Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Affinity products for Linux


Recommended Posts

Adapting Affinity Designer to Linux (Ubuntu would be a great start) is not only about gaining popularity among Linux users but also among users of other platforms. Lot of Universities are using Linux on their workstations, and most students have absolutely no idea about graphic design or vector editing software until someone at university shows them. From experience, they either go for an open source alternative (Inkscape), or for Illustrator because most Universities (where I worked) had licenses. Meaning that the students are now aware mainly of these two software. Promoting Affinity on Linux could increase the use in the Academic field (because both Linux and Windows users would then use it to collaborate) and, by extension, the use among students.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not having a reasonable photo and design Software is the only reason that kept me on Windows the last 10 years. Please, Affinity-Team: I really belief that there are so many more people like me, who would switch OS if there were propper design softwares for Linux.
Doing things like webdesign with Linux is shit because there is no good way to create graphics. I belief that if you offered your portfolio to Linux, you would revolutionize the market and really make a difference. There are so many webdesigners like me who think the same.
Think big, people - you can shift market shares with your product on an OS level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I switched from MacOS (=bad politics...) finally to Linux now;
but still need to run Window$ on a VM for my beloved graphic tools.
Each time I start have to run Windows on to work with Affinity Photo or Adobe Lightroom  it is a pain!
I think the same as AffinityUser42 - if someone decide to switch to another OS, he would compare the availability of tools.
And badly the best graphic tools are not available for Linux now - this holds a lot of these people in the spider world of Microsoft and Apple.
I'm sure you guys are able to do a commercial Linux version of Affinity Photo - you only have to support at least Ubuntu - should be fine for the most.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never say never. Building and maintaining application on Linux was always a bit of a pain because of inconsistent interface between the distributions and versions of kernel and desktops.

However now there is snapstore for creating snap packages which takes care about the dependencies so it may be some light at the end of the tunnel. As The Mac OS is base on Unix as well as Linux it may be not so difficult to port the apps to snap packages for Linux. I think when the Affinity suite becomes more mature there may be possibility to try port them for Linux.

-p- 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Long time adobe professional here.
I (and others in my network) have abandoned the adobe ship, finally, after viable options are now available.
Many of us are also abandoning apple, because of their increasing planned obsolecence and apparent shift to target teens instead of professionals.

Linux has never been better and has brilliant software that replaces most of adobe suite.
DaVinci Resolve replaces and out-performs Adobe Premiere for video editing, is available on Linux, and is becoming the new industry standard.
Darktable replaces and out-features Adobe Lightroom for Raw Photo development, and is available for Linux.
Blender is competing at the top tier for best 3D modeling and animation suite, available and runs best on Linux.
All we need is someone to step up and release a viable image and vector graphics suite. Please Affinity. take my money!
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, noveltywaves said:

Please Affinity. take my money!

Hi @noveltywaves,

welcome to the forum.

To start your time here around on a light note, I'd take your money, too ;)

You make some valid points with the contenders you mention. But it seems completely unclear at the moment if Serif will do that at any time soon. I doubt it.

d.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, noveltywaves said:

Long time adobe professional here.
I (and others in my network) have abandoned the adobe ship, finally, after viable options are now available.
Many of us are also abandoning apple, because of their increasing planned obsolecence and apparent shift to target teens instead of professionals.

Linux has never been better and has brilliant software that replaces most of adobe suite.
DaVinci Resolve replaces and out-performs Adobe Premiere for video editing, is available on Linux, and is becoming the new industry standard.
Darktable replaces and out-features Adobe Lightroom for Raw Photo development, and is available for Linux.
Blender is competing at the top tier for best 3D modeling and animation suite, available and runs best on Linux.
All we need is someone to step up and release a viable image and vector graphics suite. Please Affinity. take my money!
 

Please don't overlook Corel's AfterShot. Not as high hitting as PhotoShop but a decent contender for RAW processing and photo retouching.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, ꜱᴩʀɪᴛᴇ➀ said:

Why tie it to a distro? Why not have it be a Flatpak so it's compatible with pretty much every distro. Or even an AppImage. Just please not a Snap. Just like Windows and Mac versions, the users can just buy the license directly on Serif website 

AppImage works for me! Probably, some prerequisites would be needed, some minimum requirements would be good to know.

But this is not the answer. The products must behave consistently and, as Linux user, I can tell you there are still issues related to fonts, color management and hardware acceleration at least. Some distros are better than others in fulfilling these. So, those are important technical reasons of not yet providing a Linux version. But it's still doable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recently I was responsible for getting a company to switch over to the Affinity products. (Serif, you're welcome. :)) I wanted to share some insights behind one company's process of deciding what design software to purchase, my own experience as a teacher of art and design, and why Affinity should start thinking about developing Linux versions of their design software. This isn't intended to influence short-term plans, just long term ones and the way the market is shifting with regards to software ownership and operating systems.

