Affinity products for Linux

[IanSG]

14 hours ago, warzmanda said:

That's the point. In 2025 they're dropping support for Win10.

That's my point too 😀 - I've got (at least!) 4 years before I have to consider replacing H/W, and even then I've got the option of living with the increased security risk if I opt to stick with Win 10.  My working assumption is that, by then, the OS will be just one of a number of factors influencing my thoughts.  Bottom line - I see Win 11 as an inconvenience, not as something that'll render my system useless.

[wonderings]

17 hours ago, warzmanda said:

That's the point. In 2025 they're dropping support for Win10. If my box is still working well at that point, I'll either have to upgrade Win11 and deal with the crappy performance, buy a new computer and run Win11 on that, or...

...just use Linux, which is usually free with the option of donating to the distributor of whichever Linux OS was picked. But Affinity doesn't run natively on Linux, and I need it for my personal work. I could just go back to using GIMP or some other free/open source solution, but I'd rather not.

Honestly Affinity would be a great pairing with Linux - breaking with the Adobe model they've done, why not break with with the Mac/Windows OS model and offer a Linux option as well? (Not denying it could be a ton of extra work to do it, and last I checked they're strapped for programmers as it is).

I'm at the point where I'm just going to nab another ssd to throw POP! on and start dual booting again. Throw the 10-day Photo demo on WINE and see what happens.

Why would Affinity and Linux be a great pair? One is closed the other is open, I don't really see anything that says these companies are like minded. 

I think that it is always the balance of need vs want. If I needed to do certain things the OS would be less important to me as I would care more about the software I need to use. I would use the OS that supports the software that lets me get the job done.  

[Pufty]

I'm ashamed that we need to use Windows to get things done, because I hate my experience with it. I still have to use Affinity on Windows. It's like a really toxic relationship you can't just 'click' sever. There is some satisfaction to be had when suddenly the regular wrestling with the updates just ends. New issues got introduced with Linux for a scrub like me, but at this point it's smooth sailing.

I started using Linux a few months ago, found a Desktop environment to stick with and that's it. At this point I'm going great lengths to get Affinity working on Linux whether it's through Wine (hasn't worked so far), Virtual Machine (Slow) or by remote connecting to my work computer (good speed, still streamlining). Affinity is the one thing I don't want to lose by having everything I need on my main machine. Maybe that's why I still suck at compatibility tools Haven't had the discomfort to open the terminal and learn a new language.

[thedrumdoctor]

24 minutes ago, wonderings said:

Why would Affinity and Linux be a great pair? One is closed the other is open, I don't really see anything that says these companies are like minded.

To be fair, you could ask the same question of the company who produce Insync cloud syncing software. They are 'closed' yet they support Linux which allows users to sync data with Microsoft, Google and Dropbox. Similarly, Cockos who make the incredibly popular music creation DAW, Reaper, port for Windows, Mac and Linux. There does seem to be an increase in software vendors bothering to make versions of their software for Linux, but the creative world is still poorly served in this area of development. I do take on the principle of your point though, in as much as the roots of Linux are not embedded in the commercial world and have different goals.

Looking at other replies on this thread, there may be some sort of agreement between Affinity and Microsoft and Apple not to port Affinity products to any other platforms. Affinity don't port to Android either yet there are plenty of large Android tablets with pen support. Clearly, there is potential revenue from both Android and Linux users, but it has to be either ROI or fall-out with the market desktop-dominators which prevent them from developing.

[wonderings]

34 minutes ago, thedrumdoctor said:

To be fair, you could ask the same question of the company who produce Insync cloud syncing software. They are 'closed' yet they support Linux which allows users to sync data with Microsoft, Google and Dropbox. Similarly, Cockos who make the incredibly popular music creation DAW, Reaper, port for Windows, Mac and Linux. There does seem to be an increase in software vendors bothering to make versions of their software for Linux, but the creative world is still poorly served in this area of development. I do take on the principle of your point though, in as much as the roots of Linux are not embedded in the commercial world and have different goals.

Looking at other replies on this thread, there may be some sort of agreement between Affinity and Microsoft and Apple not to port Affinity products to any other platforms. Affinity don't port to Android either yet there are plenty of large Android tablets with pen support. Clearly, there is potential revenue from both Android and Linux users, but it has to be either ROI or fall-out with the market desktop-dominators which prevent them from developing.

