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Affinity products for Linux


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11 hours ago, SrPx said:

1994 (probably some taste earlier) - 1996, indeed. Started with Debian, Slackware, Redhat distros. Typically installed with floppy disks at the beginning. All through 2014, using it at home and at the job, daily, console, desktop and VMs. Working in a team developing large websites and also doing tons of system stuff. Last company always dealing with win/linux PC machines, and macs, besides the VMs. After that year, been installing distros and solving (this is yet currently!) issues to family and friends (with the most user friendly distros for them) who would throw the distro to my face (in 1 month, 1 year, 2 days...) at the most minimal discomfort. Just not having Linux in my machine anymore, despite all the previous years with multi-boot and solely Linux at times. But I suppose I'm misinformed.

Yeah, me too. Linux was free then, but the media pretty expensive for me, in Romania. Lately people are throwing Windows in my face too.

I wonder, what your Linux users complain about...

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22 hours ago, SrPx said:

1994 (probably some taste earlier) - 1996, indeed. Started with Debian, Slackware, Redhat distros. Typically installed with floppy disks at the beginning. All through 2014, using it at home and at the job, daily, console, desktop and VMs. Working in a team developing large websites and also doing tons of system stuff. Last company always dealing with win/linux PC machines, and macs, besides the VMs. After that year, been installing distros and solving (this is yet currently!) issues to family and friends (with the most user friendly distros for them) who would throw the distro to my face (in 1 month, 1 year, 2 days...) at the most minimal discomfort. Just not having Linux in my machine anymore, despite all the previous years with multi-boot and solely Linux at times. But I suppose I'm misinformed.

It's sorta interesting that I didn't mention you, or quote you, or reference anything you said and you took it as me calling you misinformed. I read this whole thread before posting, and your responses really were only on the tail end. In fact, you came off more as a Linux defender than detractor.

Plus you missed the part where I said there were valid criticisms of the Linux desktop.

 

Anyway, I wonder if the open source business model might work for design software, where you can pay for support and priority bug fixes, but get the software for free.

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My bad. Is just that through long time I have seen quite the type of comment -with little variation- about the misinformation (in other occasions) directed to just middle ground opinions (ie, anyone not strongly aligned with a certain position).  So I assumed it was another of the kind.

Quote

I wonder, what your Linux users complain about...

"I can't grab my photos from my phone".

Then again, is people that ALSO find this problem in other OSes. But they blame Linux more, as is more strange to them. Or, what is funny, some people get upset when I update their system (Windows or whatever) or software application to run a more modern one. They hate that , too, if the icons end up in another place, even if the UI is way much better.

"Now it doesn't boot" (this tends to come from more advanced users...always after them doing some crazy thing)

"There is no Microsoft Office" [ I have had quite some issues with people having ZERO patience with Libre Office, while is actually my only suite in Windows. ]

And I don't really memorize those situations and sentences (the above is not word by word), as typically when they call me, or I guess suddenly that they are not using the linux I installed anymore (and many of the cases they told me to install it, wasn't my idea. Sometimes I suggest it when they tell me they can't pay a windows license, or they're scared about privacy issues) , then is too late, they REALLY don't want me to go to their house (the funny thing, in some occasions they did, but to invite me to some tea or the like, and not touch the machine!), charge NOTHING to spend the time with them (for friendship, not for the good of LINUX or GNU) in fixing the stuff and explaining how to deal with it the next time. Simply when they tell me, they have already firmly decided to discard Linux. And feels strange, but in the end looks as if I was trying to convince them about using an OS, and I am certainly not of that  type.

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@SrPx  I stopped doing unpaid tech support for any OS like 10 years ago. It's been glorious and I highly suggest it. When you ask for compensation, you get a lot less support requests. lol.

 

Anyway, the only close solution I've found on Linux has been Gravit, which is a shame is not Open Source. It is missing a couple base level features that would help it compete with Affinity. Mostly groups and the Symbol function doesn't work the way I expect.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Excuse me.

I was reading this topic and was so amazed by the foolish position of the Affinity developers.

I don't know where you developers got your statistic, but I work in film industry for 15 years and the most professional studios in the world using linux as the Main OS for lots of reasons.

There are lots of professional software for creativity lovers and professionals under linux. Davinci Resolve, Blackmagic Fusion, Nuke, Houdini, Maya, Blender, and lots of others.

At our studio Linux is one and only OS for use. And it is not a problem for us to buy Affinity if it was for Linux. More, the good alternative for Photoshop under Linux is mostly the only and the most problem which stops most of artists to move absolutely to Linux.

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55 minutes ago, ITdreamer said:

Excuse me.

I was reading this topic and was so amazed by the foolish position of the Affinity developers.

I don't know where you developers got your statistic, but I work in film industry for 15 years and the most professional studios in the world using linux as the Main OS for lots of reasons.

There are lots of professional software for creativity lovers and professionals under linux. Davinci Resolve, Blackmagic Fusion, Nuke, Houdini, Maya, Blender, and lots of others.

At our studio Linux is one and only OS for use. And it is not a problem for us to buy Affinity if it was for Linux. More, the good alternative for Photoshop under Linux is mostly the only and the most problem which stops most of artists to move absolutely to Linux.