* * * * *

The company I convinced to adopt the Affinity software is a web software company that also creates print/video games. We primarily run Linux. I'm a new hire in the design and art team, so I was able to bring up the existence of the Affinity products when the discussion of design software came up. We have huge issues with Adobe with regards to ownership, and other issues I won't get into here. The short version is that we had philosophical issues with Creative Cloud and Adobe as a company.

The problem is that our choice to go with Affinity products is that it was a compromise. There wasn't any other reason for us to use Affinity products besides we didn't like Adobe, and the minor issue of cost. It doesn't run on our preferred development environment, meaning that seemingly arbitrary separation between developers and designers and the software that they run will still exist in our process. It's almost 2020; it shouldn't be that way. Developers are designers too.

That is why we use software like Figma. It works on all operating systems because it's a vector and UI design tool that works in the browser. We are not really a fan of the subscription model or how our data is basically held hostage, but it's more practical to pay extra to have a unifying tool among all team member's operating systems. That is why we use Figma.

With WebAssembly, we'll start seeing more browser-based design applications. I strongly suspect that this is the direction Adobe will go to address the cross platform issue, but it doesn't address people's pain with "subscription fatigue," the questions of ownership, or having performant design applications. (If you haven't used Figma, it's performance is acceptable but not great.) I don't see WebAssembly browser apps having as good a user experience as native design apps in the near future.

So there's still a need for native design apps, including native Linux apps. For us, Affinity was a compromise purchase, and we bought the minimum number of copies we needed for each team member's role, instead of making sure everyone was on the same page which is what would have been ideal for us, but alas, "not available on Linux." What happened to the rest of the software budget that didn't go to getting copies for the entire staff, including the development team? That budget is going to the development funds of other design tools that do work in Linux, but just need more work to make them viable.

* * * * *

Okay, so that's just one company. It's just a web development company, not a design agency. Web development companies may not be Serif's intended customer. I get that might be the possibility. But here's something else to consider.

I'm also a teacher of art and design. I took a human-centered design approach to art education, and did a lot of research on the people who want to learn design. That process led me to focusing my efforts on teaching underprivileged and disadvantaged creatives, because I found that group encompasses most of the creatives out there. Since starting that journey I've developed some personal beefs with Adobe. I've witnessed creatives who couldn't afford their Adobe subscription, which meant they had to stop working as a freelancer if I hadn't stepped in. That's the type of stuff I deal with. Again, this group is huge: people in college, just out of college, or trying to ditch their horrible day jobs and pursue a more creative career.

When it comes to this group of people, every dollar counts. You may not think the cost of Windows ($140-$200 per computer) is that big of a deal, but it matters when you have to scrimp and save for every dollar, or when your local currency doesn't go as far is does in other countries. If that freelancer had the choice to use Linux as a designer, they would have been able to afford a few more months of the Creative Cloud subscription and continue working that month. Linux is the difference between someone having to save $460 for a computer instead of $600 to get started (that's 24% less, just from the cost of Windows). It's the difference between being able to work as a multi-disciplinary web developer and be able to design for and code in the operating system that powers the web. (Just us a VM for your dev server you say? VMs require a good chunk of dedicated RAM and a little bit more overhead, and a budget computer may not be able to handle that, especially if you have Windows as your host OS, making it far more memory efficient to run your entire server environment locally.)

Quite frankly, for creatives Linux is about providing more opportunities to people that would otherwise not have it. I'm hoping that more software companies adopt that mission too.

But until that happens, as a teacher I have to provide equal software coverage for both the Adobe products and the Affinity products in the curriculum, because I can't with full confidence entirely recommend one over the other. But for audio and video editing? DaVinci Resolve. Full stop. I won't teach Premier. Not everyone can install Premier, but everyone can install Resolve. For 3D modeling? Blender. Period. It works for everyone. No need to teach anything else.

I would love love LOVE to only teach Affinity products, but currently I can only recommend it. Granted, it's a strong recommendation, but my curriculum can't be as dedicated to one piece of graphic design software like I can with DaVinci Resolve, Blender, Krita, Godot, and Visual Studio Code, which are all programs I didn't have to compromise on.