I was replying to a post that said Affinity and Linux would be a great pare. I do not know why they would be a great pare, it would be great if Affinity and every other software company made their products for Linux to give users more options for computers, but there is nothing specific that would make them a "perfect" pare. 

I can't see Microsoft or Apple making any sort of exclusivity deal to keep away from Linux. I could see one of them going after exclusivity for their platform, but Affinity is pretty small potatoes and would not be a selling point for any OS to say they alone have Affinity. If there is money to be made someone will find it and capitalize on it. Adobe looked at it years ago and opted out, and they are a multi billion dollar company and if anyone has the resources and money to burn on testing the waters it would be them. It does not mean Adobe could be wrong, but I would guess they did some very real research on the potential of getting their money back from Linux users if they released their software on that platform. 

[IanSG]

46 minutes ago, thedrumdoctor said:

Looking at other replies on this thread, there may be some sort of agreement between Affinity and Microsoft and Apple not to port Affinity products to any other platforms.

While other replies have suggested that Serif must be monumentaly incompetent not to have jumped at the business opportunity that's so obvious to the reply's author.  This strikes me as a variation on the same theme of 'it can't be true that porting to Linux isn't good business, so ... '.  Any loss of revenue by MS or Apple would be well below their corporate radars!

[kamanderside]

2 hours ago, wonderings said:

Why would Affinity and Linux be a great pair? One is closed the other is open, I don't really see anything that says these companies are like minded. 

I think that it is always the balance of need vs want. If I needed to do certain things the OS would be less important to me as I would care more about the software I need to use. I would use the OS that supports the software that lets me get the job done.  

 

2 hours ago, thedrumdoctor said:

To be fair, you could ask the same question of the company who produce Insync cloud syncing software. They are 'closed' yet they support Linux which allows users to sync data with Microsoft, Google and Dropbox. Similarly, Cockos who make the incredibly popular music creation DAW, Reaper, port for Windows, Mac and Linux. There does seem to be an increase in software vendors bothering to make versions of their software for Linux, but the creative world is still poorly served in this area of development. I do take on the principle of your point though, in as much as the roots of Linux are not embedded in the commercial world and have different goals.

Looking at other replies on this thread, there may be some sort of agreement between Affinity and Microsoft and Apple not to port Affinity products to any other platforms. Affinity don't port to Android either yet there are plenty of large Android tablets with pen support. Clearly, there is potential revenue from both Android and Linux users, but it has to be either ROI or fall-out with the market desktop-dominators which prevent them from developing.

Another example of non-open source creative software that runs spectacularly on Linux is DaVinci Resolve. Resolve is an all-in-one video, audio, and special effects editing software that's become an industry standard, and if you only need the basic tools it's... free. If you need the full shabang, they, like Affinity, offer a buy-once license. It's $300USD and continues to receive updates.

Why would people want to do video editing on Linux? Linux as an OS is waaaaay less resource intensive, freeing up system resources to use instead on  programs you want to run. That's why Affinity would be great on Linux. Imagine how many more layers they could have eked out of that demonstration of the 1.10 Designer beta.

[edit edit]: It's nuts and bolts, but Linux isn't a company - layman's terms, it's the thing that all the different Linux distributions are built off of, and the different Linux distributions may be made by anyone, company or coding enthusiast. It's a rabbit hole to explain fully, as many here know.

[Renzatic]

6 hours ago, wonderings said:

Why would Affinity and Linux be a great pair? One is closed the other is open, I don't really see anything that says these companies are like minded. 

I know you've already been quote-hammered on this, but I feel like adding my own two cents into the mix.

Linux's open sourceness is something of an aside. Yeah, you do have a fair number of FOSS zealots flying the ideological flag over the penguin, but when you get right down to it, it's just an OS, same as Windows and MacOS. There is no requirement that all software released on an open source OS has to be open sourced itself. Anyone can put whatever they want on Linux, proprietary or not.

