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Affinity products for Linux


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On 11/11/2022 at 8:17 PM, alpineguy said:

I was eagerly anticipating the rollout of V2 and looked forward to some of the new features that would be added. Unfortunately, the decision to install the applications as an app in Windows has kept me from purchasing the update. Like so many of the previous commenters, I will likely wait until Serif develops the traditional method of installation before committing to V2. I do want to support Serif and the price structure of the upgrades seem appropriate to me. Yet I don't want to jump through a series of workaround hoops to just get things working like every other Windows software program.

Interesting stuff I read until now from that topic 1stn00b added here. This person got to the same idea and style of how to be a simple and effective install on any OS. (in this case Windows from that topic)

On 11/11/2022 at 8:55 PM, UweJelting said:

I am not interested in the MSIX installation procedure as I have disabled the Microsoft store and MS spying. As long as there is no .exe installation option, version 2 is out of the question for me. Especially since the big announced innovations do not represent any particular added value in my opinion. I will continue to work with the installer-friendly version 1.

Sounds familiar ?

On 11/12/2022 at 8:14 AM, kelement said:

I just reinstalled Windows 11 a few days ago. As usual, I nuked the app store. I do not use apps.

Purchased without knowing I'd be sent an app. After seeing this, I decided to give it a shot anyway instead of immediately asking for a refund.

Install fails, of course. The problem was that the installer would halt because updating firewall rules wouldn't work while my Windows Defender Firewall service wasn't functioning. Why in god's name do I have to troubleshoot a firewall service to install a photo editor? Because app.

Of course the solution was to add permissions to the registry key for the BFE service. When you are changing registry key permissions, something is not right in the world. You have taken a wrong turn. So then everything appears to be running fine. But I run into another issue. If I have an .afphoto file open (not a raw) and I click the File menu, the "app" immediately crashes. That's where I am now.

The one and only reason I switched from Adobe to Affinity is that I deeply resent Adobe's abuse of my property. I do not want ridiculous spyware that reaches its tentacles into every corner of my systems and constantly phones home. It looks like Affinity will be adopting the same model that places user needs last.

On 11/11/2022 at 11:23 AM, Imonobor said:

Serif, what the frick? Literally show me ONE user post saying "hey I wish the programs installed as apps so I have absolutely no control over anything on my pc and wish my programs don't even work". This is exactly what we mean when we say you don't listen to your community - you don't implement features they want, you implement ones you "think" we want. This "you think you do but you don't" mentality will not serve you well - it will repulse your userbase and they will go to the competing suites instead, as we have seen a lot of people in this thread have already done. Every basic feature you don't have, but your competition does is a reason for a user to switch over. And instead of implementing those basic features, you waste time and resources implementing what is essentially stripping the control your users have over their OWN software and OS, following in Microsoft's horrible example. This is a huge no-no. I don't think I'll be buying V2 any time soon either.

 

I think the real reason they did this is DRM, but here is a reality check - people will find a way to pirate your software either way. Making regular users suffer for it is a terrible practice, because it will push more of them to pirate it without the horrible DRM you put in. I have diasabled Windoze Store on all my windows installations, so I'm not even able to try out your demo so I can decide if I want to buy it, how is that a good marketing practice?! And think of the linux users that have been asking for Linux support all these years, and instead you just shove the software deeper in Micro$oft's clutches, so they have even less of a chance to emulate it.

 

I honestly hope you can see how much this change hurts your software and give us a regular exe installer. Otherwise I fear Affinity V2 will flop spectacularly, which is would be a shame.

On 11/11/2022 at 9:23 PM, momsoft said:

I am also very annoyed by the fact that Affinity has decided to go the Windows App route, so I want to add my comment here.

Please consider that many of your users like Affinity because it is not an Adobe/Microsoft/[Insert other big software company names here].

We want to retain some control over the software we own and we install in our machines and do not like the route computing is taking.

I am very happy to see that I am not the only one concerned.

Annoy your customers, and you might find you lose them.

1stn00b, here are users from Windows who share and got to same conclusion as you (and I agree, in Linux companies can control their software, and if a distribution makes wrong moves, company can leave. That's why most offer to .deb , .rpm, and now snap, flatpak etc which is easier to contain all file dependencies and it's file versions.