Sorry, man, I think the developers are not the ones to blame. They would gladly implement.

This is a business decision made by the managers of the company.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I bought Affinity Photo and Designer for iPad. I would like to buy desktop version even the bugs persist and features missing. But without Linux support I am not willing pay anything. Reason? Firstly, I do not want to be OS limited. Secondly, I would like to switch to Linux in future. Right now i have old CS6 suite that is still working and has more features than Affinity. Also there is phylosophical point of view about open source, but i am willing pay some tribute for good software. Many people argue that Linux market share is less then 10%. But hey! Ordinary Joe does not need Photo/Vector Editing software, right? Many people use Windows or Mac just for email, document editing, gaming and web browsing. So, these statistics are way out of reality. Anyway, me as many others (advanced users who use computer for living) use WIN, MAC only in work because there is no suitable alternative for some properiety software. We are the market you are looking for. If there will be alterantive for these mandatory cliche software that make us addicted on damn properiet PSD, DWG, DOCX... we will instantly switch to Linux. Do math yourself. I know. It is risk. But believe me, many "Linux" users are willing pay more for PRO software. They use their computer for job. If software makes their life and work easier, they will pay for it!

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i'm a pro mac user since 1990. but after the $999 monitor stand and the overpriced macbook pros, i feel i'm going Linux soon.

especially now that Unity (the popular game dev engine) has now a Linux version

Serif if you are about to be a Linux player... i'd be happy to re-buy all the Affinity apps!

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5 hours ago, stefano.cecere said:

Serif if you are about to be a Linux player... i'd be happy to re-buy all the Affinity apps!

Sorry, but we currently have no plans to release on Linux

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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It's actually weird to me that Affinity supports Windows over Linux.

Not only is OSX a unix-like operating system making the base level application architecture closer, but Linux is absolutely starving for modern design tools, while Windows is saturated.

So from a market perspective, Serif is intentionally choosing to be a little fish in a giant pond, instead of the other way around.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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7 hours ago, the42dude said:

"500.000 to develop Linux version"

Where is the crowdfunding link to get a Linux port?

Ye, lets make crowfunding for linux version, i would rebuy all of my affinity products :D

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17 minutes ago, LucasKA said:

If it were really that simple, why could Akira not manage to get $50k?
 

 

No disrespect to this team, but I have never heard of them. if I had, I might have supported this, but it certainly does not look to be on the level of Affinity, and I would imagine that the existing user base of Affinity is easily 100x that of Akira

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2 hours ago, rnmartinez said:

No disrespect to this team, but I have never heard of them. if I had, I might have supported this, but it certainly does not look to be on the level of Affinity, and I would imagine that the existing user base of Affinity is easily 100x that of Akira

Serif has zero fucks to give about Linux, so in reality you're just begging a team to do something they aren't interested in. User base is irrelevant if they aren't going to support the platform.

My point is that Kickstarter is a good market test for a product, and a modern linux design tool failed to even get $50k, let alone half a million. So there's a lot of unvalidated assumptions going on in this thread (mine included).

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20 hours ago, LucasKA said:

Serif has zero fucks to give about Linux, so in reality you're just begging a team to do something they aren't interested in. User base is irrelevant if they aren't going to support the platform.

My point is that Kickstarter is a good market test for a product, and a modern linux design tool failed to even get $50k, let alone half a million. So there's a lot of unvalidated assumptions going on in this thread (mine included).

I'd say one of the reasons Akira in particular failed is because there is no history. All we have is a promise and a few mockups, whereas Serif had proven itself more than capable to develop something good.

Mădălin Vlad
Graphic Designer
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1 hour ago, mvlad said:

I'd say one of the reasons Akira in particular failed is because there is no history. All we have is a promise and a few mockups, whereas Serif had proven itself more than capable to develop something good.

A great product is irrelevant if it's vaporware. The great thing about crowdsourcing is it mitigates risk. It seems more productive in my mind to actually take action and throw $20 towards a crowdsourced possibility, than to continue to hound a company that is clearly not interested in your needs.

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2 hours ago, LucasKA said:

A great product is irrelevant if it's vaporware. The great thing about crowdsourcing is it mitigates risk. It seems more productive in my mind to actually take action and throw £15.75 towards a crowdsourced possibility, than to continue to hound a company that is clearly not interested in your needs.

While that is true, not taking one action shouldn't mean you have to take the other. I was personally looking forward to Akira, from a distance. It looks interesting though it didn't seem to be anything more than gravit to me. I'm personally looking forward to Serif's future endeavours, and if possible at some time in the future, at least make the suite wine-compatible (although if I understand correctly the core things that do not work are some proprietary API functions, so that might not be feasible even if Serif wanted to go that way).

Mădălin Vlad
Graphic Designer
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On 6/5/2019 at 12:17 PM, the42dude said:

"500.000 to develop Linux version"

Where is the crowdfunding link to get a Linux port?

There were some people starting to set it up, and staff responded that it was moot because even with the money raised they would not make a Linux version.