[MattyWS]

A +1 here for the Linux crowd. I Main POP!_OS and the only image manipulation applications worthy are Krita and Gimp... A proper package like the affinity line would be a hit IMO. Linux is no longer for the one or two nerds in the crowd, it's becoming more and more mainstream. 

If the developers need a reason, I would like to use Affinity as an example. Windows is the current King, so why use Linux? Photoshop is the current King, so why use Affinity Photo? The similarities are great IMO. A solid alternative OS deserves a solid alternative photo editing package. And just look at how professional this OS is, and how lovely Affinity would look on this! (screenshot from my pc)

So yea, I think there's a market for it and a hefty gap that Affinity could jump into as well. Substance Designer/Painter, Blender, Unity engine, Maya, Unreal engine etc etc they all have native linux versions.
 

[CedarBluffGraphics&Layout]

26 minutes ago, MattyWS said:

A +1 here for the Linux crowd. I Main POP!_OS and the only image manipulation applications worthy are Krita and Gimp... A proper package like the affinity line would be a hit IMO. Linux is no longer for the one or two nerds in the crowd, it's becoming more and more mainstream. 

If the developers need a reason, I would like to use Affinity as an example. Windows is the current King, so why use Linux? Photoshop is the current King, so why use Affinity Photo? The similarities are great IMO. A solid alternative OS deserves a solid alternative photo editing package. And just look at how professional this OS is, and how lovely Affinity would look on this! (screenshot from my pc)

So yea, I think there's a market for it and a hefty gap that Affinity could jump into as well. Substance Designer/Painter, Blender, Unity engine, Maya, Unreal engine etc etc they all have native linux versions.
 

Wish I could “like” this a hundred times!

[thedrumdoctor]

6 hours ago, warzmanda said:

Why would people want to do video editing on Linux? Linux as an OS is waaaaay less resource intensive, freeing up system resources to use instead on  programs you want to run.

Same reason I'd love to run music recording software on Linux - well I can run Reaper, but trying to get VST instrument plug-ins to work is a nightmare. Hit and miss just isn't good enough when you need to get things done and you may well be wasting other people's time fighting to get plug-ins to work when you should be recording!

[wonderings]

12 hours ago, MattyWS said:

A +1 here for the Linux crowd. I Main POP!_OS and the only image manipulation applications worthy are Krita and Gimp... A proper package like the affinity line would be a hit IMO. Linux is no longer for the one or two nerds in the crowd, it's becoming more and more mainstream. 

If the developers need a reason, I would like to use Affinity as an example. Windows is the current King, so why use Linux? Photoshop is the current King, so why use Affinity Photo? The similarities are great IMO. A solid alternative OS deserves a solid alternative photo editing package. And just look at how professional this OS is, and how lovely Affinity would look on this! (screenshot from my pc)

So yea, I think there's a market for it and a hefty gap that Affinity could jump into as well. Substance Designer/Painter, Blender, Unity engine, Maya, Unreal engine etc etc they all have native linux versions.
 

Is that how the OS looks by default or did you make it look pretty much identical to MacOS?

[OS1]

16 minutes ago, wonderings said:

Is that how the OS looks by default or did you make it look pretty much identical to MacOS?

That looks pretty much like Plasma with a theme, an icon set and an alternative dock.  No effort required really, theming is fun and easy in Linux, and there's hundreds to choose from!

[msdobrescu]

1 hour ago, wonderings said:

Is that how the OS looks by default or did you make it look pretty much identical to MacOS?

That can be achieved with standard KDE Plasma.

It looks however you need it/like it to look.

[Renzatic]

4 hours ago, OS1 said:

That looks pretty much like Plasma with a theme, an icon set and an alternative dock.  No effort required really, theming is fun and easy in Linux, and there's hundreds to choose from!

He might be using an extension or two to move around some stuff on the top bar, but that's almost the default out of the box Gnome setup for Pop_OS.

And Gnome these days, especially Gnome 40, looks a lot like MacOS. 

[MattyWS]

5 hours ago, wonderings said:

Is that how the OS looks by default or did you make it look pretty much identical to MacOS?

apart from the background which I found online (and some settings changed like moving the clock to the corner instead of the middle) this is just how POP_OS looks ^^

[Renzatic]

Hey, it's been 4 days since the last post. Linux here yet?