On 11/11/2022 at 9:51 PM, Gremnosh said:

Well, I'm glad and sad that I saw this before buying. Glad because it saved me from the hassle of refunding. Sad because I've had serious respect towards Serif so far.

I was planning on buying the full bundle since I'm in a need of a layout software and Publisher would've filled that need.

I've also been using Photo and Designer for a good long while and wouldn't have minded getting an upgrade for both.

But, this whole apps instead of proper exe software is an absolute deal breaker. If I can't decide where software goes on my PC and what it does and when it does it, it doesn't go on my PC. With the exception of Windows because I use way too much software that is not natively supported on Linux.

So yea, unless Serif come to their senses and offer me a way to properly control the software I buy from them, I am not buying from them. And will not be recommending their software to anyone in the future, as I've thus far done to several organisations and individuals.

And I need to keep on looking for a layout and publishing software. :43_slight_frown:

Same needs, different OS, but same world.

From now many pages from that topic, we can get to some conclusions :

1. Not many accept the store's thing, and more options are welcome. There is a saying "Don't add all eggs in same basket" . If something goes wrong with a OS, at least you have control over the others until the affected one is fixed.

2. What happens later if Windows 12 will be released and .exe and .msi get restricted ? (psst.. Mac OS or Linux)

(I stopped believing when they said W10 was the last version and won't do another one after..)

 

The difference between the 2 topics is that, on that one, people remained on Windows cause they are tied to apps they are dependent for work, and try to ask for help for at least those apps to work in sync. And on this topic, we moved from Windows as main OS and try to adapt to paid or free softwares that can meet our professional dependencies/aspirations, while asking help to have at least those apps to work here so we can continue using those. The more options are available, the more people can move around (or have more active OS like me with 7,8.1 and 10 on laptops, Linux on Main PC , and W10 VM over Linux on Main PC. (and yes.. not all of us have the $$$$ to buy every 5-7 years a new Apple product)

Plus.. if we think about the new Universal License which can be used on Mac, IPad and Windows... we can conclude that number of users on Mac, Windows and Linux is done, buried, out of question, cause it's not valid anymore... right ?

Hope this gets fixed so we can see Serif recover and continue it's development (both in code and heart)

 

And yes.. the idea of having virtual machine with W10 for V2 still remains if with Wine/Bottles will not progress forward with new additions into dependencies..

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Don't worry the next version of Windows will be exclusively subscription based and run only on hardware that has the Pluton "chip-to-cloud" malware. Microsoft will decide what u can run or not run on your device, remotely make your devices e-waste if they ban your account - in a nutshell China Social Credit for everybody. Your privacy will be non-existent since every device will have a unique identifier that would be sent to every entity you interact from that device "to verify if your device security is not compromised" : >

Fedora Workstation 39

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2 hours ago, 1stn00b said:

Don't worry the next version of Windows will be exclusively subscription based and run only on hardware that has the Pluton "chip-to-cloud" malware. Microsoft will decide what u can run or not run on your device, remotely make your devices e-waste if they ban your account - in a nutshell China Social Credit for everybody. Your privacy will be non-existent since every device will have a unique identifier that would be sent to every entity you interact from that device "to verify if your device security is not compromised" : >

Agree.. even the Nvidia renting hardware thing will accompany this. I mean.. even someone from GW2 told me that they play from a dual core 4 GB DDR2 SSD Laptop with some low video card with 1920x1080 resolution, using only internet cable that is in sync with his Nvidia's account, and he's doing all the gaming and using apps from the browser..

But like in some previous posts I specified.. it's still better to have a local OS, have working apps locally, otherwise on blackout and internet down, nothing will work. Only those with generators can still work on their PC for a couple of minutes of hours.

image.png.0061bd0661c9ff190d17f45045064abc.png

Now I got to that part of the forum topic where even Patrick Connor starts to see the "handcuffs" where they can't control anymore.. W12 here we come (in virtual box)

In Linux and Mac is same thing anyway.. installing through the Software Center (or whatever Mac has) and goes into a default partition. But at least you can have control over it from both sides (Dev company & users)

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On 11/10/2022 at 1:04 AM, jaizon said:

Lol, that's what you pay for, to get new stuff and for the old stuff to keep working, like in any other paid software. Now, just because you pay it doesn't mean that you'll have anything you want. You gotta understand when something good happens. nd-raw edit is one of those, you like it or not.

