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1. Visual effects companies use Linux (Maya, Mari, Nuke etc), almost exclusively from what I've read. That's some seats but as mentioned they're picky.

 

 

This is a myth based on the fact that a few production houses use Linux for big rendering farms. Rendering is a highly specialised field, and requires so many machines that there's a cost benefit associated with using a free OS, especially one that's specifically designed for servers.

 

Creative software is used on more traditional workstations, not servers, and most creatives are generalists (in terms of software tools used) and therefore have a myriad of apps they rely on that simply are not available on Linux.

 

Illustrative software is a generalised field, but Affinity's strength is their custom rendering engine, and that's the weakest aspect of their main rival, which is Illustrator. On a Mac, Illustrator runs like an incalcitrant donkey on a hunger strike.

 

The cost of porting that rendering engine and then building a new kind of UI drawing mechanism and the subsequent slowdown in development inherent with supporting two unique platforms would not only be incredibly costly, but SLOW THINGS DOWN.

 

That's why I make the case that anyone positing the porting is trolling. They're wasting the time of the developers. Not only is it impossible to predict any kind of market worth focusing on of creatives using Linux as a workstation anytime soon, it would greatly bog down their streamlined iterative processes when focused on just one tight OS that has a proven and demonstrable need for a superior drawing experience.

 

Linux is rarely (if ever) used for production as a workstation platform. That is almost always Windows based because it's simply easier to install and configure, and runs well enough, plus has ALL creative software available to work with.

 

Linux has a very small portion of creative software available for it.

 

Most creative generalists use Mac and/or Windows.

 

As to your comments about steam attempting to justify the effort, consider this...

 

Linux users aren't the majority of creatives. The majority of Linux users are not creative people, and the majority of creative people can't be bothered figuring out how to install Linux on their machines. They want to be creative, not system administrators. 

 

That's just a cold hard fact of life.

 

And it's not going to change anytime soon, nor will Affinity be able to change that.

 

And, as has been previously pointed out, they estimate the cost of porting AD at well more than $500k.

 

If there is a true demand for AD on Linux, the Linux community (which seems to pride itself on being a community) would best be served by creating a commercial incentive via a kickstarter or similar to cover those costs publicly stated costs.

The chances of that happening are slim.

If it were to happen I'd say the chances of a kickstarter style campaign raising that kind of money for a commercial illustrative app is probably right next to zero.

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I agree, Linux is just way way too cumbersome to use in day to day life. You need a degree just to try to understand it. Have you ever tried to instal GPU drivers for example......you have to shut down parts of the OS manually(no other OS requires a normal user to do stuff like that), use some terminal stuff which might or not might work and then prey to God from your heart that it will work. 

 

And there is the issue of SO MANY Distros.....every guy wants to do stuff his own way just because he feels like it. Sure you could support Ubuntu but then other people using other distros will get pissed. 

 

I could keep going....if people raise 500k to port it sure go ahead...but I don’t see that happening either.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Chiming in as a professional graphic designer who's been seriously craving professional grade, linux native design and photo editing software.

 

At work I use OS X out of necessity, but at home I have Arch Linux running on my iMac. I use an auto-tiling window manager that's entirely keyboard-driven, which exponentially speeds up my workflow. It also uses hardly any resources which means, when I do work from home, it takes less time to start up Virtualbox and Illustrator than it does to start illustrator alone on OS X.

 

Unfortunately this kills my workflow, as well as creating graphic stutter since VB can't make seamless use of my GPU.

 

Luckily Krita is working on non-destructive layer adjustments, so hopefully that'll be a step in the right direction for those of us who like full control over our UX. That said, it's more for digital painting than photo editing and it'd be nice to be able to easily retouch when I need to.

 

I'm certain I'm not the only one in this boat – not only are there most definitely graphic designers who use varying linux distros (it's not that hard to get into now that Ubuntu has been around for 11 years), but so many front-end devs who are used to their lightning-fast workflows in tmux & vim also need to deal with slices and the occasional photo edit.

 

As per the (what I'm assuming are) jokes about app stores and kickstarters, is Affinity not willing to host a deb, rpm, and tar version on their own servers? This is how things have been done for years when software couldn't be hosted in repos.