I'm pleased with what Serif is doing. I got one company to adopting it, and a handful of other freelancers to start using it. I'm slowly moving over to Affinity for my freelance. Having software that competes with InDesign was a lot more urgent than Linux support, so I've been happy with the prioritization. (Although I think all software companies should consider targeting all three platforms at the beginning of a project. The libraries to do so have existed for years. But that's a business decision that is in the past.) The freelancer who couldn't pay for his Adobe subscription that month is now using Affinity products as per my recommendation. So Serif is doing a lot of good. I just hope that people who create design software don't forget about the creatives that are off of Adobe's radar.

Graphic design, software development, and education for underestimated creatives. Squirrel Logic

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that most people have the same common sense that leads us to think you're right. It is unfortunate that members of the Afinity company think otherwise and turn their faces to another place as if they had not read your message or simply keeping it in the bay of things that will never happen. It is unfortunate to see such situations, there is no commitment to the future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It really depends on the business strategy. By no means do I think that choosing not to have a fully cross-platform product is done in spite, as some users want to portray. (Seriously guys, that strategy doesn't work. Cut it out.)

There's some value in targeting someone else's customers. It's seen as a strategy with less risk. However, I hope that the value proposition for Affinity doesn't continue to be "it's like Adobe but cheaper." There's definitely some features that Affinity products have that Adobe does not, but it doesn't take long for a competitor to add similar features. I think the best thing that Affinity Designer had going for it was a fresh start: a more modern architecture, a fresh UI, less legacy code. A fresh start is also the time when you want to think about cross platform support.

One thing I wanted to reiterate, is that the people who are off Adobe's radar are MOST of the creatives out there. I'm not just talking about professional graphic designers, I'm talking about photographers, illustrators, software developers, clients, students (pre- and post-college), and creatives outside of the US or Europe. Just because they can't afford an Adobe subscription, an OS that runs it, or simply choose not to, doesn't mean they are not able to pay $50 once for design software that they can use forever. Programmers are very skeptical of subscription software, but are prone to impulse buys.

It's also worth pointing out that people who don't have access to the software needed to create graphic designs, are more likely to give up early and never show up in any surveys. As software becomes accessible, interest in that field grows instead of dying before it even begins. I've talked to developers that had interested in design, but when they found out that the existing Linux-compatible tools are, well...crap, they gave up. Sure, that helps me as a freelancer, but I think what Serif wants are more customers, especially budding creatives that want an accessible tool that they can financially justify.

In my corner of the USA, graphic design jobs are paying less and less. The supply and demand is not in our favor right now, which is why I'm pivoting to front-end development. Other designers are making the same move. That's another reason why Linux is becoming so much more desirable among graphic designers: software development is becoming a more valuable skill. But at the same time the value of design is understood, so visual design is becoming something that more of the design team is touching and interacting with. That includes the developers running Linux.

Are programmers the only potential customers that could be gained from a Linux version? No. Front-end developers/designers who want to switch off of MacOS but can't. People who want to donate a computer and load it with software the recipient will actually use. (Seriously, donating a Windows computer can be a huge pain because of the cost of a Windows license.) Educators like myself that want to teach design software that won't burden the students or the school (Adobe's educational pricing is a bit of a joke, and scrappy educational schools like ours don't qualify). And of course, the people who want to move off of Windows but are waiting for the right collection of software that will let them transition. I predict that once a Linux version is available, more people will buy the Windows and Mac versions because they'll want to get comfortable with the new software before they are ready to transition away from Windows/MacOS, and finally cancel their Adobe subscription.

Graphic designers, developers, and educators like myself don't want Serif to create a Linux version to help pump up support for Linux. It's not about that. There's already mass support for Linux, including from those who don't actually run Linux. It's just that most of us can't migrate to Linux because of Adobe! So when we have both Adobe and Affinity software, and neither work on the OS that so many of us want to use daily, there's not much point in migrating away from what we are already familiar with. So we stick with Adobe products.

 * * * * *

Serif,

I have a suggestion.

Run an exit intent pop up asking people why they decided to not purchase Affinity products. I would also recommend a checkout survey asking why they almost decided not to purchase your product.

I've found that a lot of companies put their heads too far into the numbers as opposed to talking to people that bounced and decided they were not interested in their product. Take a more human-centered approach to find out what is really going on. Find the creatives that suffer the most. Talk to scrappy educators, makers, and aspiring creatives. Go to meet up groups. Figure out what they struggle with. Every time those companies have been surprised by the findings.

I think you'll find more success in filling gaps that others have not filled.