GIMP needs to be rebuilt from scratch at some point. It has almost all the good features you'd want in it, but they are not intuitive and the interface doesn't help. I guess taking a lot of stuff out building it with usability in mind might help, like what they did with Inkscape. Just switching from GTK-X to GTK-X won't help, gotta put effort to make everything make sense, and that's where paid software usually shines.

Tbh, I don't think it needs to be rebuilt from scratch. I feel it needs a proactive foundation model that can then fund a handful of full time paid developers and then we'll start to see real progress.

Any such developers also ought to have a listening attitude to what users want in terms of features and layout. For example, l think the current layout is sucky and unintuitive and it needs a radical overhaul to be far more user friendly like Photoshop/Affinity Photo/Pixeluvo/Photopea.

Essential functions are still missing after all this time and l fully agree with Michael Davis about what Gimp needs to have:

5 Important Features Missing in GIMP

Gimp can be partly civilised via PhotoGimp or there are alternatives around like Photopea, Krita or PhotoLine + Wine.

 

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On 11/11/2022 at 6:12 PM, pattmayne said:

You should make this available for Linux. You'd dominate that market because there simply isn't anything of Affinity's calibre available on Linux.

Side-note: lots of non-Linux users in this thread explaining to us how we won't pay for the software we're asking to pay for and how our PCs don't work. You're incorrect lol.

I refuse to use Windows or Mac and the only place where I feel the lack is graphics design in CMYK color space.

...plus their presence would then make Linux a far more attractive platform to convert to which will in turn bring in even more sales.

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On 11/16/2022 at 12:34 PM, ShadeOn said:

Agree.. even the Nvidia renting hardware thing will accompany this. I mean.. even someone from GW2 told me that they play from a dual core 4 GB DDR2 SSD Laptop with some low video card with 1920x1080 resolution, using only internet cable that is in sync with his Nvidia's account, and he's doing all the gaming and using apps from the browser..

But like in some previous posts I specified.. it's still better to have a local OS, have working apps locally, otherwise on blackout and internet down, nothing will work. Only those with generators can still work on their PC for a couple of minutes of hours.

image.png.0061bd0661c9ff190d17f45045064abc.png

Now I got to that part of the forum topic where even Patrick Connor starts to see the "handcuffs" where they can't control anymore.. W12 here we come (in virtual box)

In Linux and Mac is same thing anyway.. installing through the Software Center (or whatever Mac has) and goes into a default partition. But at least you can have control over it from both sides (Dev company & users)

It turns out that Affinity Photo can work very well on Linux when using Windows as a guest operating system in a virtual environment (VirtualBox or VMware) as illustrated in forum member Hartmut Doering's post below:

PS I only recommend trying this method if you have 16GB of RAM or more.

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Using a virtual machine is obvious and effective, but it has downsides:
- you need an additional windows license
- the machine takes up a lot of host resources
- the software runs a bit slower and sometimes this is noticeable

That's why it's worth struggling to run effectively in Wine.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hope this is helpfu for anyone looking for options. I use both Mac OS (when I'm tied to my desk) and Linux / Ubuntu 22.04 (when I'm laptopin it, coverted an old 2015 Macbook Air). I just quit Adobe after more than 20 years. (Started with Photoshop 2.5). Anyhow, I have been very happy with Affinity products.

Since Affinity doesn't offer a Linux product, I use these web based products when I am away from my iMac and love them when I'm working from Ubuntu Linux.

  • Pixlr: https://pixlr.com/ (very good web app, got me by when I was out of the county for a month)
  • Photopea: https://www.photopea.com/ (My new fav! NOTE Affinity users, this one even has a trace for creating vecrors from bitmap!!)

Hope that helps someone.

