Affinity products for Linux

[msdobrescu]

Thanks, @Dylan_LHDP, although I am not sure about the legality of this concerning Windows licensing. Anyway, means installing Windows, which is exactly I avoid.

[wonderings]

On 11/19/2020 at 12:24 AM, blippo311 said:

Wow! This debate has been going on for 3 yrs now!!! I agree. I have bought photo and designer, and you know what... I would buy another for linux! I like a lot of us are tired of windows and the crap we have to put with just to use certain apps. I am no developer, but in a consumer world thinking... just make a .deb and run with it! I agree with the guy who said "well mac os is only 10%, so make it for them?" Yes, Davinci Resolve is available for linux users as a .deb! Yes, Steam is now on linux!!! Yes Linux is growing! Don't tell me its not! After I finish remodelling my house and office for my small business, I will check back and see if Affinity will listen to its users. Because if they dont, I will try and buy Corel Aftershot Pro. Corel listened to their customers.... why doesn't Affintiy.... 

They do listen to their users, they are just not doing what you want. This is a business and they owe nothing to anyone. Now with that said it is good for business to have a good relationship with your users obviously. In this case I would say they just do not have the resources to support a 3rd (4th counting iOS) OS for a very small user base. There is a reason Adobe is not on Linux, they are a company with money and resources to spare and they have opted out after market research. This does not mean it will never happen but it is not at a place yet where they think they will make any money (my assumption). I believe the same is for Serif, they are a much much much smaller company with a product still in V1. It is being refined and they are still adding features to V1 and not saving them for a V2 release, which I think in many cases would have been warranted. They have been very generous in my opinion with these feature rich updates. 

Not sure what Steam being on Linux has to do with Affinity. Didn't Steam drop one of the major distros of Linux as well last year?

[msdobrescu]

I guess US companies support US companies, Adobe would count on Apple or Microsoft. They can rely on common values and laws. Linux is made by an Europeans and Ubuntu is based in Europe. Steam said they would change Ubuntu support for other Linux distro support, but wouldn't drop Linux completely. I am a Linux user and I don't like Ubuntu myself.

[wonderings]

15 hours ago, msdobrescu said:

I guess US companies support US companies, Adobe would count on Apple or Microsoft. They can rely on common values and laws. Linux is made by an Europeans and Ubuntu is based in Europe. Steam said they would change Ubuntu support for other Linux distro support, but wouldn't drop Linux completely. I am a Linux user and I don't like Ubuntu myself.

I think companies support companies that will help them make profits. I seriously doubt Adobe would not work with Linux simply because it is European. Things are not as personal as that, it really is just business.

[myclay]

On 11/24/2020 at 6:18 PM, wonderings said:

Didn't Steam drop one of the major distros of Linux as well last year?

Ubuntu (losing favor and momentum) was dropped due to disallowing 32-bit software/games to run on 64-bit machines.
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/steam-announces-that-its-dropping-support-for-ubuntu

Linux itself is important for Valve, for example to prevent further expansions of things like
Windows 10 S Mode which only allows apps and games from Microsoft Store to be installed.

 

[msdobrescu]

9 hours ago, wonderings said:

I think companies support companies that will help them make profits. I seriously doubt Adobe would not work with Linux simply because it is European. Things are not as personal as that, it really is just business.

I think it's easier to control when having a business relation in the same country, with all the state differences, than overseas. Easier to access and to assess. Nothing personal.

[wonderings]

14 hours ago, msdobrescu said:

I think it's easier to control when having a business relation in the same country, with all the state differences, than overseas. Easier to access and to assess. Nothing personal.

Adobe is an international company and has offices all over the world

https://www.adobe.com/about-adobe/contact/offices.html

We are not talking a mom and pop shop here, this is a billion dollar company. 

[cfbauer]

Found this thread in a google search to see if Affinity supports linux. I'm ready to buy when they do since I refuse to use operating system level spyware from Windows.

