is a Liberal Art, it is something that everyone should know how to use and harness in their life, it's not something that should be relegated to 5% of the population..."

So, I would recommend that you start out by petitioning the Linux Foundation, that they settle upon and invest in one single Desktop Shell, but as Linux is a kernel this is unlikely to be seen by the foundation as being their concern. With that said, who knows; Perhaps 2026 will be the year of the Linux Desktop! \o/

On 1/23/2025 at 10:00 AM, Jan Klima said:

I would love to see Affinity on Linux - not sure if the devs realize but there is NO DECENT graphics software for Linux. Literally NONE. And if anyone brings up GNU / GIMP - think twice before you do - its not in the same league...not even the same sport I would say.

 

These days - I do most of my work on Linux but when I need some gfx work I have to restart to windows which is pretty annoying 😞 

Well ... you have raised the subject and it is indeed highly relevant to this conversation. Are you aware that the GUI library GTK, currently the cornerstone of some of operating systems that use the linux kernel, it was developed expressly for the creation of GIMP by the same authors? Yes, the G in GTK is for GIMP, it is in fact the gimp tool kit! This highlights how it is that the desktop shell and framework are an integral part of the desktop environment. As such, before expecting folk to develop business based projects that target your environment, you really need this solid base, expecting folk to bring their own is a very big ask. GTK was putting the cart somewhat before the horse, in their order of working, so no wonder it turned out to be a little clunky. (I think you can still feel this when using GNOME, which is based upon GTK). As for Qt used by KDE, well any who use that will end up paying a lot of money to do so, unless they go open source.

Don't get me wrong, I love linux, linux the kernel, it has wonderful implementations of a UINX type operating system and I have a massive grin on my face when I SSH into a remote server and update the kernel with security patches, without needing to restart it! But with that said, the terminal emulation that comes with linux, its tty's are very limited (press ctrl + Alt + F1...F12 [on most distributions] to find out) , and the multitude of graphical shells that are also available are all really quite disorganized in their approaches.

[Alfred]

30 minutes ago, -iain- said:

The UNIX style bourn shell is not going to cut it as the stable API for a desktop application.

Not being familiar with the term, I had to look it up. You mean “Bourne shell”, whose original author was the eponymous Stephen Bourne.

[-iain-]

22 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Not being familiar with the term, I had to look it up. You mean “Bourne shell”, whose original author was the eponymous Stephen Bourne.

Ah yes, thank you for your correction, yes the very same! If I remember correctly (quoting a talk that he gave), he implemented the ALGOL programming language with C macros, in order that he could write the shell in ALGOL that was in C!

[Pšenda]

8 hours ago, Rob Seib said:

But imagine if 10 thousand people would be willing to pay for it?

Serif stated more than a decade ago that in order to develop a Linux version, they "had to" be sure that the costs of development and maintenance would be covered (at that time it was $500,000, but given the increase in costs it would be much more today). All the proclamations mentioned here like "Linux still growing", "imagine if", or repeated petitions, are apparently not (understandably) sufficient "certainty" of cost compensation for Serif.

[Snapseed]

11 hours ago, Rob Seib said:

It's funny to me those saying "zero chance" or what not. Likely? No. But imagine if 10 thousand people would be willing to pay for it? (would it be enough? IDK! Is it likely to happen? IDK probably not!). All I'm saying is, you don't know until you try and that's what he Change petition is for. It's called getting data. So sign it if you want to, don't if you don't.

It is Linux's miserable 4.3% desktop market share that is the underlying problem and no amount of petitions, whining, etc will change that fact. That small market share makes it unviable for very many companies to make their softwares available for Linux.

It would be much better if you and others direct your attention to the wealthy Linux Foundation and lobby them to actively promote desktop Linux.

(from an existing full time Linux user)

[Rob Seib]

7 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Serif stated more than a decade ago that in order to develop a Linux version, they "had to" be sure that the costs of development and maintenance would be covered (at that time it was $500,000, but given the increase in costs it would be much more today). All the proclamations mentioned here like "Linux still growing", "imagine if", or repeated petitions, are apparently not (understandably) sufficient "certainty" of cost compensation for Serif.

I agree and make no nebulous claims. If the cost has risen from $500K to, say, $3MIL, that remains a finite number of people required to fund it. My problem is people that merely poo poo any effort whatsoever. Absolutely right, mere imaginings do nothing. My singular and only argument here is that the petition provides information (and it's not doing too well, I signed it anyway).

[Rob Seib]

6 hours ago, Snapseed said:

It is Linux's miserable 4.3% desktop market share that is the underlying problem and no amount of petitions, whining, etc will change that fact. That small market share makes it unviable for very many companies to make their softwares available for Linux.

It would be much better if you and others direct your attention to the wealthy Linux Foundation and lobby them to actively promote desktop Linux.

(from an existing full time Linux user)

Yeah, I understand the underlying problem, and you're not wrong. Tho it is funny how common it is to throw around 4.3% like it's some kind of slamdunk when we're talking about a 10 billion dollar industry. But again I made no claim other than a petition is information. It's easy to sign and causes no harm that I'm aware of (if you're aware of harm, I want to hear it). And if there is a petition to Linux Foundation on promoting desktop Linux, I'll sign that too. It's not as though you can't have multiple petitions/lobbies happening at once.