Affinity products for Linux

[JofreJKD]

4 hours ago, Mangoprint said:

I'd 1000% buy Affinity for Linux. I hope they or Adobe do it soon. It will launch the platform like never before should one of the big DTP companies support it.

 

So much untapped potential

You hit the nail on the head. The OS is popular because of cost and software support. If they make the software, people can use it. If they dont, then they cant and the worst OS ever made continues to rule the market.

 

In the great scene of "Pirates of Silicon Valley":

Steve Jobs: "Our stuff is better."

Bill Gates: "It doesnt matter..."

 

Of course neither if them were better than Amiga. Amiga was first with 2 button mouse, 68k colors, stereo sound, pre-emptive multitasking.... but I digress.

 

I am strongly considering Linux if Microsoft pisses me off enough lol. At the least, I have a Ubuntu Studio PC for tinkering for now.

 

But we're getting off topic. They REALLY need to consider the more stable OS, which is Linux.

[JofreJKD]

On 6/17/2020 at 1:06 AM, spidershu said:

In all seriousness, though. Can you open a Kickstarter for a Linux version, and actually see how many people would back it up? Cover the prices that it would take to make it, and we'll see how many people would back it up. If you don't want to go through the trouble of posting something, what's the legality for one of us to open it up, and only if it passes your threshold, only then we'd receive the money and pass it onto you?

Not a bad idea... but I'll piggy back and reiterate they should write to once stable version in AmigaDE so can run anywhere on anything. 1 app suite to support, no need to program for different platforms. Hardware and OS independent.

[Renzatic]

3 hours ago, JofreJKD said:

Of course neither if them were better than Amiga. Amiga was first with 2 button mouse, 68k colors, stereo sound, pre-emptive multitasking.... but I digress.

Those machines really were the future, leveraging tech and designs years before they became standard. I wonder how different things would be if Commodore knew what they were sitting on.

[pixelworker]

After Apple switching to ARM and expanding the golden cage, and feel the wish more and more to switch to Linux for private and also professional work.

The main reasons I don't do it are the missing professional media creation programs for it.

Affinity for Linux would solve this problem.

[wonderings]

5 hours ago, pixelworker said:

After Apple switching to ARM and expanding the golden cage, and feel the wish more and more to switch to Linux for private and also professional work.

The main reasons I don't do it are the missing professional media creation programs for it.

Affinity for Linux would solve this problem.

Why does Apple switching to ARM make you want to switch even more? Apple is not new to processors and will have control over their upgrades without needing to wait for Intel or anyone else. 

Now I am not sure if it is a good thing or not, I do not know. I do not necessarily see it as a bad thing though. Time will tell of course. I wonder how the transition will go, if it will be similar to the transition from PPC to Intel. 

[msdobrescu]

28 minutes ago, wonderings said:

Why does Apple switching to ARM make you want to switch even more? Apple is not new to processors and will have control over their upgrades without needing to wait for Intel or anyone else. 

Now I am not sure if it is a good thing or not, I do not know. I do not necessarily see it as a bad thing though. Time will tell of course. I wonder how the transition will go, if it will be similar to the transition from PPC to Intel. 

Actually, this is a natural trend, as natural as creating iPhone specifically at that time, when we've had phones and portable media players and PDAs and more. They've provided one device to handle all. Now, those devices use one architecture and allow a simpler tuning of the system on Apple's side.

Yet, I need freedom to chose my hardware and Linux offers that. If I find Apple's hardware better, I'll run even Linux on it. If not, I pick an x86 platform and so on. I can upgrade the PC as long as I need and how I see fit. For Apple I must pay a lot and change much often, they push it somehow.

I write from a i7 920 platform right now, more than 10 years old, working perfectly for my needs with almost the latest Linux kernel (a 5.6 version), almost latest KDE and so on. A very stable selection of software offered by Sabayon Linux (a rolling release compiled version of Gentoo Linux) and I love it! Sure, I have newer hardware too.

[sbstn]

Would definitively buy a Linux version too. Have already the windows version but I'll quit windows as my primary system for Zorin os Linux. Its much better and less spyware.

I have a working solution for me till a Linux version is coming. I run affinity successfully and smooth with all the features running in VMware 15 for Linux. Disconnected the VM windows from internet and have only one shared folder where I put files in I am working on. That's a good temporary workaround.