Remember to say thanks to the announcement that there won't be a Linux version.

image.png.6b734075570ebd963b255194c41c6b8d.png

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Serif has never been interested in Linux regardless of potential audience size. Like so many other products the scale of untangling the UI from the logic is probably just too big. When Corel bought the venerable old Bibble and turned it in to AfterShot it was already based on an open UI platform. No idea which one but delivering the cross platform executables is taken care of by simply compiling it on the different platforms against the same UI toolkit. I suspect if AfterShot even came close to appearing on Adobe's radar, or Serif for that matter. the idea of creating a Linux version wouldn't be feasible. Probably every platform's version would require maintaining independently, I suspect the maintenance of AfterShot is a lot easier.

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On 6/5/2019 at 7:43 PM, LucasKA said:

If it were really that simple, why could Akira not manage to get $50k?
 

 

Akiras problem; not an image editor, failure in communication what it is, abysmal Kickstarter "campaign" planning? - it was nonexistent.

There was no tangible strategy to generate interest thru out the kickstarter.

successful kickstarters in today's time need to have a much higher frequency of updates, recommendation seems to be at least 1 update per day or two days.

Lack of images be it stills scribbles gifs or videos. one video alone weeks into the kickstarter? is not cutting it

lack of planning was rampant there, it was something about making prototypes or something like that? anyways, a potential backer suspects a plethora of images
which make one drool and say; YES I want to back this.
the interest waned quickly when the Akira people/Kickstarter only revolved about where the link to the kickstarter was shared.

They simply didn`t know their audience(artists!) nor about their product, it  was not finished enough to be interesting to artists or "marketed" to what artists are expecting.

 

Akiras kickstarter among others is a glorious source on how not to do crowdsourcing/an kickstarter.

 

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5 hours ago, myclay said:

Akiras problem; not an image editor, failure in communication what it is, abysmal Kickstarter "campaign" planning? - it was nonexistent.

There was no tangible strategy to generate interest thru out the kickstarter.

successful kickstarters in today's time need to have a much higher frequency of updates, recommendation seems to be at least 1 update per day or two days.

Lack of images be it stills scribbles gifs or videos. one video alone weeks into the kickstarter? is not cutting it

lack of planning was rampant there, it was something about making prototypes or something like that? anyways, a potential backer suspects a plethora of images
which make one drool and say; YES I want to back this.
the interest waned quickly when the Akira people/Kickstarter only revolved about where the link to the kickstarter was shared.

They simply didn`t know their audience(artists!) nor about their product, it  was not finished enough to be interesting to artists or "marketed" to what artists are expecting.

 

Akiras kickstarter among others is a glorious source on how not to do crowdsourcing/an kickstarter.

 

I don't have the full history of Akira, and these are valid points you're making. Linux doesn't need an image editor though, it has one of the best. It doesn't need a vector editor, it has one of the best. It needs a modern, multi-modal design tool.

I could talk all day about problems with the KS platform and how it's become a chicken/egg problem. Kickstarter loves to maintain the appearance of an interest generation platform, but really it's a payment processing middleman and just barely a preorder system.

Anyway, my point still stands on "Someone trying something to solve this problem and taking action, even if they did it wrong", vs "Begging a company that isn't interested in fulfilling your needs, to fulfill your needs". It's the equivalent of building yourself a shitty house, or praying that a house will fall out of the sky. It still seems counterproductive to even focus on Serif, but at the same time, if the Linux niche was as profitable as people in this thread has said, why hasn't anyone stepped up to the plate other than a bad KS?

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3 hours ago, LucasKA said:

I don't have the full history of Akira, and these are valid points you're making. Linux doesn't need an image editor though, it has one of the best. It doesn't need a vector editor, it has one of the best. It needs a modern, multi-modal design tool.

I could talk all day about problems with the KS platform and how it's become a chicken/egg problem. Kickstarter loves to maintain the appearance of an interest generation platform, but really it's a payment processing middleman and just barely a preorder system.

Anyway, my point still stands on "Someone trying something to solve this problem and taking action, even if they did it wrong", vs "Begging a company that isn't interested in fulfilling your needs, to fulfill your needs". It's the equivalent of building yourself a shitty house, or praying that a house will fall out of the sky. It still seems counterproductive to even focus on Serif, but at the same time, if the Linux niche was as profitable as people in this thread has said, why hasn't anyone stepped up to the plate other than a bad KS?

I'd say that last question doesn't work that well, firstly because the answer could simply be everyone else is waiting for someone else to test the waters rather than bite the bullet and try it out (especially in affinity's case where the fact that the core of the app was platform-less and the apps are therefore modular was quite a boasted feature).

 

Also, gravit exists. It's quite a good tool, it's just not ready for professional use I'd say, it's more of a hobbyist app.

 

Personally I don't think serif will make it in time to the Linux market, and by  the time they do, web-based tools (like figma, gravit, invision) will have had enough time to develop and gather attention, therefore becoming primary tools, at least in the Linux and/or freelancing markets. I'm honestly sad about that as an affinity user, but as someone who would love to be able to work on the go easier and across multiple platforms, web-based design apps seem like the future.

Mădălin Vlad
Graphic Designer
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