Affinity products for Linux

[gnx]

@tills
I've been able to start Affinity Photo with WinApps, but it crashes when trying to create / open files

Maybe GVT-g would help.

[msdobrescu]

@gnx, same here with Wine, but they're working on it.

[gnx]

3 minutes ago, msdobrescu said:

@gnx, same here with Wine, but they're working on it.

What do you mean by "they're working on it"? Share some details, please.

[msdobrescu]

@gnx, see here: https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=45277

[blippo311]

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.... 

Edited November 19, 2020 by blippo311

[Dylan_LHDP]

On 11/17/2020 at 12:33 AM, tills said:

Just discovered WinApps. This might be the closest, we get for the time being. It's still virtualization, of course – nothing new, but it's rather neat.

TL;DR: Clever guy running Microsoft Office in a container and then piping the graphics through RDP, neatly integrating them with a linux desktop. Nothing groundbreaking, but I would prefer it over VirtualBox Seamless Mode  I don't see, why this wouldn't work with Affinity, maybe even out of the boy or with rather little effort.

https://github.com/Fmstrat/winapps

https://fossbytes.com/winapps-microsoft-office/?fbclid=IwAR3sArolEDDLLfbuHX88KL5yf1DQmUiLVMPZzzPrDkWliH3RFO6FZc_rGco

 

On 11/17/2020 at 9:00 PM, gnx said:

@tills
I've been able to start Affinity Photo with WinApps, but it crashes when trying to create / open files

Maybe GVT-g would help.

 

I've just installed Photo and Designer, and they work almost flawlessly so far

[Framelynx]

On 11/19/2020 at 4:24 PM, 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.... 

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.

[msdobrescu]

18 hours ago, Dylan_LHDP said:

 

 

I've just installed Photo and Designer, and they work almost flawlessly so far

Would you share the steps, please?

[Dylan_LHDP]

On 11/20/2020 at 12:29 PM, msdobrescu said:

Would you share the steps, please?

I've just followed the steps in winapp's Github

Fmstrat/winapps: Run Windows apps such as Microsoft Office/Adobe in Linux (Ubuntu/Fedora) and GNOME/KDE as if they were a part of the native OS, including Nautilus integration. (github.com)

 

(Note: if you're using a system that's not based in Ubuntu, you may have to make some workaround. Check Issues for tat

[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 😄