Graphic design, software development, and education for underestimated creatives. Squirrel Logic

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did hit the Like icon in both of your posts for a very single reason : While not agreeing with several statements (I'm expanding about them below, because I believe some details are important to consider for us all), I have indeed explained before (years and months before) one very similar aspect to a part of what you say: Affinity pricing is... BETTER for large chunks of the world population. Not only for countries where having a roof or eating is already an issue to be fought everyday (I've quite first hand info about this, I help largely for certain stuff) , but also for large chunks of population in the first world. I am not sure if you ALSO love linux with a passion, you say it's all about giving the opportunity to artists without possibilities to pay Adobe's subscription, but it clearly reads as if you also really quite dislike already the other OSes, or specially, Windows (less negative mentions than Mac's world, but t hat's a constant among Linux people since always). And that is just fine. But I come from a point where I have intensively used both, and I like both (if anything, I like more Linux, as an OS, but don't have even the slightest idea to abandon Windows in a long time). I mean, I can tell you that it is only affected by that very fact my consideration of how this pricing does help already  those areas and users! , despite being "only" (yikes!) on Windows/Mac/iOS. As ... sad to say, but a bunch there (both in 3rd/2nd world and poor areas in 1st world ones) use "fixed" Windows licenses, there where the governments are mostly failed and can't control that, not even at business level! they've enough to fight the revolts and try that the 80% of their population stops starving.

Quote

The supply and demand is not in our favor right now, which is why I'm pivoting to front-end development.

This happens in more corners. Meaning other ones crossing several of the oceans around you....

Coding is on the raise, not just front end, and mostly due to AI and robots, big data and stuff, owning slowly  the world, this is going to keep increasing the demand of coders, besides that the whole IT thing and structure gets more complex itself, and more coding is needed. Python is too in very high (#1 or almost) demand, as keeps being java, and both quite well paid. But yeah, imo is global, coding is on the raise, making graphics... saturated. In the web it (graphic design) got killed largely tho (the web designer figure sort of disappeared) when the frameworks, bootstrap and other stuff took place. The graphically heavy and CSS wizardry + graphics craft (a profession for a bunch of us...it was) kind of lost all of its importance. Today is mostly putting pre-made (in code and graphics) components together with the help to mount it of UI/UX individuals or teams. Who often are not really high end graphic designers , but people capable to structure well information and user experience. You get offers with the profiles split, is becoming more common, now... surely due to experiencing the reality (already known a bunch of UI people not wanting to deal with the finished, fully rendering of graphics. Some don't even have the background for that, as come more from other professions, more UX or marketing related. )... Cases like several offers, same day and company: An UI/UX (which indeed is two profiles, but battle lost, there), a graphic designer for high end finished graphics, then the usual front end and  back end or a full stack, instead)

But imo that could be not the best mindset. In a saturated market you need to do (be it coding or graphics) what is not being solved, what others don't do, or be best at something where there's not so many people excelling at it. Or if staying in the saturated one, adding a differentiation value. Meaning, I think there's always chance, is a matter of how each one attacks the situation.

Yet so, if you accumulate enough graphics-only profiles, when a field gets dry, you jump to offers in other profiles (2D, 3D, games, print, web, etc), and kind of deal with the dry years in A or B field, without needing to become a digital nomad. Still, I don't recommend it. Be it coding or whatever, moving to a profile or job of local (and /or global) high demand and not so high requirements is surely smarter. I did it the hard way, tho.  :S

Okay, this was quite an OT aspect of it, but IMO is a key matter and concern for a lot of students, pros and hobbyists.

 

On 12/4/2019 at 12:31 AM, Metsys said:

There's some value in targeting someone else's customers. It's seen as a strategy with less risk. However, I hope that the value proposition for Affinity doesn't continue to be "it's like Adobe but cheaper." 

There's a ton of risk tho in getting into an entirely new platform, market, type of users, etc. So, kindda gets compensated, that advantage...at least.

The Adobe but cheaper is understood in two ways. One the totally market unaware (the most dangerous for each individual, in real life) and another actually considering the market and its needs.

We live in the world live in, and even people with certain very progressive ideology knows applying changes without realism can damage the most those who are already in the bottom of the pyramid.

