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Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, arene. :)

 

AP looks really cool, Im waiting for python integration before I buy.

 

From previous posts about this from the developers, it looks as though scripting support in the Affinity apps is going to be for JavaScript rather than Python.

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Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, arene. :)

 

 

From previous posts about this from the developers, it looks as though scripting support in the Affinity apps is going to be for JavaScript rather than Python.

Greetings ! Thanks for the welcoming word :)

 

Oh well, I saw that post after looking at your reply.

Python would be more flexible with other applications but not allow smooth transition of the library of photoshop scripts to affinity photo... For that then need JS.

Maybe in the future.

 

As for docker (https://www.docker.com), it may ease development of their app to multiple platforms, another business decision.

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  • 1 month later...

All visual effects studios work on linux, professional tools for this have been in linux for quite some time. Maya, nuke, Houdini, Mari, Modo, etc. just to name some.

Missing of course its a serious solid replacement for photoshop, that can work within this pipeline and fit in right with the aforementioned tools for vfx.

Dismissing linux as an insignificant OS that does not have enough pull to justify a port to it, its quite shortsighted.

There are 20 mayor vfx studios in the world, if you get into that, each mayor studio has 5000 artists in several facilities all over the world, so that roughly goes to 100k licenses, and that represents 4 million dollars in sales just by getting into vfx alone. Then of course if all these studios start using it, how many single users will pop right into it? So porting at least Affinity Photo to linux just makes sense

Not worth getting into linux? are you sure?

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That is a fair point, and well explained. but is trusting on all those studios actually moving to Affinity. Even while having all apps in Linux, I dunno in VFX, as my field was video games, and later on just graphic designer for web and print (and then back to games, etc, I move as market changes in my region), but in game developing, and whatever other field in which there are in place very complex workflows (happens so in general in VFX and films as far as I know...), companies tend to have workflows, scripts, Photoshop Actions, macros, very linked to long years projects, and even a whole way of working for all the company (ie, plugins, c++ custom applications that count on those PS. Actions and scripts, etc). For many studios might be a hard step to make, or a too risky one. And so, it would be risky for Affinity (for Serif).  At least, way less than concentrate on replacing to certain percentage Photoshop and Illustrator in ANY field (including those VFX in Windows, as, even having to still pay the Windows licenses, they'd save about 50 to 60 bucks per month (way way more than a Windows license), plus whatever subscription price increases occur in the future, adding to it that they're non permanent licenses, this presents several issues.) They still would have an option with that market which already have Windows only just for the PS and/or illustrator need and nothing else (or almost).  

 

I for one am way more flexible in my opinion than I was earlier in the thread. BUT... I still see all the above (they're shooting for the safest line, safest bet, and that's outstandingly clever) , and consider the overwhelming fact of counting with a very reduced staff (compared to competitors), and seems it has not been such a thing of money matters, but a definite difficulty to find the level of experienced people at the job (it happen in other industries, not that strange) , with around 15 years of experience doing a very specific type of software. Of course, money sure is key, too, I wouldn't ever be able to be convinced otherwise... I mean, if you have a "peculiar" zillionaire backing the project, a risk loving person, then yeah, but I'd bet even in that case you first need to double or triple the staff and resources. If that would be possible, and achieved, become a reality, ONCE that is a done thing in the company, then, I'd say, have an apart team only for linux, surely managed or helped by the programming aces around, but as for now, it is pretty clear that there is a lot of stuff on their plate with all what's going on. I can only try to imagine the waves of anger if a Linux version of whatever the app is started BEFORE the publishing application, that indesign/quark/you name it alternative.  As you see, the situation for them is very delicate, to say the least.  My 2c. If all the money and staff happens to make possible to boost all that (PUB app, linux versions, keep at good level both the iOS, WIndows, and Mac OS versions, launch a new coffee brand, etc)  I'll applaud that like crazy, be sure of that... What I don't see is trying to do everything at a time.... My 2 cents of a feathered selection....

 

 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
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Of course there is a need to do some work to get VFX into it, not going to be magical, yet there are two important things here.

Photoshop its not built with VFX in mind, actually Adobe couldn't care less about it, features and fixes have long been requested and ignored.

32 bit image support in Adobe its a joke, trying to work in 32 bit in photoshop its a nightmare.

Affinity is getting very close to the ideal image editing vfx tool either inadvertently or otherwise, but its getting there, plus working in 32 bit images in affinity its seamless.

VFX artists are tired of Photoshop in every way,

" companies tend to have workflows, scripts, Photoshop Actions, macros, very linked to long years projects, and even a whole way of working for all the company (ie, plugins, c++ custom applications that count on those PS. Actions and scripts, etc)."