Edited November 30, 2020 by cfbauer

[wonderings]

17 hours ago, cfbauer said:

Found this thread in a google search to see if Affinity supports linux. I'm ready to buy when they do since I refuse to use operating system level spyware from Windows.

Are you saying you never use Windows? If so why are you ready to buy Affinity apps if you have never demoed them?

[jtriangle]

6 hours ago, wonderings said:

Are you saying you never use Windows? If so why are you ready to buy Affinity apps if you have never demoed them?

You don't have to be a genius to look at a product offering and realize that it's more than adequate for your needs. At this point, there's a wealth of knowledge on youtube about how Affinity, and many other apps, work.

And, factually, having used the apps, it's abundantly clear that they don't intend to just replace AdobeCC, but instead build a better app all around. That shouldn't come as a surprise, Adobe is in an unenviable situation with their apps. If they changed them enough that they would work better, they'd break all kinds of legacy support, not to mention the collective user screeching would be downright deafening if they changed the UI/Workflow, even if those changes were objectively improving things.

That's also why Affinity is uniquely positioned to capture the Linux market. Being that they're a smaller company, with a much, much smaller codebase to manage, which makes it a much cheaper proposition than it would be for adobe.

[cfbauer]

7 hours ago, wonderings said:

Are you saying you never use Windows? If so why are you ready to buy Affinity apps if you have never demoed them?

My coworker recommended them and there's a big need for a feature filled graphics editor in Linux.

And that's correct, I never use Windows.

[wonderings]

18 hours ago, jtriangle said:

You don't have to be a genius to look at a product offering and realize that it's more than adequate for your needs. At this point, there's a wealth of knowledge on youtube about how Affinity, and many other apps, work.

And, factually, having used the apps, it's abundantly clear that they don't intend to just replace AdobeCC, but instead build a better app all around. That shouldn't come as a surprise, Adobe is in an unenviable situation with their apps. If they changed them enough that they would work better, they'd break all kinds of legacy support, not to mention the collective user screeching would be downright deafening if they changed the UI/Workflow, even if those changes were objectively improving things.

That's also why Affinity is uniquely positioned to capture the Linux market. Being that they're a smaller company, with a much, much smaller codebase to manage, which makes it a much cheaper proposition than it would be for adobe.

I would never purchase software I am intending to use in a pro environment without trying it out first to make sure it works how I want it and need it. No video or review will be good enough to replace hands on use. 

I personally think Adobe is in a great place with Adobe CC. Fragmentation is virtually gone and software works well. No stability issues for me or anyone else in our organization using Adobe CC. The UI makes sense and is functional. I only do minor tests and play with my Affinity apps so can't speak from a lot of hands on use but there are some things that I think need a lot of work, specifically how colour is handled. That of course just may be me and how my mind works. 

 

[jtriangle]

Sure, you wouldn't buy 20 licenses and yolo your whole company into it. You'd buy one license, or a trial, and make sure it works for what you need it for. Trials are available for existing platforms, so, stands to reason that they'd also be available for a linux version.

 I don't personally see fragmentation as a huge issue, nor is the lack of fragmentation a great selling point when the alternative is essentially indentured servitude to adobe. All of the fragmentation is solved by using PDF if you need to ship a file somewhere, hence "portable document format", which is a trick that psd/psb/ai/idd/etc were never meant to be used for. Also, I've not found CC to be as stable as CS5/5.5 was back in the day, it's gone downhill since then. The GPU acceleration has  broken a number of times on the workstations that I've supported and it's crashed the whole app on numerous occasions. It's always happened after an update, and has usually been solved by running DDU and getting the latest graphics drivers, but not always. This isn't on whitebox hacked together workstations either, they're all nice Dell workstations that don't otherwise have issues. Also, Adobe support is worse than useless, so when you run into issues, your best bet is to google the problem and hope that someone's fixed it previously.

 I'd also hazard to say that your opinions of affinity have insufficient qualifications to have your opinions taken seriously, being as you're an adobe fanboi and don't really use Affinity in a serious manner. I've got 15 workstations with photo/designer on them and the comparison is better than 1:1. Affinity is just better all around, it's snappier, the UI is more efficient, and it's been just as stable as the CC apps. Further, we gave the users the choice to use one or the other after having them use Affinity photo/designer exclusively for a couple weeks and not a single person wanted to go back to CC. 