And if you guys start a kickstarter I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised at the results because, like so many in this thread have stated, there is a market. I'm guessing you haven't started one yet because you're actually afraid of its success. After all, if it succeeded you'd be obligated to actually build the thing... (fyi, Krita's already passed its goal with 15 days left)

 

Hope you reconsider.

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I think Tony said that we would at least consider any platform where we can make our investment back.  So, for Linux - that'll be $100,000 a copy for each of the five users for us to break even.   ;)  :P

 

Well if that's the case, I'm going to have to insist on Amiga and OS/2 versions as well.  You can have the CD-ROMs to me in the mail by the end of the week, if it's not too inconvenient.

—Russ Jonson

Still and video design, logos, branding, and more 

RussDoes.com

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  • 2 months later...

Real answer: "Our company has zero intentions or interest porting our software now or well into the future." Thanks for your honesty! :) I will continue paying for Adobe Photoshop.

Cousin It,

 

Your post doesn't make sense, the title of this topic is Affinity products for Linix. So you will continue to use Adobe Photoshop on Linux, wait there is no version of Photoshop on Linux! Maybe you want to comment on whether or not Affinity's products will be ported to Windows? If so, there are some other topics on just that if you would like to comment there. 

 

Hokusai

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 The programming effort is tiny, many Unix programs are portable between systems without any modifications. Since Mac OS is practically a BSD-Rip-off, the programming effort of porting Affinity to Linux is tinytinytiny 

 

This isn't true. The BSD core in OS X is quite small and has got nothing to do with the UI. On the other hand, Apple's API is huge and includes UI stuff, Quartz for rendering, etc. etc. Native applications on OS X generally use very little of the POSIX API, if anything at all. Unless the developers of Affinity had portability in mind from the start, the task of porting it to other Unixes or in fact any other OS may take quite some time.

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  • 3 months later...

 

Hokusai, it is not strange that you didn't find any of the professional graphic designers who use Linux, because there is no good software for desktop publishing yet. Personally I convinced two people to buy a Mac instead of windows. I know some pople that would like to work on linux but Adobe Photoshop and After Effects is a problem. We are just forced to use Windows. OSX is good but expensive and when you want to build your custom hardware and you need a very powerful specs you are left alone. Poor reality. And for people who say that linux is difficult: If you are clever enough to learn the software, I hope you will learn linux as well.

 

 

I agree, 7 Years back, when I was a partner in a VFX and Training company in India. We wanted to Use Linux as Base. But, as Photoshop wont work on Linux. We forced ourselfs to work on windows with all viruses infecting our systems.

 

A simple Kickstarter campaign will help in nullifying guess work here. As a Linux Based graphics designer, I would love and welcome any good Photoshop alternative for Linux, as Adobe is not willing to.

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I agree, 7 Years back, when I was a partner in a VFX and Training company in India. We wanted to Use Linux as Base. But, as Photoshop wont work on Linux. We forced ourselfs to work on windows with all viruses infecting our systems.

 

A simple Kickstarter campaign will help in nullifying guess work here. As a Linux Based graphics designer, I would love and welcome any good Photoshop alternative for Linux, as Adobe is not willing to.

 

The developers of Photoline actively support WINE under Linux. They even implemented Little CMS to support colour management when running in WINE under Linux. Several users have requested a Linux version - the devs seem not quite unwilling, but more Linux users need to chime in, and request one. It might happen then.

 

As far as image editing goes, there is nothing that can compete with Photoline running in WINE under Linux, except for running Photoshop in WINE.

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I must admit that when I faced the decision with which OS I want to work in future, I considered Linux (or any derivate) besides Windows and Mac OS but rejected the idea because the software I needed (Adobe Fireworks) doesn’t run on it and I couldn’t think of any viable alternative/replacement. And I think many people think the same thing. They would use Linux if easy-to-use and/or familiar software would exist – but it doesn’t (yet). So, I think this is a mutual process: The more professional/consumer-oriented software there is for Linux the more people might consider using or switchting to Linux in the first place. But it’s a risky step for companies at the moment. I can understand both sides.

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The more professional/consumer-oriented software there is for Linux the more people might consider using or switchting to Linux in the first place. 

this is wishful thinking the best reason for linux is cost free software and not that linux is such a wonderful os with fantastic features no other os offers.  i think linux had a real chance 10 years ago but they messed it up.