Edited June 25, 2020 by sbstn

[wonderings]

This is probably a simple and maybe even dumb question but with all the various versions of Linux, are applications compatible with the various flavours? Or would some applications work in some and not in others?

[msdobrescu]

In my experience, I could run binaries fine so far. AppImage is my favourite. But there are many ways. And it does not have to be universal, several distros can be selected to be certified for, if it is the case.

[Renzatic]

They can. At their core, all Linux distros use the same base. It's the differences in everything that surrounds that core that separates one distro from another, like what package manager, desktop environment, windowing system, and so on and so on that they use. They're all roughly compatible with each other, though sometimes you have to put in some work to get an app running if you're not using a supported distro.

That said, packages like AppImages, Flatpaks, and Snaps are doing a lot towards making installing apps more of a universal experience.

[msdobrescu]

8 minutes ago, Renzatic said:

They can. At their core, all Linux distros use the same base. It's the differences in everything that surrounds that core that separates one distro from another, like what package manager, desktop environment, windowing system, and so on and so on that they use. They're all roughly compatible with each other, though sometimes you have to put in some work to get an app running if you're not using a supported distro.

Yes, but not to forget some more important parts that might impact the Affinity application, like the specific version or flavour of some library.

Usually that is solved by AppImage, Flatpak, Snap etc..

[Renzatic]

25 minutes ago, msdobrescu said:

Yes, but not to forget some more important parts that might impact the Affinity application, like the specific version or flavour of some library.

Usually that is solved by AppImage, Flatpak, Snap etc..

Yeah, more often than not you'll run into some form of dependency hell when you're distro jumping applications. It's not difficult to fix, but if you don't know exactly what you're doing, it can be a total pain.

Though if Serif were to release the Affinity suite for Linux, would they use Flatpaks or Snaps? I find that most Win/Mac developers who hop over to Linux land almost always seem to opt for .deb or .rpm depending on which distro they're targeting.

[LucasKA]

2 hours ago, wonderings said:

This is probably a simple and maybe even dumb question but with all the various versions of Linux, are applications compatible with the various flavours? Or would some applications work in some and not in others?

In terms of the code, yes, and if not, Linux has the packages to run it. The cool thing is that most communities will wrap/package up a popular app for the community to consume. The downside is that there can be multiple ways to install a package on Linux. It's annoying in some cases where UI conventions don't match, but I am a UI Engineer so that bothers me more.

[wonderings]

Ok so this right here sounds like a nightmare support wise. Apps that work in one distro but issues on another. I always wondered how fragmented Linux was as there are various versions. Some people are ok with fighting with software and enjoy the process of getting things to work, I do at times but there are limits. For pro work I just want my software to work/install without needing to think of fixes if I was not using the right OS version. 

[LucasKA]

3 minutes ago, wonderings said:

Ok so this right here sounds like a nightmare support wise. Apps that work in one distro but issues on another. I always wondered how fragmented Linux was as there are various versions. Some people are ok with fighting with software and enjoy the process of getting things to work, I do at times but there are limits. For pro work I just want my software to work/install without needing to think of fixes if I was not using the right OS version. 

A lot depends on the vendor. The package systems mentioned (AppImage/Flatpak/Snap) are all things that "just work". Traditionally though, most vendors only supplied .deb or .rpm packages, which meant other systems that don't have those package managers needed to do more work. If they release it as AppImage then there should be no issue at all.

[LouW]

Probably Ubuntu would be the main choice for a package as so many other distros are based on it. Otherwise flatpack for minimal install headaches. Lack of Affinity software is the only thing keeping me dual booting at the moment, otherwise I use Blender and Davinci Resolve/Kdenlive for my 3D and video work and can run them across a triple boot Linux/Win/MacOS. Kde/Plasma workflow is so much better than anything else out there IMO that I'd prefer to just stay in Kubuntu .Lightning fast filesystems and great multi-core performance can't be beaten. Just need some great 2D design tools ala Affinity. I'd happily put money down for Linux Designer/Photo/Publisher.

Edited June 25, 2020 by LouW

[Taktician]

1 hour ago, wonderings said:

Ok so this right here sounds like a nightmare support wise. Apps that work in one distro but issues on another. I always wondered how fragmented Linux was as there are various versions. Some people are ok with fighting with software and enjoy the process of getting things to work, I do at times but there are limits. For pro work I just want my software to work/install without needing to think of fixes if I was not using the right OS version. 