[raptor]

Count my vote in for the whole Wine thing. If Serif helped to ensure that their products ran on Wine (without any show stoppers) it would be a great gesture and they could sell more licenses. I don't know how difficult it would be and how much money and resources it would take but I imagine it would be much easier than making a native Linux port. They could test the waters this way.

For example there is a "one man band" developer of the Windows NURBS modeling package named MOI (Moment of Inspiration) and he is always making sure his program works on Wine. Another example is Photoline - very small team and they also support Wine installation. It always makes the company likeable in my eyes and I want to do business with them even more. It is not just cold harsh calculated business. Doing a little bit extra for people (even for a minority) can go a long way.

Another reason why to write software for free(dom) OSes could be ideological and pragmatic at the same time. I wonder if the Serif developers and owners themself want to be stuck on a spyware and surveillance riddled OS forever (Windows 10)? I guess they use mainly Macs but unfortunately Mac OS is slowly becoming surveillance OS too ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS2lJNQn3NA ), especially now with their own new M1 chips (much worse than Intel ME and AMD PSP). That being said I don't want to preach anything to anyone and respect everyone's choice of OS. Sometimes I just wonder what would it really take for the majority of people to get upset and kick those spying OSes out of their machines. Maybe if Microsoft moves to a rental-only model and Apple builds an always-on camera into their displays ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm9JIojVvRg ) :). Somehow I doubt it. Of course I expect at least next five comments to contain the phrase "tin foil" :).

[msdobrescu]

So if I am a person going in a remote place where there is no Internet access or cell, let's say as a tourist, in the mountains, and I own an Apple product, I can't use it at all (for other things a notebook or a phone is used than Internet browsing or phone calling)? HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!!!!

[tills]

That's incorrect. Yes, there has been an incident that led to people not being able to open apps on their Mac, because an Apple server was malfunctioning. This does, however, not mean that you can't run apps without an internet connection – of course not. Also, this issue is getting fixed with a future update to improve reliability and privacy. So its very funny for Apple-Haters, but only if you leave out some details ;)

Apart from that, can we please stop comparing operating systems? I know, in a thread this long, people will only read the first and the last three posts, but I ask anyway, because I get an e-mail for everyone hating Apple, or Microsoft or Affinity, or Adobe, while all I care about is the actual topic of this thread.

Also, please stop annoying people with yet another take on the economics behind Affinity's decision not (yet) to support linux. At least half of you is probably wrong anyway 😄

[msdobrescu]

I've studied the OSes, I don't hate any, I think all are at least excellent, but what's around them is questionable at least.

[Snapseed]

On 11/20/2020 at 10:43 AM, Framelynx said:

I know right?

Just a anecdote: My mac is getting battery change right now. (3 days wait). Using my Linux Ryzen 9 3900x. Had to use Affinity on my Windows Virtual Machine, And a bit of Scribus. What a pain. Luckily it was small stuff.

Interesting tidbit: Codeweavers have updated their branding https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover I even bought a the Affinity Suite (windows version) just to try a port, a wine, a virtual machine.... actually cheaper than subscribing to Adobe for 4 months.
They should start a crowdfund for PortJump $9000(x1-3) - https://www.codeweavers.com/portjump
Imagine. Raise $9000(x1-3) to get The Affinity Suite working on Linux. Maybe much less since the suite share the same engine.
Of course we understand business risk. Crowdfunding helps reduce that risk.

Heck, I'll buy other Affinity products to help support them.

Been enjoying all my windows games on Steam Play... wishing I can also enjoy windows Affinity on Steam too! Maybe Affinity need to put their software on Steam! 😂 I laugh... but is it actually possible?

The whole M1 Mac line up seems exciting and all but I'm done with Mac.