Workarounds because its bad and doesnt fit any pipeline.

"(they're shooting for the safest line, safest bet, and that's outstandingly clever) "

Now PS has a stronghold in graphics production publishing and such. You are trying to beat Adobe at its game, while there are other needs for this, other doors that can be used and are not as insignificant as it seems. Going head to head with Adobe with limited recourses its not really cleaver to me.

To me seems like an opportunity, Adobe has ignored linux;  Affinity trying to behave the same way instead of taking that path and slipping right bellow adobes noses and grabbing this market has to be a mistake. If you keep on windows and mac you are ok, go beyond and use something that adobe wont touch; even better!

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16 hours ago, edlo said:

There are 20 mayor vfx studios in the world, if you get into that, each mayor studio has 5000 artists in several facilities all over the world, so that roughly goes to 100k licenses, and that represents 4 million dollars in sales just by getting into vfx alone.

This assumes that all the artists in each of these studios needs to use a graphics app like Photoshop or Affinity Photo in their work. I do not think that is a reasonable assumption.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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I would say that yes, there might be a niche in adapting to Linux OS and eventually also trying to replace PS in VFX (and in science, medicine specifically, cloth design, etc, etc) workflows (I for one would love it for both, even while is not my field, and Linux not my OS since a while (but still like it) ) , I just don't see how they could do that right now, before consolidating AP and AD (at least eliminating bugs that any young application must have by nature, and making both rock solid. Indeed, it'd benefit VFX once gets there. If never get that golden status, it might then never arrive to VFX and Linux, anyway),  and after that the PUB app (publishing application, like Quark, InDesign, etc) first release. I don't see how it could be doable in other way.

 

But to comment about the other part,  I would say is not really that far to replace PS in its own stronghold, of course, only for those users not happy with the subscription model. For anybody else, (everyone happy with the monthly 50 bucks and not owning a license, but some form of rent) I believe Adobe would have to screw things really bad for those to jump on the bandwagon. Simply, the discontent ones or just people that have always used alternatives, is way too huge of a market.  The functionality is pretty similar already, and while I'd agree the same problem exists, that companies with complex Actions, scripts, or as an example (there are many more situations) just code, native applications, plugins, based in handling the native PSD format till its very specific and last feature. That is one of the many things that make PS near to unbeatable in every field (plus the inertia of the dominant standard, same happens with the Windows dominance, extremely hard to beat, in every way, and  it's been decades, now, and decades hearing Linux users saying : Windows is dying! If I've had a cent for every time I've heard that, I could retire already...) but the thing here is, the numbers are massive in the area where the stronghold is, so to speak. And you can do a simple google search to detect the huge amount of  discomfort with the subscription model.  You have also risk, but the reward has better numbers. Again, I do suspect that if the company had the resources, it would attack any sort of market chance to which it could aim to. And even so, prioritizing the best bets ! . If it doesn't, my guess (well, not only guess, we have read many times the oficial statements, even in this thread) is just they can't afford it, for now.  

 

Is curious this way of speaking, as I totally think they are being extremely ambitious already, considering their resources.  And i agree with R C-R in his observation, I kind of meant that when said that every VFX studio might have its take on whether abandon their established -even if crappy-  existing workflow....Issue here is that investors, the money people, don't love making wild guesses or assumptions. They love going for safest bets... And with safest bet, I'll expand on it a bit more with a personal example, maybe my point in this is a bit more clear.... I trained in several fields, reaching a point were I could do a lot of 3D, and was kind of very technically advanced on that. Passion did not let me see other very key things. Number one was... that once I studied the numbers, the market, and requests for 2D work, in global, public statistics, and putting inside that field, everything graphic design, illustration, or other forms of 2D art, even being kind of older stuff and 3D more "exciting", in a way... its market is HUGE compared to just 3D.... Today 3D is grabbing more and more terrain and momentum, I agree, but when I saw the numbers, I got shocked. Of course, there might be less 3D people trained to certain level, and with experience, and loads and loads of people able to do 2D (then again, the key is at certain levels, there's not that crowded, requires too much personal effort/sacrifice).... yes... but there are still a lot (competitors). Guess what, as a freelancer, a lot more work in 2D than in 3D, by far, or that what I found. Of course, 3D is often -not always- kind of well paid, but not requested as often. 2D can get really poorly paid and disrespected, too, but in a way, big numbers win for the everyday. It is unrelated, But serves as an example.  Yes, if all aligns, luck helps, all matches, etc, it could be a good hit, but imo, there are more chances in the other. And there's the ceiling for each thing. Yep, in best possible circumstances, in that niche it could be a "nice hit". In the other wider/massive field, the reward "could" be much much higher. Very difficult, but there's a taller ceiling. (there are investors preferring safe things. But there are also risk investors aiming the crazy possible gain of certain large numbers, not aiming for just a few millions. I mean, risk investors are not after just some nice gain. I have no knowledge which is the case for the company, of course.)