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  • 4 months later...

this is wishful thinking the best reason for linux is cost free software and not that linux is such a wonderful os with fantastic features no other os offers.  i think linux had a real chance 10 years ago but they messed it up.

Unfortunately you are just wrong. Disney/Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, Sony, ILM and other movie production studios from Hollywood are using Linux to produce their movies. Hollywood just love linux, and most 3D artists use linux for more professional and complex reason then most of MAC users.

Linux is really great OS for professionals,  and not so great for normal users.

 

I can't understand why affinity team don't see that the $500.000 cup for developing Affinity suit on Linux is not that  unreal as they may think. I hope they sell many copies of affinity photo for windows users and then reconsider linux edition.

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forsakenlight,

 

I can understand that you would like to be able to run Affinity's products on Linux but the Linux market is, as you pointed out, very much a niche market. You pointed that out in your post above. In order to cater to a niche market, the price would have to be higher in order for them to get a return on their investment. As well, Linux isn't exactly well known for its users spending lots of cash on software. Would you recommend that Proctor and Gamble develop a special beauty cream just for ladies over 100 years old? No, because the market for such a product isn't big enough to justify the cost. Sure there is a market for such a thing but would it be wise to enter such a niche market? I think, for the time being, the answer is no. Maybe in the future the market for such a product will increase to the point where it is worth it? 

 

Hokusai

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  • Staff

Or to rephrase the OP title.   "Linux. Seriously now?"

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  • 1 month later...

The challenge is estimating the possible Linux market, but I do think there are some valid arguments to do it:

 

Most of the movie industry has migrated to Linux because it's so easy to hook up a complete render farm to a front end and write extra custom code that it's a no brainer.  In other words, there is already a whole design industry out there which may be interested in having something better to work with than buggy, aged expensive software from Adobe.  

 

Secondly, there are enough people out there who are willing to pay a sensible price to have GOOD tools available and to be frank, I don't consider Affinity's prices excessive - they definitely are within a range that even a casual user as me has no problem with and frankly, I can't wait to add the rumoured DTP software to the collection :)  .

 

The main challenge will be the various desktop frameworks, though.  Gnome, KDE, Xfce - the only distro I know that seems to be consistently able to make either of them work just about the same is OpenSuSE because they've been offering the user that choice for, well, I reckon it must be a decade by now.  The very fact that there is variety of choice may prove a challenge, but I had not been running OSX I'd definitely buy both AD and AP for Linux.  

 

For Windows, no - I abandoned that platform quite a few years ago and especially Windows 10 is very busy proving just how good a decision that was  :rolleyes: ..

Regards, Binc

 

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Supporting Linux might not make you the money back quickly, but it can strenghten your brand perception and image. Linux is quite popular in communities like Deviant Art, and among artists in general. 

 

Designers is a different story. Most designers use Macs and Adobe software, and this won't change anytime soon. Affinity isn't very attractive for professional designers in my opinion, too much is missing for certain tasks. But it's great for art and people who design on a hobby level like me.

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Cousin It,

 

Your post doesn't make sense, the title of this topic is Affinity products for Linix. So you will continue to use Adobe Photoshop on Linux, wait there is no version of Photoshop on Linux! 

 

 Photoshop CS2 runs fairly easily through Wine in Linux.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I’m not going to bore everyone with the whole “chicken > egg” metaphor...so I will just leave my 2c in the form of a couple of bullet points:

  • If designers had better choices on Linux (affinity, sketch, adobe) , more designers would use Linux.
     
  • It’s an unknown market to gamble on (Linux) because there is no market to speak of currently, in that designers have no good choices on Linux at the moment…. which begs the question is there an opportunity to be had…I think so…but its not my money / company so my opinion is kind of moot.

I will say this though, any opportunity to create a market is surely worth at least looking into (as per a previous post, maybe Kickstarter to gauge interest….it can’t hurt)

I personally despise the mac ecosystem and have been waiting a while for non-adobe alternative for my design needs, so I’m grateful for the windows version……having said that I would jump off this ship (windows) to Linux if I had the opportunity.

Cheers

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  • 3 months later...