So, the market aware sense of  that statement is the one knowing that it IS a market (clients, business, to generate income, to make each small design or whatever studio a reality) need to actually provide with a tool, for example, that REALLY can do at least the core functionality that Adobe Photoshop is capable of. NOT necessarily with the same approaches, but definitely covering the same market needs, high end stuff. In that way is not as much as making a PS clone, but DEFINITELY covering what the top pro apps DO cover. The stubbornness  so characteristic of a large group of Linux users and devs has too often lead as all (all those wishing for Linux to have serious pro graphic software) to an stagnated point. For instance, the Gimp case.... because I "want to be different" is ok that I don't support a CMYK mode (crucial for many print workflows, and ONLY this year it's going to be added, and because is a Google Summer of code, if not, who knows, maybe in 2050.... ) , or how were Blender people takes at some matters and features back in the day: Max and Maya have it, but we don't need it... Luckily Blender is the one that has realized sooner and more decisively that they have to cover the top pro needs, even if so they can be called imitators for that (anyway, Blender does all things so differently that it'd be silly to say so. But the functionality IS covered)

And I can very safely tell you... It's the hipster, romantic positioning about it (lack of pragmatism as damaging as a sharp knife for people in need in other countries) the one not standing "to look like PS". If you gave this people a Photoshop freakin exact clone, and telling them it's only 50 bucks, or a Gimp really achieving allthat, looking exactly like PS, but free, in both cases they'll thank you with tears in their eyes, to start using it just a second later. So... it's not in the ones at need who do need the UI to be "super original". They freakin need the functionality, and to be sth they can pay. Even if 53$ is a huge payment already for many of them, evenas a permanent license. But PS was 800 ! And they can video edit with Davinci, free although limited (zero cost while starting), Blender for free. Just for these fields they'd already need the 60 bucks monthly subscription every freaking month, and have ac onnection, etc, etc, etc. Impossible for incredibly large areas in the planet, I agree in that part.

People also tend to remove credit to Adobe in having actually pushed the limits and what we could do in every area. They helped making the design and general graphics world to the level that we know today. It has helped to develop very advanced and complex workflows to produce very high end graphics. Making Adobe look like an all-evil , good-for nothing company often looks simplistic and unfair. At least for those in the job(s) and freelancing since 95, who have seen many fields grow thanks to Adobe software. And the tools actually evolve a lot : Indeed the issue is that people don't realize how high it has set the minimum standards, and how much work involves achieving all that in a fraction of the years for a much smaller team and company (near 24500 against...whatever the relatively small number Serif has).

On 12/4/2019 at 12:31 AM, Metsys said:

One thing I wanted to reiterate, is that the people who are off Adobe's radar are MOST of the creatives out there. I'm not just talking about professional graphic designers, I'm talking about photographers, illustrators, software developers, clients, students (pre- and post-college), and creatives outside of the US or Europe. Just because they can't afford an Adobe subscription, an OS that runs it, or simply choose not to, doesn't mean they are not able to pay $50 once for design software that they can use forever. Programmers are very skeptical of subscription software, but are prone to impulse buys.

You are not talking then about pro graphic designers... but in your list... beware, there are also many very pro photographers, illustrators and many graphic oriented professionals, out of the US or Europe, and also the ones in those areas.That's a bazillion professionals working at that, from India, Africa, South and Central America, Australia, Russia, Japan, etc. Saying Adobe is not used by most of the creatives out there is an statement I would not dare to make, as I believe is exactly the opposite. At least the professional ones.  I'd agree if you mean just regular users, without the need of the professional market,  needing to make some lighter work than say, a AAA game artist is asked to do with PS at a top game company. BUT THEN...! we are talking about hobbyists, or users with similar level of requirements. And... For that, IMO, Gimp, Inkscape and Scribus are highly underrated. I have handled all corporate image and everything else with Gimp an Inkscape at a company, for many years, being there the only graphic pro. It was an absolute PITA, also due to the fact that back then these were WaAyY less evolved than now. And I wont even start with it about Blender (the hugest evolution I've seen in graphic OS). The Linux community leaves those almost unattended, while those have an immense potential. They do stuff that even Affinity tools don't have yet (some features). And there you have it, Gimp, 3 permanent coders (3!!! not 24k workers...of course, it'd be great with even just 20 (permanent, all year) of 'em...shame on you linux dev community (and users, as u get to pay these 3 through user donations... 3 salaries from donations in the entire WORLD!!!) and linux companies, you could do a lot better there if you'd have real interest on true open source graphic apps !) only at Gimp team... One main person at Synfig (which could become an Animate (Flash) for Linux) and the donations every month are ridiculously small despite being already a very complex and ambitious tool. It's actual Linux community not really caring much, why? A huge dominance of people focused on system, network and programming. Not graphics creation. Krita is another one in the right direction, and yet so has some issues that are surpassed since eons by even very basic Windows (and Mac) based painters. Many of the community are searching the solution in the wrong place, at closed source companies, instead of solve the problem at the heart of it: The linux dev community, and the already big linux based and linux related companies don't really care about actual real Linux open source respecting philosophy graphic tools, actual open source apps created since decades and with enough merit to receive a hundred times more attention, resources, people working and coding for it. It is way easier to blame (that's always easier than asume some things. And more romantic/epic looking) the neighbor, who has nothing to do with the movement and line of thought.