 

Plus, an essential thing for every company, IMHO : Keeping the good name, prestige, reputation. They have compromised to get two solid apps in Mac and Windows. They need to first accomplish that to keep a good reputation. Then face other projects. I firmly think any other way would be The Way of The Dodo....  The way they would be respected by general press (imo, they are, quite, actually) and pros is consolidating AP and AD in Mac/Win, then focus all strength in the PUB app, which would close the circle, the suite for the bigger field. I wouldn't be surprised if after that might come new lines of work, but like in everything, would be their call, is impossible to know.


In any case, all this above, and I could include all the long thread posts from anyone, except the ones written by company members, is an extremely wild guess, lol....

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Seriously, I'm just adding a vote.
If Affinity Photo was released on Linux, of the Debian/Ubuntu variety, I would not be slow to buy it.
Why? Macs are good for many things, but their effort towards simplifying things make them go seriously wrong sometimes. They're also expensive, in a bang per buck perspective.
Which means I'm sometimes stuck with windows, which fails so bad in my perspective that I won't even mention it.
I mainly work in sound and video, and that sometimes also means photo editing, and the free alternatives on Linux are not enough for professional use as far as I see it.
Linux is developing towards a meaningful media platform, but lacks in areas like photo editing. So I hope to one day not have to boot back and forth.

Enough said?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've also just joined the forum to add my vote.
Linux really has no decent graphics packages. I would jump at the opportunity to have something like this, it's pretty much the only thing I'm missing from Windows sometimes, and I'm positive there are loads of others out there who are merely clinging to their Windows or their Macs simply because of their Photoshops and such.
You guys would be the sole providers of a Linux based platform for industry standard graphical tools.
The world needs you to do this.

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56 minutes ago, clydo said:

The world needs you to do this.

The world needs somebody to do lots of things. The issue is if the world really is willing to pay enough for them to make it economically viable for someone to provide them.

 

For Serif/Affinity, among other things that means not just generating enough sales to pay for the development costs plus a reasonable profit but also not diverting so much of their limited development resources to the project that it would adversely affect the continued development of their existing products.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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This ^.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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Hi guys,

 

As one of those guys who occasionally plan to switch to Linux and usually is stopped by lack of software, I checked this thread.

 

To my surprise most of the arguments are based on that Linux is not used for gfx and there is no good software base for this kind of work. It is partially true (especially considering lack of good PS equivalent), if this vacuum one day is filled with another software, people will use that.

 

This is why it should be considered more of the reason to port Affinity products to Linux - there is no competition yet - if someone needs a good gfx editing software, he will use Affinity products because there is nothing else, yet.

 

I remember stories of how Wine (or some similar software, it was like 15 years ago, so I could forget) came to be because Disney wanted Photoshop on their Linux desks. Maybe this story is total bs but I know quite a few software houses which opted for Maya instead of 3ds Max mostly because of its Linux support.

 

Am I one of those guys who will buy Linux version? I'm not sure. For now, I have AP on Windows and iOS and there are some things still keeping me from going away from PS. Besides - there is no "reduced" price for multiple system owners, so I would pay twice or triple - I didn't buy AP for Mac for the very same reason.

 

 

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Well, I believe Maya's advantages (and it is saying it a 3DS Max lover, as I had to use it to earn my plate of food for quite some years) used to go way beyond just the fact that counts on a Linux version. BTW, I purchased XSI, sth I liked more than Maya, of course, the reduced "Foundation" version... it had Linux version, too (then Autodesk acquired it and end of story). Maya was typically much more powerful in animation (Max later evolved a lot thanks to addons like CAT, but yet so...) , and mostly, Maya's Mel scripting is crucial to both film industry and game creation, specially in large game making companies. It just allows a lot more in team work, and to do very complex stuff in animation and interrelation of things than any counter part in Max.  So, there are IMO much more advantages in Maya than just counting on a Linux version. At least for animation. 3DS Max is really strong and practical in other areas, indeed, for many years it has been a crude fight among the two in the studios, today, not sure who is winning the battle, am a bit disconnected.