[Pufty]

I bet if we just slap Proton on Affinity, it will will be done within 4 days. Proton be magic

[thedrumdoctor]

13 hours ago, Renzatic said:

Hey, it's been 4 days since the last post. Linux here yet?

4 days....about the length of time I lost trying to to get Peppermint to sync music with my iPhone.

I didn't succeed; Windows 10 reluctantly reinstated.

[Renzatic]

6 hours ago, thedrumdoctor said:

4 days....about the length of time I lost trying to to get Peppermint to sync music with my iPhone.

I didn't succeed; Windows 10 reluctantly reinstated.

Just do what I do. I use Peppermint for all the songs I have saved to my computer. If I'm out and about, I'll just use Spotify.

9 hours ago, Pufty said:

I bet if we just slap Proton on Affinity, it will will be done within 4 days. Proton be magic

Well, it ain't TOTALLY magic. It's still based on Wine, and very, very game-centric, making it fairly unlikely that it'll support Affinity any better than what we've already seen.

I did hop over to ProtonDB to look up Affinity Photo, but all I saw was an entry for Hentai Jigsaw Photo Studio: Fruit Girls, so...yeah, I don't know what to make of that.

[MattyWS]

I'm a bit of a linux noob but when I tried Affinity via proton and wine it didn't work. Wine came close in that it opened affinity photo and I could click on some of the buttons but the screen was black with some UI elements showing and it crashed after a couples minutes. Proton didn't open it.

[thedrumdoctor]

On 10/12/2021 at 5:12 PM, Renzatic said:

Just do what I do. I use Peppermint for all the songs I have saved to my computer. If I'm out and about, I'll just use Spotify.

I still have a need for putting music onto my iPhone though, for offline listening. I parted company with Spotify a few years ago as well. If there was an Android phone as small as an iPhone SE I'd jump ship, but everyone is happy carrying a house brick in their pockets these days. The Linux + iPhone experience is a non-starter. 

[Renzatic]

32 minutes ago, thedrumdoctor said:

I still have a need for putting music onto my iPhone though, for offline listening. I parted company with Spotify a few years ago as well. If there was an Android phone as small as an iPhone SE I'd jump ship, but everyone is happy carrying a house brick in their pockets these days. The Linux + iPhone experience is a non-starter. 

I was wrong about one thing: it's not Peppermint I use, but Lollypop. You'd think it'd have a lollipop icon, but no, that'd be too obvious. Instead, it's a peppermint.

[thedrumdoctor]

12 hours ago, Renzatic said:

I was wrong about one thing: it's not Peppermint I use, but Lollypop. You'd think it'd have a lollipop icon, but no, that'd be too obvious. Instead, it's a peppermint.

I have to say, there are some beautiful distros available now which run so efficiently on older hardware. 
 

Yet another Windows update released this week, another reboot and another trip through ‘Shut Up Windows’ config to reset whatever the update switches on again!

[Framelynx]

On 10/7/2021 at 8:47 AM, MattyWS said:

A +1 here for the Linux crowd. I Main POP!_OS and the only image manipulation applications worthy are Krita and Gimp... A proper package like the affinity line would be a hit IMO. Linux is no longer for the one or two nerds in the crowd, it's becoming more and more mainstream. 

If the developers need a reason, I would like to use Affinity as an example. Windows is the current King, so why use Linux? Photoshop is the current King, so why use Affinity Photo? The similarities are great IMO. A solid alternative OS deserves a solid alternative photo editing package. And just look at how professional this OS is, and how lovely Affinity would look on this! (screenshot from my pc)

So yea, I think there's a market for it and a hefty gap that Affinity could jump into as well. Substance Designer/Painter, Blender, Unity engine, Maya, Unreal engine etc etc they all have native linux versions.
 

The amount of gorgeous looking OS's coming out of the Linux world is astounding and increasing. There's no lack of design talent and vision there. It's so customizable. You can get a Mac or Windows UI clone if you wanted to or do something completely innovative. It's so awesome.

And yeah, I use Pop OS. It's awesome. Started with a Mac theme, now I figured the dock is annoying and got rid of it.

Wish Affinity was on it. I'd buy it in a second (full price).