On 12/4/2019 at 12:31 AM, Metsys said:

That's another reason why Linux is becoming so much more desirable among graphic designers: software development is becoming a more valuable skill.

Well, it has been always, since my first years. I've seen it so (and that converting to better salaries, influence in the company, and better everything) since '95, and the same (with its context differences) at game companies, advertising agencies, software developers (in Windows or Linux environments), etc.

I would agree that's getting EVEN WORSE for graphic content creators in comparison to the importance perceived of coding, and increasing demand of programmers.

 

On 12/4/2019 at 12:31 AM, Metsys said:

No. Front-end developers/designers who want to switch off of MacOS but can't.

A front end developer is not supposed to handle PS or After Effects. a designer, definitely. But since at least 2012 /2013 the split among those two fields, better said, loosing the graphics making requirement as become definitive. in any job offer, for the web... is rarely spelled so, "web designers"; is mostly UI/UX professionals. But those don't have to (usually) code. And they need to cover new fields of knowledge that a designer wouldn't (at the same time, often are required less and less high end rendered detail design.

So, front-end have zero issues to work on Linux, Mac OS or Windows. Unless we do some heavy  misplacing of the jobs areas, here. Of course, a freelance  web professional, lets use that term, is increasingly being used so.... or directly, web designer (but those creating trends in tech frown upon it, sigh) as in the freelance - clients world is yet being mentioned, is indeed needing in his/her everyday to handle graphic applications and making all the gfx, unless out sourcing it to a colleague. Many are ONLY coders, and have indeed zero interest in even launching PS or whatever. They simply don't need it. I know even WordPress pros, earning A TON of money every month, and they don't do a single graphic. Indeed, a majority of them are of these characteristics.

On 12/4/2019 at 12:31 AM, Metsys said:

It's just that most of us can't migrate to Linux because of Adobe!

Hmmmm

I know I totally could. Having made all the print and web work for a company during a decade, with quite older and inferior versions of graphic open source, I know it can be done, is just really hard. For JUST making graphics for personal work or ocassional freelancing (not full time freelancing as a job) , or as part of projects that need some graphic elements, already Inkscape and Gimp are very high end . I do ALL my 3D freelancing with Blender, indeed, currently, since quite some years.

I believe there is a HUGE reason why a lot of people even SHOULDN'T fully migrate to Linux. Specially shcools... The market is... Adobe, full stop. The job market. Students should get skilled in market compliant tools, no matter if, besides,  they become experts for home projects in  low cost and open source tools. That indeed should be the right approach to not damage the future of these kids or teenagers.

Every company out there, not only in EU and US, is using Adobe for actual business, professional activity. The worse, by very far, that you can do to a student is tell her/him that can forget about adobe, that should use alternatives. Then the companies simply DO NOT pick you, unless you are an exception, a jewel so rare that they will train you in Adobe, loosing that time, money and effort on you. Heck, I ain't a jewel, but I've worked at companies which did let me keep modeling in Wings3D (open source cross platform, btw) due to the fact that I provided what was required exceeding their expectations in quality and time. And yet so, it was very hard for me to do so, as you become instantly enemy of their system and habits. Any slight error, they are over you like beasts. That's a ton of stress, and also, is time you could be using to improve in what really is required in the job market : Adobe Photoshop, Zbrush, 3DS Max, InDesign (every agency I step in asks for it even for heavily graphic profiles!), After Effects (INCREASING in demand and pay!! , as much as coding, so is not like a whole field is damned. It goes per specific things), Premiere, etc. I had to spend a ton of time in the worst moment, bad timing, due to having been an enthusiast of Linux, free software, or the underdog at cheaper cost (no subscriptions back then, but tons of underdogs).

I can only think it's a very bad route not to teach kids and teens (and older ones needing an actual job)  the Adobe suite, indeed. All of it. Very independently of the fact that there would be or would be not Affinity Linux versions. So, even in the cases of schools deciding to teach, on Windows and Mac platforms,  only Affinity  and replacing Adobe. Bad , bad error. What would be an error too, would be to tell them to also use their Adobe student version for home/personal projects. No!. There's were they get their Affinity suite, Clip Studio, Blender, and other open source software. And freaking learn every bit of it, knowing they can go to every contest and every public project as is all legal. And even allows full commercial use, so to make some money for their expenses, unlike with academic software (Adobe, Autodesk, etc). The brain, and full understanding of what is 2D and 3D in its essence (that is not a button placed EXACTLY there) , evolves at much higher speed the more they need to change between UIs, specially if very different. Human brain is super flexible, if solidly taught to pro level at the school, they will be able to apply all those methods at home in the cheap alternative and free software, helping indeed to increase the knowledge base, the howtos in the new tools, but with the decades long existing pro workflows in the really complete and deep tools. That's how you enable a REAL alternative without leaving the kids jobless later on because every other candidate out there was taught the market standard tools to get a job. Which since long time, these are under the Adobe and Autodesk umbrellas, in 2D and 3D respectively. 