 

Yet though, I keep hearing that mantra, there's no graphic applications in Linux... i have done heavy photo work with a combination of Gimp, Krita and others.... Yes, Affinity goes very strongly for what the actual professional and advanced hobbyist need, no doubt in that, and yes, would be the closest thing to PS you would have in Linux (hey, and probably also in Win/Mac, though in the vectorial package there's a pair of very strong alternatives, at least in Windows ) . It is a bit sad that projects so old and that have gone such a long way like Gimp are constantly ignored. Heck, I'm an ex Linux user (for many years, and IMO more in depth than many of the typical users of today, for which stuff has been made much easier)  . Late years am mostly Windows, and am yet downloading every now and then Gimp (Win version) to check their work of improvement. While IMO, is a more successful project than Gimp, would be as unwise to not take seriously Blender.They are extremely different in the UI handling to the Adobe / Autodesk standards and for such, have a steeper learning curve for the majority, but the power is there, to high levels. There are lacks in capabilities, in both (IMO, less , way less in Blender ) but that can be overcome with clever workarounds/combining with other apps, even some command line ones. I understand that you desire to have AP and AD in Linux, would be nice to see, but it kind of makes me jump on my chair to read that there's no graphic software for those tasks in Linux. At least I would be less surprised if reading : "the solutions available are not in the highest professional standard, but capable to an extent", which imo still would be an arguable statement, but at least would be something... And... I only consider of some weight opinions from people who actually know Gimp well, and are capable of doing with it advanced work. Otherwise, those statements come from ppl that got scared with its strange UI, but this does not speak at all about the actual capabilities of the software. For example  I know deeply Inkscape, I know so where its weakness and strengths are, for having used it a lot. I know Illustrator is better in some ways, in some ways more intuitive too, but in that case, in certain aspects Inkscape can be faster / more intuitive. It is indeed a capable vector application, just have tons of problema with offset printing due to the not fully developed CMYK and color profiles for print support. But you can do a ton of other stuff with it (and today, a lot of print places acept RGB vector files, their machines do very weird things, so... far from ideal, but you can still do some work for print. Or pair it with Scribus, or some other app supporting better CMYK color profiles. Import , edit, and export from there. My point is: there IS graphic software for Linux (raster, vectors, publishing (Scribus)) , although I agree that with Affinity they'd be full covered in many unsupported areas.

 

But the money/time/human resources issue is still fully unsolved in this long thread.

 

 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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I would love to have Affinity Photo, and Designer for Linux. Unfortunately, I am stuck with Windows with the other programs I need to use. Also, GIMP? That program is pretty bad, and their new release does not convince me to use their program. Krita+GIMP is the closest one can get to Affinity Photo, but you still have lots of limitations, and Krita sadly are going into the path of irrelevance the longer they prefer to focus on irrelevant things like watercolor brushes when their program has serious potential to be competitor to Affinity Photo and Photoshop (all the bases are covered in Krita).

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I could agree that Gimp has limitations....But Krita, in its field ? Well, it has them too, but it is in another galaxy.  What one needs to asume is that Krita is a software for painting, for illustration (is what I do, mostly), so, water color brushes might be more important for those individuals. Krita DOES handle CMYK, much better than Gimp, yet not the great support you can find of it in Adobe or Affinity, but at least it is there. Its visual assistants (rulers, etc) and its stabilizer for the brushes are really, really good. Now it even includes animation (yeah, I don't need that, but is cool). Sorry, but no, that is not true. Is it a photo editing application? Nope, not really (it can do some, though). That is why people just join it with Gimp, or if can use Windows, just have some of the many photo editing alternatives in this OS (quite a bunch, already) . IMO being Affinity Photo the most complete.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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And that is where we strongly disagree. I view GIMP and Krita as all around tools because they both have tools critical to image-editing and content creation. Even Photoshop and Affinity Photo fall under all-around tools. I have repaired damaged photographs, extracted people even with fuzzy hairs with no fringe, removed objects, and so on all with Krita, and they are not hard to do with Krita. Some people find those things are harder in GIMP like myself. You can even get content aware fill using gmic in paint.

Krita is missing out on some filters, and they are critical to matte painters, and concept artists. Krita already have clone with healing option, smudge without color rate, filter brush, filter mask and brush, gmic and so on. Krita and GIMP have garbage tier selection tools.


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You make very good points, but my point was, and is, that Krita has always had the main purpose since birth in serving to actually paint. A bit like also MyPaint was born with that main focus. One of the major differences among the two, for me, in advantage of Krita was the care about CMYK color mode in Krita since very early. To me. that's a 10 , that is, for people needing to make pro stuff.