I've been an apple fan boy for at least 25 years now. I'm finally sick of them. Everything used to just work together almost perfectly. Windows is not an option. Most of the things I do can be done on linux, except for editing photos. I would happily buy another copy of your apps for linux!

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There is definitely a market for a professional, commercial, linux-based 2D application. LINUX is an OS for professionals in the fields of 3D, VFX and Compositing, and there's a reason why they did the extra work and published there software for this still quite exotic OS. Some of them already came from a UNIX background like MAYA, but most of them were just ported because LINUX is taking less ressources, is less bloated, it's secure and is rock-solid. It's a mainly a workstation OS. If you want to play games, it's the wrong choice, go for windows. If you are a music-producer, than maybe OSX is a better solution. VFX companies don't rely on LINUX to save money, because if you equip several workstations with NUKE licenses, the additional € 100,- for a Windows-license would be peanuts. Adobe shows no interest in LINUX and why should they. They are the defacto-standard on Windows and OSX for pixel- and vector-based image creation as well as DTP since the death of Quark XPress. A huge market that already delivers more than enough money. An additional LINUX-version would just not be as lucrative. The typical Designer with his trendy Mac won't switch to another toolset. Affinity's market is therefore somehow limited to the hobbyists or professionals that don't want to go the Adobe way of licensing. On the other side, they could advance to the industry standard on LINUX. Not a bad market in my opinion. There's a world beyond the "traditional" graphic designers and photographers that stick to their Macs. I'd have no problems to pay beyond € 200,- for a Linux-version of Affinity Photo or any other professional 2D app. I'm using plugins for other tools that are more expensive and at the end of the day, it pays my bills.

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Hey guys... I've got to this thread because I'm sick of the Windows monopoly on desktop and I would love to move onto something like Linux but since I'm a graphic designer I need the Adobe products to do my job and since Macs are so damn expensive (and a pretty closed ecosystem for my taste) I'm stuck to Windows, version 8.1 to be exact. I don't want to move to Windows 10 since I don't like the direction microsoft is going with its UWP and since adobe will release their first UWP software (Adobe XD), this really made me mad and started looking for alternatives.

So far I found Figma a great alternative to Adobe XD and Sketch (another Mac only software), which is a in browser app and would work great on Linux. Now all I need is a great Photoshop alternative to work in Linux. And AD could be it!

It would great to have all the Afinity software in the futuer available for Linux. It would be a bold statement against giants like Adobe which we will never see on Linux. Someone has to be first and take the first step. This move could give you a huge boost in reputation for sure which would earn you trust among many users. And maybe more companies will follow!

And the kickstarter campaign would be a great start for you guys to see how people would react.

Also why aren't you thinking of changing the payment model? A prepaid combined with a subscription or something similar. The guys at Bohemian made a similar change in strategy as well which is not perfect for I think they had to do it even though many users didn't react too well. I know this was one reason why many people are using AD but in time you'll have to change it right since it's not very sustainable, right?

Check out my awesome Affinity Creations!

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  • 1 month later...

I've been using Macs for more than a decade but to my mind, the build quality decreased a lot. After my MBP 2011 failed right after the warranty expired it took Apple more than a year to acknowledge that the machine (and lots of other MBP from 2011) were flawed by design and replaced the main logic board for free. Since I needed something to work with while waiting for Apple to respond, I gave Linux anther chance and I have to say that Linux on the desktop is really easy to use. In fact, it worked so well, that I sold my MBP after the repair.

I recently tried Windows 10 for a couple of months but finally decided to switch back to linux since in my experience, I got a much better user experience in every aspect.

What Linux is missing are great graphic tools and since Adobe does not seem to be interested I actually see this as an opportunity for Serif.

 

Two years ago a figure of $500.000 was mentioned that would be required to fund the development. I'm not sure whether this figure is still acurate given the fact that a Windows port is now in beta -(I'd assume that a lot of the code is already cross-platform). But even with the $500.000: you'd just need approx. 5.000 paying customers when you would charge $99 per copy (or 10.205 customers when sticking with the $49 price tag). I'm pretty sure there are enough people who would gladly pay $100 for Affinity Photo if they could avoid having to use Windows. 

I really don't think that these numbers are totally unrealistic but you don't even have to guess or estimate anything here - just setup a kickstarter campaign with a goal of $500.000 and then let's see if there is enough interest in the matter.

 

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