It is a very serious act of responsibility, indeed. I've been a teacher (for short time) and studied a lot (to get a vacant as a public teacher), I got to pass the exams very well, but our country's extra points system is peculiar, to say the least : I know about teaching, and I know this should be the way, for the students future, until the market changes very dramatically. Which doesn't seem likely for a very long time, if ever. 

 

On 12/4/2019 at 12:31 AM, Metsys said:

I think you'll find more success in filling gaps that others have not filled.

They are IMO thriving thanks to filling important gaps. There is a ton of users not able / willing to pay a subscription. A lot, just already have a low pension...can't add on top on that.. (seems there are many older great people around ;) ), others are in the other extreme, students who can't pay more for a hobby or personal projects tool. Others are indy game developers, others hobbyists photographers (maybe a majority).  And only to mention a few (in these forums you can read many, many stories....) . It just happen to be the case that they are Mac and Windows users. So, they are indeed filling gaps that other were not filling... enough, let's say (Affinity is far from being the only alternative. Is not even the older among those, but probably the youngest).

But yeah, Linux is yet another gap to fill. But if you notice, they seem to be focused now the efforts on Publisher, I guess as is the youngest application and the one needing more a push now, I suppose. By all signs we have, it just seems they are doing all they can for what their current, paying uses are requesting in their polls (I suppose, tho I believe I have never filled any) or however they track these things. If the sure source of income (current, not "potential", paying customers) tells them that their paying customers want a polished Publisher, the wrap / distort feature and outline stroke (improved) in Designer,  some details in Photo, while yet porting all they can of the apps to each iOS version... is only natural to understand both the delays, and no desire to risk it all to an uncertain (in business terms, sorry, it IS uncertain) adventure. And happens like with some wished features. For some weird reason, people think that "can't do now", or "not doing it in the near future" means never. "Never" will rarely be the answer, as doing anything that even 10 user want can be 10 extra licenses. But is the cost of going one route or the other what a software dev measures carefully every day, if I remember well my years working at those. Most of us wish a Linux version. But to be sincere, if an app has an important matter to fix or add, to actually compete in the job and freelancing market, is of no use to release it in a bazillion different platforms until those minimal requirements are covered. Otherwise, that is, if people was not picky about fixing those or releasing stuff subpar in a new platform,  people was capable (and fine with it) of creating their own hard workarounds for bugs and lacks of features, then people complaining here at this thread would be using  Gimp, Scribus and Inkscape for ever, would not have visited these forums even a single time.

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.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, SrPx said:

I am not sure if you ALSO love linux with a passion, you say it's all about giving the opportunity to artists without possibilities to pay Adobe's subscription, but it clearly reads as if you also really quite dislike already the other OSes, or specially, Windows.

My relationship with Linux is a more pragmatic one. I actually recommend people get a Windows PC over a Mac, mainly due to overall cost, performance, maintainability, upgradeability, and just having more software options in general. It sucks that you don't have the overlap of a Unix-based system and the ability to run the Adobe suite, like you do on the Mac, but there's ways around that (VMs, Windows Subsystem for Linux, etc.). Some of the more annoying Windows "features" can be disabled.

 

1 hour ago, SrPx said:

Saying Adobe is not used by most of the creatives out there is an statement I would not dare to make, as I believe is exactly the opposite.

When I used the term "creative" it's more a general term that does not just include paid professionals. The education work I'm doing focuses on the whole gamut of creatives: a lot of pre- and post-college creatives who are self-taught, not in college or are already past that. So when looking at "creatives" with a wider lens, this includes all visual artist, including hobbyist and people trying to change into a more design-oriented career. That is why non-Adobe products are appealing to the educational work I'm doing. It includes people who have not made it into college yet (an ideal place to learn the Adobe suite), or are focusing on building something new on their own outside of a studio. If they took out a loan to get their education, then absolutely, I'll only teach them the Adobe software.