 

Yes, you can do certain photo editing stuff pretty well in Krita, but that which you mention is a very small portion of what you can do in Adobe PS (ie, the pwoer in selections, which is so key in any image editing). I handle that one for all image editing related fields, almost, since '95 with its 2.0 version, and its depth is yet unrivaled. AP is coming very close, and some features are done more cleverly in it already than in PS. To beat PS is a giant's task, tho (but often sth is beating for the sum of price, purchase options, quality, convenience and sympathy generated in the consumer base, with the minimal requirement of at least being, "good enough" , which imo, is the case with Affinity line. ). That's part of the problem, we come from  huge standard. Half the people here in this thread are wanting merely to have a "Photoshop in Linux" (because Gimp is certainly capable, no mater what it is said...at least in many ways), really. But selection tools in PS are way to far ahead of what there is in krita or gimp or virtually anything on earth. And don't get me started about text tools on Krita. But indeed, this less developed areas are actually in the works right now, the Krita team is very smart, and know these very well (who have serious probs of funding right now, btw, if anyone wants them to grow, graphic software for Linux, there is where you as a Linux user can take action directly, unlike where is much more difficult, in commercial applications with investors involved, other structures, etc) . I don't complain for that for the very same reason I am trying to develop here: Krita has gone for the excellence in painting first. You only need to see the crazy collection of brushes, the response to wacom pens, the amazing number of settings for brush behaviors -is even crazy- , and the ton on tutorials around painting, comics etc, against the much fewer in photo retouch. It indeed has a sum of features thinking directly in a very specific kind of illustration for games: pixel art.   Each team has a main focus for their application, this is very normal. Yet tho, as the app is maturing, which has been doing for a while, they are filling more and more gaps. If anything, Krita is one the best promises in Linux/Open Source field.  

 

For me as a painter is way more than a promise, although for painting I use lately almost exclusively a tool, very cheap, often not mentioned on inet, so, commercial, and it is very capable, I even prefer it to Krita for drawing (but I don't see my self using it much for general image editing, or photo retouch) and which obviously wont mention here.  For exactly painting, this could easily change to move ALSO my painting tasks to AP 1.x in the near future, yet not sure about that as my projects are what direct my actions, and I tend to keep using same app through a long project. (Designer is already one of my main tools for vectors)

 

In my way of seeing things, giving more strength to mostly Krita and Blender (I am not sure of knowing where Gimp is heading, not too fan, I recon. I love that it exists and have used it quite a lot, as many companies were not keen on the money investment of a PS) is where the real help to Linux as a whole should go, but maybe I have become old fashioned (hey, Linux is not console-only and installed in floppy disks anymore... whoever also remembers yet that....). Yes, I am not a fan of Gimp UI, that's why I use it less late years, or at least less at home, but I use it from time to time, and it always shows me a lot of depth and...capabilities are there (sadly, not all), is only longer procedures.

 

Despite my posts here, I would love an Affinity for Linux, in the future. This is a very personal opinion, but IMO, if Affinity team would make yet another "fork" or generated a whole entire team (yes, these programs are so tied to specific graphic coding stuff and system libraries... it's not even a bet they could or wished to take to make it working without certain graphic mode in Windows, so, go guess how things would be with an entire new OS for very GPU related engine and system graphic libraries linked code (I suppose)...) to be able to at least try and make something REALLY equivalent (otherwise, there you have yet another pissed off group of people because Linux AP performance is not as snappy as in Windows. And this cr4p happens inside companies with very talented ppl.. i could tell a horror story of one company almost sinking for "assuming" java on Linux (on those years!!...now i dunno) would need to go faster in Linux than in Windows... quite the opposite, and they were 100% linux people... :/  . It was even written in the contract, so, dunno how they avoided a the total sink, as that was not possible in months, the FPS were not achieved, by far.  We have had that for a while from users comparing between Win/Mac, about performance differences, here in the forums (you probably have not read them),  I have always not cared about that, as an app that comes from Mac, been ported to Win (imo for clear market reasons, not for preference) is expected to have issues. The 2% in Linux (or 2.66 %) of the whole tart still has not been countered by serious data in the whole thread. That's what investors or whoever is the money people in the company will be able to handle and consider, logically ! Or they would be the "pasional freak people", instead. These are rarely the actual programmers doing the actual developing tasks.   )