 

2 hours ago, raptor said:

Count my vote in for the whole Wine thing. If Serif helped to ensure that their products ran on Wine (without any show stoppers) it would be a great gesture and they could sell more licenses. I don't know how difficult it would be and how much money and resources it would take but I imagine it would be much easier than making a native Linux port. They could test the waters this way.

For example there is a "one man band" developer of the Windows NURBS modeling package named MOI (Moment of Inspiration) and he is always making sure his program works on Wine. Another example is Photoline - very small team and they also support Wine installation. It always makes the company likeable in my eyes and I want to do business with them even more. It is not just cold harsh calculated business. Doing a little bit extra for people (even for a minority) can go a long way.

Another reason why to write software for free(dom) OSes could be ideological and pragmatic at the same time. I wonder if the Serif developers and owners themself want to be stuck on a spyware and surveillance riddled OS forever (Windows 10)? I guess they use mainly Macs but unfortunately Mac OS is slowly becoming surveillance OS too ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS2lJNQn3NA ), especially now with their own new M1 chips (much worse than Intel ME and AMD PSP). That being said I don't want to preach anything to anyone and respect everyone's choice of OS. Sometimes I just wonder what would it really take for the majority of people to get upset and kick those spying OSes out of their machines. Maybe if Microsoft moves to a rental-only model and Apple builds an always-on camera into their displays ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm9JIojVvRg ) :). Somehow I doubt it. Of course I expect at least next five comments to contain the phrase "tin foil" :).

This has been mentioned before, but I do wish that Serif Affinity staff could at least open a discussion with, and cooperate with,  CodeWeavers' developers to deliver Affinity Photo with Wine for Linux. That would be a least effort and least expense way of delivering Affinity products for Linux users and I'd be happy with a compromise option like that.

[raptor]

18 minutes ago, Snapseed said:

I do wish that Serif Affinity staff could at least open a discussion with, and cooperate with,  CodeWeavers' developers to deliver Affinity Photo with Wine for Linux.

Agreed. Codeweavers definitely come to mind.

[Snapseed]

On 12/1/2020 at 7:18 PM, cfbauer said:

My coworker recommended them and there's a big need for a feature filled graphics editor in Linux.

And that's correct, I never use Windows.

I agree and I can get away with using native Linux Pixeluvo for many things (it's an Adobe Photoshop Elements equivalent) and I've also used the capable Fotoxx in the past. For more complex work, the fully featured PhotoLine does work well with Wine and if anyone wants to try that option then I'd recommend Russell Cottrell's An Introduction to Photo Editing with PhotoLine free Pdf guide.

[wonderings]

 

22 hours ago, jtriangle said:

Sure, you wouldn't buy 20 licenses and yolo your whole company into it. You'd buy one license, or a trial, and make sure it works for what you need it for. Trials are available for existing platforms, so, stands to reason that they'd also be available for a linux version.

 I don't personally see fragmentation as a huge issue, nor is the lack of fragmentation a great selling point when the alternative is essentially indentured servitude to adobe. All of the fragmentation is solved by using PDF if you need to ship a file somewhere, hence "portable document format", which is a trick that psd/psb/ai/idd/etc were never meant to be used for. Also, I've not found CC to be as stable as CS5/5.5 was back in the day, it's gone downhill since then. The GPU acceleration has  broken a number of times on the workstations that I've supported and it's crashed the whole app on numerous occasions. It's always happened after an update, and has usually been solved by running DDU and getting the latest graphics drivers, but not always. This isn't on whitebox hacked together workstations either, they're all nice Dell workstations that don't otherwise have issues. Also, Adobe support is worse than useless, so when you run into issues, your best bet is to google the problem and hope that someone's fixed it previously.

 I'd also hazard to say that your opinions of affinity have insufficient qualifications to have your opinions taken seriously, being as you're an adobe fanboi and don't really use Affinity in a serious manner. I've got 15 workstations with photo/designer on them and the comparison is better than 1:1. Affinity is just better all around, it's snappier, the UI is more efficient, and it's been just as stable as the CC apps. Further, we gave the users the choice to use one or the other after having them use Affinity photo/designer exclusively for a couple weeks and not a single person wanted to go back to CC. 