Linux is linux. The syscall interface is pretty stable in userland. Targetting multiple platforms and distros is a lot less hassle than it used to be - arguably the same effort as targeting both Windows 7 vs Windows 10, etc.

Community package management for closed source apps is a thing, too.  For example, the Arch / Manjaro repos have packages that pull binaries from the vendor and keep them up to date for you. The worst part other than writing the actual platform-specific code might be statically linking things like libc.

I use Manjaro Linux as my main OS and have installed most of my pro tools (including paid and/or closed source) through the package manager. Never a hitch, everything just works. It was faster to install all my tools through the package manager than it was on my Windows / Mac machine, having to download each app separately on each vendor's website.

I'm not trying to convince you to switch - but it's a misconception that Linux still suffers from popular apps not working out of the box.

[JofreJKD]

6 hours ago, LouW said:

Probably Ubuntu would be the main choice for a package as so many other distros are based on it. Otherwise flatpack for minimal install headaches. Lack of Affinity software is the only thing keeping me dual booting at the moment, otherwise I use Blender and Davinci Resolve/Kdenlive for my 3D and video work and can run them across a triple boot Linux/Win/MacOS. Kde/Plasma workflow is so much better than anything else out there IMO that I'd prefer to just stay in Kubuntu .Lightning fast filesystems and great multi-core performance can't be beaten. Just need some great 2D design tools ala Affinity. I'd happily put money down for Linux Designer/Photo/Publisher.

Truly, Ubuntu is the likely candidate. Even Microsoft made Microsoft Security for it... just saying, even Microsoft is developing for it...

[JofreJKD]

On 6/24/2020 at 12:12 AM, Renzatic said:

Those machines really were the future, leveraging tech and designs years before they became standard. I wonder how different things would be if Commodore knew what they were sitting on.

Or what Amiga Inc is still sitting on. They could revamp Amiga OS and fill the gaps with Linux to bring it up to date. Imagine a modern Amiga... I dont even bother anymore. I have WinUAE app on my desktop though emulating Amiga ppc lol.

But all these questions about linux distros amd what not need to be addressed and again, AMIGA DE... write once run anywhere. No support nightmare. Independent of hardware and OS.

 

[Renzatic]

49 minutes ago, JofreJKD said:

Or what Amiga Inc is still sitting on. They could revamp Amiga OS and fill the gaps with Linux to bring it up to date. Imagine a modern Amiga... I dont even bother anymore. I have WinUAE app on my desktop though emulating Amiga ppc lol.

Unfortunately, it's a little too late for Amiga to make its mark anymore. It's competition is deeply entrenched, the OS and PC hardware markets are fully saturated, and there's really not much room for growth that would help it stand out from what we already have. That ship has sailed.

[JofreJKD]

1 hour ago, Renzatic said:

Unfortunately, it's a little too late for Amiga to make its mark anymore. It's competition is deeply entrenched, the OS and PC hardware markets are fully saturated, and there's really not much room for growth that would help it stand out from what we already have. That ship has sailed.

True, but AMIGA DE is still worth a look

[Renzatic]

6 minutes ago, JofreJKD said:

True, but AMIGA DE is still worth a look

True. It's fun to delve into that stuff.

...though dirty secret, I never had an Amiga. I just wanted one really, really bad when I was a kid. 

[mvalenzuela76]

Creo que si la suite de affinity existiese para linux, y me dieran a escoger entre usarlo en linux o en windows, escogería a ojos cerrados linux . Mal que mal es como el primo de mac, tar robusto como sistema operativo como osx, y sin el desgaste de recursos en un antivirus. Actualmente, a linux es lo único que le hace falta (una suite grafica) que le haga el peso a Adobe, que se a convertido en un elefante lleno de adornos pero lento. Estoy probando affinity y estoy gratamente sorprendido y dispuesto a pagar por una suite como esta pero en linux 100%.

[mvalenzuela76]

Y si hacen una encuesta y vemos cuantos profesionales  gráficos estarían dispuestos a usar affinity en linux?

[filipzamorsky]

Please, release Affinity software on Linux!