 

iPad version is having a tremendous success, in my opinion, because maybe iOS not yet being a real OS  (look at the issues with the "file" system, the poor color calibration options, etc. Adding a new brand new RGB profile does NOT cut it, but also due to the fact that the large monitors are not yet available (seems ppl do not wish large tablets, I'd love to buy a 18" tablet, hehe (none of my monitors is below 23")), and we people working at the stuff need these two things for work, at least a big portion of us. But there's a bazillion of hobbyist -and some very talented pros- using already iPad Pro, dealing with the issues, of course, and mostly, simply the pros apps, the competition, are not there, not even Gimp-like level, in a massive way. Procreate is really good, but to me it has some extremely necessary features lacking (hello, CMYK (but how and why, if the OS does not really support it), better support of PSD format, etc)) but unless they have data that convinces them of the money advantage of doing a full Linux port, that wont happen for certain time. IMO, not before at least polishing AP and AD for Windows/Mac Which is sth that will certainly benefit the Linux port, as they are now polishing them in the platforms they know better for now.

 

Even more... a lot of you have just ONE post here. :) Not issue with that , personally. None at all. Zero. But maybe you ignore very long threads (some even about this Linux matter, actually) that were even wars against the developers (as if...ok, I'll leave it there) because APub, the Publisher that Affinity will produce to complete the graphic suite, has needed to be delayed. So, one of the number one issues to develop a Linux version right now would be even just that one. No way on earth they could do the works of it with the temperature of things in the Apub front. A wave of internet furor might run again over the forums and yet other places. Heck... not only that...there are very long time complainers, IMO a bit too picky (issues are there, but they are not considering the size of the team among other issues) about actual AP and AD problems already in Affinity, that people would jump in their chairs (in a big %) if read that efforts of a tiny group is diverted once again in a new adventure.... You would want to avoid ALL of that if you just want to do your job well and with some peace, as itself has a ton of pressure by nature....

 

Even a thousand members with 1 post (in case several are not same person, have seen a bit of everything on inet, even more having been a forum admin in other places, surely is not the case here, tho) has nothing to convince an investor, board or whatever. The numbers to be handled are WAY bigger that what you can show in a forum, even if you make a slashdot effect of 1-post members every day. My 2c.... The percentage of users in all the world, the amount of big-money companies that could be target, etc, etc, etc. That's what they look at, is what pay salaries and gives margin of benefit. That "I would love to have it" of some individuals is not enough, by any means, I am afraid.   Even if seems like a good lot in a forum thread. If varying stats from very different sources seem all to point out that "globally" (really hard to make a solid/reliable stats, very specially in the Linux case) Linux users are not yet reaching a 3%....well go with that number to an investor against focusing resources in OSes that have the vast majority of users, in a ridiculously big proportion (Adobe has NEVER done a PS Linux version, go guess... I say that with sadness, tho. And  they certainly have the resources, but probably think it's not worth it in money gain matters (considering the big WORLD numbers)...or...that the old code base would be a nightmare to port. Or most surely: a bit of both. ). That's one of the main problems. But not the only one....  there's the roadmap plan the company has and the several groups of users interested in certain long started or promised applications, the system/coding/hardware technical problem, the difficulty to find very experienced people in very peculiar matter (one of the main reason given by the team, they just obviously got tired to repeat it over and over, people don't dig for their answers in the same thread!) for a whole OS, etc. And if the money person/s is/are not convinced, then there's nothing to see here.... Not even for passion can anyone risk other people's salary, and the main survival capability of a whole company. IMO.

 

I have lived this from inside several SMALL companies (YEAH, is the case. very small) attacking too many fronts: Most which I remember, talented programmers did fly away, they could be paid better and with less pressure/great conditions being so tallented at many other companies. Adding that extra project for which the team would NEVER have enough time, and so, receiving triple pressure is what I've seen most teams being disbanded and companies sinked. It typically did not affect me, though: I only considered how good was the internal company behavior, as 1) I like pressure/challenge 2) When is an application company, most of the pressure goes to programmers. Obviously the designer for everything too, but in a different way, and we are used to that. In game companies, cr4p goes to everyone in a more equally distributed way... But in my 8th to 10th company I was brave enough (or just wasted enough of seeing companies sinking) to warn about this when I saw a too fantasy lover manager. U can do what u can do, not more. Superman does not usually work in development companies. Mostly as he would be scared.