 

Regarding the small number of developers working on open-source projects. I recall a big funding push for Krita while it was still a young piece of software. They had a Kickstarter campaign, and a lot of marketing. They also have a website that makes the donation path very clear. Compared to Inkscape and GIMP? Not so much. Inkscape's donation page says they use it to help developers attend conferences. GIMP's donate page says "we don’t raise funds to sponsor development of GIMP as an organization at this time." Blender has had an online store for a very long time, paid training materials, and a membership program, so no wonder they were so successful at getting funding (before Epic gave them over a million dollars). It also doesn't hurt that their software was already fairly capable when it first became open source. I think the big takeaway there is that most open-source development projects are not great at marketing and asking for money.

Graphic design, software development, and education for underestimated creatives. Squirrel Logic

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/28/2019 at 10:07 PM, msdobrescu said:

I can tell you there are still issues related to fonts, color management and hardware acceleration at least

I feel like this would err on the side of edge cases though... Serif realistically only needs to make sure it runs on the latest Ubuntu LTS and the rest of the Linux community will make it work on their distro of choice

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, ꜱᴩʀɪᴛᴇ➀ said:

I feel like this would err on the side of edge cases though... Serif realistically only needs to make sure it runs on the latest Ubuntu LTS and the rest of the Linux community will make it work on their distro of choice

I am sure, but it's about assuring same experience on all the OSes, the reliability of the output, to get the same thing everywhere, even a specific distro is targeted and required, sspecially for design. I don't say it's impossible, but there are times when things go crazy, maybe once in a few years. I know, I use Linux since '96 and it's my main OS and I love it for its freedom, not necessarily for its initial price.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Received the news with hope ... (solid Windows user here, but I hope one day one will be able run all major market-relevant pro apps in linux) Then I realized is not an important app, even more, is an Electron desktop app with a custom Chromium bundled. I'll jump from my realistic ship (not really, but at least go back to dual boot) once I see something like a single Office app (not necessarily all the suite) like MS Word or Excel to be made with native code for Linux. As if not, the performance, compatibility, limited access etc will still be there.

It's a step forward, but I have seen tons of times MS do this... shy steps forward, and then closing the project or abandoning it . Particularly in graphic software...Hello, Expression Design...after acquiring it from a Japanese company (as often, that country produces some of the best painting and graphics software, dunno why) they stopped its development after a short while. Happened too many times. I'm just not willing to get hopeful about it until I see more decisive movements. So far is the only OS (VERY ironically, if you think of it) making a serious approach to Linux. But like I say, I'll wait and see, just yet. As I could subscribe totally this paragraph form the linked article :

"   It's been quite the journey for Microsoft. The idea that we'd be reporting on Office for Linux, even five years ago, would have been ridiculous. But under the stewardship of Satya Nadella, the feud between Linux and the Big M has turned into a partnership of equals - with the acquisition of the Github repository being the cherry on a very large cake.   "

Who knew... !  Maybe you'll have to owe Linux's strong entrance in the graphic market thanks to its archenemy... which is so weird that I like it.

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.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A friend came to celebrate my son birthday. He recently bought an pretty expensive camera and lens (of about 2000$) and was concerned about its quality. I've shown him how to shoot in several conditions, from dark to bright light. I had not used Photoshop and Windows in a long time, despite I still inertially pay for CC. So, to get to them, we had to wait half of hour to upgrade, pass the BIOS setting of disabling the VT-d (Windows won't boot with it enabled after years of reporting this by so many users), even a long restart with upgrading, slow desktop due to high disk usage from the recently added batch that scans intensively the disk to feed Lightroom (as the Adobbe support told me), and upgrading the CC apps (the option was turned on, so who cares I was needeing it?). I wanted him to see what means to have all in one vs. the chain I use under Linux. After all the waiting, he was not willing to boot Windows again to show him some features. We've used Linux instead, where I look at raw images in Gwenview, develop in RawTherapee or Darktable, stitch with Hugin, retouch with Gimp with Resynthesizer, make HDR's with Luminance HDR. It's a bit more complicated to install them on Windows than on Linux, but he asked for those instead CC. Fun fact, as I use KDE and I was not mentioned I'm on Linux, he thought I have some skin solution for Windows. I was just browsing for files with Dolphin, and he asked me what is that and where to download it, for its panels and tabs features (that Microsoft announced and cancelled after...). I told him what was that about... He noticed how fast my Linux was by comparison to the bloated Windows (which is good, but full of tasks I don't even need or use, but I can't stop, as they are "fixed" to run again and again by the further updates). I know, I could boost my Windows system a bit with SSDs, but they failed in two years, so I wait for a more reliable ones and use the good old HDDs. I don't really need those with Linux. So, well, I stick with Linux for a better experience from all I need to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.