Edited by PixelPusher007
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On 12/9/2022 at 6:54 AM, PixelPusher007 said:

Hope this is helpfu for anyone looking for options. I use both Mac OS (when I'm tied to my desk) and Linux / Ubuntu 22.04 (when I'm laptopin it, coverted an old 2015 Macbook Air). I just quit Adobe after more than 20 years. (Started with Photoshop 2.5). Anyhow, I have been very happy with Affinity products.

Since Affinity doesn't offer a Linux product, I use these web based products when I am away from my iMac and love them when I'm working from Ubuntu Linux.

  • Pixlr: https://pixlr.com/ (very good web app, got me by when I was out of the county for a month)
  • Photopea: https://www.photopea.com/ (My new fav! NOTE Affinity users, this one even has a trace for creating vecrors from bitmap!!)

Hope that helps someone.

I think it's also worth pointing out that the rather good Photopea is now also available as a Flatpak for easy installation on a Linux distribution:

https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.github.vikdevelop.photopea_app

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12 hours ago, 1stn00b said:

[MODERATED]

I have used the web version for photo editing and it works well enough although I did not know that it had latterly become contaminated with bad ads (paying the developer a small monthly sum or using a good adblocker stops that).

There is also an unofficial electron app:

https://github.com/landsman/photopea-desktop

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22 hours ago, PixelPusher007 said:

Nice work Snapseed! Good to know. I will try the desktop distros.

 

But you know it's not a real desktop? This is a web application glued to the chrominium engine (from the Chrome browser) and wrapped in a common binary package in one window. This is de facto an additional instance of the browser that eats up a lot of resources for nothing.

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If you use chrome and just want to treat photopea as an desktop "app" (with shortcut & dedicated window)

In chrome, Choose menu - more tools - create shortcut
then name the app and tick "open as window"
haven't tried in linux but works well in windows & mac

This way you don't need electron wrapper (huge stack of chromium+nodejs) just for running photopea.
And just utilize your already installed chrome browser.

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This is reason why I will not upgrade Affinity. I have one Windows workstation and two with Ubuntu installed. At this moment, for my type of work (3D artist) Fusion and DaVinci are doing most of the work I need (yes they support Linux), even for static images. Krita covers the rest. I had to find alternative, as often I am working on laptop with Ubuntu. And than I moved that workflow to Windows workstation too. 

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35 minutes ago, emko said:

Does anyone know if they have plans for Linux versions ? Or do i continue to dual boot and use Adobe products ? I would switch to affinity if it ran on Linux but since I have to use win night as well continue using Adobe 

Serif has stated clearly and unequivocally in various places here on the board that there will be no Linux version. 

It's simply not worth it to employ a development staff for a few people, which in the end costs more than it brings in. For these reasons, there is also nothing from Adobe or Corel. 

Serif, Adobe and Corel are NOT non-profit companies. People work there to pay the cost of living and not, as with the free programs, because they have too much free time.

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | INTEL Arc A770 LE 16 GB  | 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz | Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (22631.3296)
AMD A10-9600P | dGPU R7 M340 (2 GB)  | 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz | Windows 10 Home 22H2 (1945.3803) 

Affinity Suite V 2.4 & Beta 2.(latest)
Better translations with: https://www.deepl.com/translator  
Interested in a robust (selfhosted) PDF Solution? Have a look at Stirling PDF

Life is too short to have meaningless discussions!

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17 hours ago, emko said:

Does anyone know if they have plans for Linux versions ? Or do i continue to dual boot and use Adobe products ? I would switch to affinity if it ran on Linux but since I have to use win night as well continue using Adobe 

I am afraid not and the definitive answer is provided below by Serif Europe's very own Patrick Connor:

If you have got 16GB of RAM or more, then it might be worth looking at this method:

 

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9 hours ago, Komatös said:

Serif has stated clearly and unequivocally in various places here on the board that there will be no Linux version. 

It's simply not worth it to employ a development staff for a few people, which in the end costs more than it brings in. For these reasons, there is also nothing from Adobe or Corel. 

Serif, Adobe and Corel are NOT non-profit companies. People work there to pay the cost of living and not, as with the free programs, because they have too much free time.

How is it that a lot of the VFX software has Linux versions or started on Linux like da Vinci resolve etc ? This is a missed market 

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