 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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some linux users (a lot that have yet used not much Linux,or at least certainly not since the 90s) keep doing the 1-post thing... I have no issues with that, although yep, a bit too old of a thread. Part of the issue is the tin foil hat fear that a lot (of windows 7 users, and I am one but for very different reasons) have with Win 10 (ppl who can neither configure properly a win machine to avoid a 99% of the telemetry, at least the one that could be significant)....  thanks to several posters/writers that saw a way to bring very fast attention/traffic to their blog,video channel, you name it... xD

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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Hi, I haven't read whole thread but what a lot of people (including developers of various non-Linux programs) forget is that right now is the time when lots of users (even users that enjoyed using Windows) consider leaving Windows because Microsoft went crazy, started to openly spy on users and took control of the OS from them. An OS that can send any of your personal/professional data out (and no, you cannot completely disable telemetry no matter how many settings you turn off ... even on Enterprise edition!) and can change any settings or install updates at any time while you are trying to do serious work on it is nightmare especially for professionals. And lots of graphic artists tend to be professionals.

Lots of people are fed up with this paradigm shift that Microsoft (and others) are trying to push. Since Apple is not perfect either (and can decide at any time to do the same) Linux-based operating systems are the only ones left not prone to this. Not perfect but not without potential. I am not really a hard-core Linux fan and don't like lots of things about it but I have to say it appears to be the only option if you want to remain in control of your data, privacy and workflow.

Right now I am on Win7 (no telemetry updates installed) and I am considering switching to Linux in the future. I will certainly have to setup some kind of Virtual environment with passthrough and run Windows in it at first. But I hope more high quality native apps will start to appear on Linux.

So I think this is the good time to consider porting the Affinity apps to the Linux-based OSes as well. This is not a few Linux enthusiasts wanting to use Affinity on their experimental machines, this is quite a few people fed up with Microsoft and willing to try alternatives.

Anyway I hope virtualization technology really takes off and becomes as smooth as possible and easy to setup. This or something similar could be a solution if no one makes any good graphics apps for Linux:
GPU Passthrough for Virtualization with Ryzen: Now Working

(Sorry for my English)

 

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http://www.askvg.com/do-you-need-to-worry-about-privacy-in-windows-10-answer-is-no/

 

I don't agree with everything in that link, but there's interesting info if you read the full article.

 

Even if it does not convince you one bit (most surely) , well, I still would add the following.... Besides a bit of paranoia tends to come with this theme, you are giving much more away in other devices, and/or administration, social media, company contracts, inscriptions, phone conversations, etc,  etc....  Even more, probably you are being already more than watched by the administration, police, etc. We live in a society....

 

Even more, we are giving data even just browsing, or saying an opinion in a forum, or in our place of work , using a phone and using/installing (a lot of ppl do so without thinking it for a second, the same that become paranoid with Win10, even putting their card data on many of those) horrid super invasive apps for everything, or by family members spreading what they think is cool in facebook or twitter, or just by registering in one of those, etc..

 

Life is always a trade off, you can't have it all. Want full ("feel of") privacy, go Linux but if you know it deeply (if you are just a wasted MS old user, chances are unless had previous experience, you (I don't mean "you" specifically, don't know your circumstances, but any Windows user wanting to move to Linux(of the portion of ppl u speak about that would do the move), typically with zero in-depth knowledge about Linux) surely know little about Linux system, its security, etc), without this knowledge and experience, you have similar number of risks depending on what you do and how.  Linux is not a magical secure solution by itself alone.

 

So, about the trade off, Main professional graphic applications are not there (to me blender,  wings3D, and krita totally are(professional), though, even if their UIs are hardfor the majority. UI or not, a lot of people think they're not at that level. I believe "not for all pro uses", but yes for many.), and this company has no interest in going in that route, they have stated this many times (you mentioned you did not read all thread, I hope at least you read the latest posts (otherwise it'd be a bit inadequate to post). Their statements are from early pages, tho). Then the chance is deal with the available software for linux (and I love a bunch of them even while using their Windows ports, mostly), or use virtualization, or have a work-only Win machine with some - maybe paranoid - extra measures (hey, you can encrypt your hard drive and all info, is not like they could do anything with that travelling encrypted, if your fears reach that far...And this wouldn't be paranoia, just a safe way to work) and separating critical data.


But IMHO, Can't force them to do what they don't desire to do....  Even if would just be that they only "enjoy" programming for Mac and Windows (which most surely is far from being the reason). Is their call, and one should respect their decisions and roadmap....

There's an important aspect not to miss... the human one. If developers/owner/investors, whoever, get pissed off with too much insistence, you are doing the opposite of what would be motivating them to take certain route. My 2c at that, also....

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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1 hour ago, raptor said:

So I think this is the good time to consider porting the Affinity apps to the Linux-based OSes as well. This is not a few Linux enthusiasts wanting to use Affinity on their experimental machines, this is quite a few people fed up with Microsoft and willing to try alternatives.