Not sure what your point is about the trials, I was asking someone who said they would buy the software sight unseen basically. Yes if there was a version for Linux it would be wise to try it, I am pro trying software before buying.

Fragmentation was a huge issue as people used to share working files for changes down the line. Yes PDF is the way to go but when I need to work on a file or need to make adjustment the client supplies me their design files and I go from there. In the past this was a nightmare at time, either they were ahead of us or sharing files to them we were ahead. It was not a world shattering issue but it was saving in idml or for lower versions and hoping everything stayed the same. 

GPU acceleration has not given me any issues nor is it complained about in our company. Indesign runs amazing with high res images, makes working in it a dream compared to the days when you had a low quality preview just to move around the page. This might be a Windows thing, we are almost all Mac here so the issues you are having might be related to Adobe on Windows. 

I am someone who likes Adobe and have used them for many years, if you want to call me a "fanboi" go right ahead, though I am thinking you are using it is a derogatory name and not sure why. I am a pro user, as in I make my living with my software and right now that is Adobe and has been for many years since moving away from Quark and Corel. If you want to right off peoples opinions because they do not share your own 100% be my guest, I do not think that is the wisest approach to life though. 

I find Affinity to be snappy and fast as well when I have used it, Publisher not so much as it bogs down with larger page counts but that is more in the extremes and believe that will be fixed in time. I praise Affinity a lot on this forum, I am not emotionally attached to Adobe or Affinity, I want to use what is best for me and makes sense for the industry I am in. I am also not opposed to anyone switching to Affinity if it works for them, the software is a tremendous value for the price, it really can't be beat. If I felt comfortable switching over 100% we would be all over that. At the moment I am not. In time I am sure that will change, Affinity is still in V1 after all. 

 

[appaulmac]

I use all three OS's at different times but my overriding preference is Mac OS. I set up a laptop with Linux Mint 20 and it's such a nice experience that I find myself spending more and more time using it (I'm a web / app developer primarily). I've tried to get Photo / Designer running in Linux but other than using a virtualized OS it hasn't happened. Having Affinity's products running on Linux would SERIOUSLY mess with my head: I'd probably find myself using Linux more than Mac OS and I've never been in that situation before! But I'd love to find out how things pan out in that case.

[Bez Bezson]

Add me to the list of people who don't use Windows/Mac, but who would buy if there was a native Linux version.

(Definitely Publisher and Designer, but probably Photo too.) 

I came here after being sold on how much better Affinity is than Scribus, but then I found out that I can't switch.

 

If you ever decide to make it, I'd be happy to be a beta tester for the Linux version.

Edited December 4, 2020 by Bez Bezson

[msdobrescu]

1 hour ago, Bez Bezson said:

Add me to the list of people who don't use Windows/Mac, but who would buy if there was a native Linux version.

(Definitely Publisher and Designer, but probably Photo too.) 

I came here after being sold on how much better Affinity is than Scribus, but then I found out that I can't switch.

 

If you ever decide to make it, I'd be happy to be a beta tester for the Linux version.

Yeah, who wouldn't... I'd be happy with a Steam version, or a Wine + Proton one, if not native, really...

[Jorgen]

1 hour ago, Unleavened Tech said:

It looks like Linux is one of the most requested features 🙂

If you sort by Most replies or Most Views, you can see that this thread along with the Linux threads is the most active.

I hope you are already working on a Linux version.

I'm developer and can tell you, that most companies are moving also their main os from windows to linux in terms of optimal and secure development environment. Maybe that's the reason why microsoft are aiming to use Linux Kernel in future and just set their own desktop on top. 

And I think as soon some graphic players moving their tools like Affinity or Photoshop to Linux, the private market is moving in big steps to linux desktop too.

So I'm not wondering the high interest, because many I know are searching for tools with linux support and decide then to switch the OS.

But if they don't find their tools, they stay at windows or mac...