To put it as simply as I know how, for Serif/Affinity the only "good time" to do this is when they believe there is sufficient continuing market demand for Linux versions to justify diverting any of their limited resources to doing this and it will not compromise the continued development of the existing Affinity apps, which from all indications are doing quite well in the market. They must also consider the additional costs of supporting versions of the apps running on the various Linux versions, & developing effective anti-piracy provisions for all of them. 

 

As for users flocking to Linux because of privacy concerns, there is no evidence this is happening in sufficient numbers to make any difference, at least for now. If anything, Windows users worried about Microsoft's telemetry are more likely to switch to Macs because of Tim Cook's well publicized stance on user privacy, Apple's resistance to government mandated "back doors" in its products, & so on.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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11 hours ago, SrPx said:

http://www.askvg.com/do-you-need-to-worry-about-privacy-in-windows-10-answer-is-no/

 

I don't agree with everything in that link, but there's interesting info if you read the full article.

I am sorry SrPx, I don't want to sound rude or anything and I know that you said you don't agree with everything in it but this article is one of the least informative I have come across. (I don't know who wrote it but probably) a guy running a Windows tips site (so probably heavily biased towards MS) is basically just saying: "Come on guys, use Windows, Microsoft is the good company, trust me."
I rather like deeper and (hopefully) unbiased analysis from security researchers. For example Bruce Shneier wrote or linked several articles about this issue:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=windows+telemetry+site%3Awww.schneier.com&kh=1&ia=web

The findings of a security researcher Mark Burnett also illustrate how trustworthy Microsoft is. The Enterprise edition was supposed to be the only edition where you can completely disable all telemetry - it is even advertised by Microsoft as one of the reasons for businesses to migrate to it. It turns out it is not true at all:
https://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/3010612/is-windows-10-enterprise-ignoring-privacy-group-settings-and-sending-private-data-to-microsoft

Also another interestig article:
Why Telemetry is a big deal, even on Enterprise SKUs
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/4mx5b0/why_telemetry_is_a_big_deal_even_on_enterprise/

11 hours ago, SrPx said:

Even if it does not convince you one bit (most surely) , well, I still would add the following.... Besides a bit of paranoia tends to come with this theme, you are giving much more away in other devices, and/or administration, social media, company contracts, inscriptions, phone conversations, etc,  etc....  Even more, probably you are being already more than watched by the administration, police, etc. We live in a society....

 

Even more, we are giving data even just browsing, or saying an opinion in a forum, or in our place of work , using a phone and using/installing (a lot of ppl do so without thinking it for a second, the same that become paranoid with Win10, even putting their card data on many of those) horrid super invasive apps for everything, or by family members spreading what they think is cool in facebook or twitter, or just by registering in one of those, etc..

Well, you have a choice not to use lots of these services or use them wisely. Even if you cannot completely protect your privacy this doesn't mean we should stop caring and hand out every piece of personal data to everyone. Where will it end? Somewhere you have to draw a line. It should be quite the opposite - we already have to share a lot of personal data so no more of my personal (remaining) data for other companies. But lots of people don't care at all. They are perfectly happy with various personal electronic assistants, smart TVs and even toys laden with microphones and cameras listening to everything, mapping their rooms etc. I would agree that for those people Windows 10 telemetry is the least of their worries.
But what about people like researchers, scientists, inventors, writers, lawyers, doctors etc? Their data are often very precious and treasured for a good reasons. I don't think they are very happy about their OS having any kind of 24/7 telemetry, which can send out anything now or in the future to the not very trustworthy company like Microsoft. Since the transfer is encrypted no one really knows what is sent (now or in the future). Or what about regular people that just want to have  a little privacy when using/working on their PC. They can ignore facebook, smart electronics, IOT etc. but it is much harder to completely switch to different OS with all their important applications.

 

11 hours ago, SrPx said:

But IMHO, Can't force them to do what they don't desire to do....  Even if would just be that they only "enjoy" programming for Mac and Windows (which most surely is far from being the reason). Is their call, and one should respect their decisions and roadmap....

There's an important aspect not to miss... the human one. If developers/owner/investors, whoever, get pissed off with too much insistence, you are doing the opposite of what would be motivating them to take certain route. My 2c at that, also....

 

I don't want to force them at all. That's why I used words like "consider" and not words like "the world depends on it" :). I am just stating that there might be much larger potential user base than one would think and why even happy Win7 users might think of switching. I am just adding my voice to this discussion that I would pay quite a bit of money for Linux port if they ever decide to do it. But I have to admit that it would still be a gamble for them. That is for sure.

(Sorry for my English.)

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