Affinity products for Linux

[nBlaze]

+1 for the Linux version. Windows is getting more annoying to use with every update, so I went penguin on some of my devices - and Affinity is one of the few things I miss in day-to-day use.

That said, I do have a workaround, something I haven't seen mentioned earlier - remote desktop. It's situational and won't work for everyone, but it's the best solution I found so far.

Since my main workstation at work will run Windows for the forseeable future, is on 24/7 and I already had it configured for RDP connection, I figured I can just run the programs there (with all my usual files, fonts and assets readily available) and simply connect to it from my Linux laptop.

Not the most ideal solution, since you still need another PC to run the software on, but hey - it works.

[Renzatic]

I feel kinda dirty saying this, but now that Apple's supporting Blender with native Metal support, it's really got me wanting to buy a Mac. The Affinity programs are already there, arguably being their home platform. Substance Painter and Designer are there. And now Blender. It's got everything I want, and the performance is apparently outstanding.

...am I...am I a bad person?

[Old Bruce]

Just now, Renzatic said:

now that Apple's supporting Blender with native Metal support,

No they are not there yet. Apple has promised some money and a few developers to work on it. Could still be years before Metal and Blender work.

[Renzatic]

2 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

No they are not there yet. Apple has promised some money and a few developers to work on it. Could still be years before Metal and Blender work.

More like a few months. They've already submitted their first patch, and Metal GPU Cycles rendering is expected in the 3.1 or 3.2 release.

Full 100% Metal support replacing OpenGL/Vulkan will take awhile, but we're still going to start seeing some advantages pretty quickly.

[MattyWS]

My reason for jumping ship from Windows to Linux as my daily driver as a 3D artist and gamer is because I don't believe Windows is a healthy OS. much like photoshop, windows is one big legacy bloat, with patches on patches on patches. it's on ship thst still floats because someone keeps nailing boards to the holes. many Linux distros follow a similar path to Mac, in simplicity and efficiency, so in my mind, I quite see some linux distros as a FOSS MacOS. I think Affinity suite would do well investing in Linux because more and more people are realising it's not a scary programmer OS and in most cases things do just work. I'm here playing all my normal games, using blender, substance designer and unity to make my games the same as I did on windows. I even made some notes;


 

Quote

 

--Linux native applications--

---Supported---

-Substance - Annoyingly .rpm only, so for debian based linux distros this is a faf - Use Steam Versions

-Blender

-World Machine (via Lutris)

-Unity

-Unreal

-Krita

-Inkscape

-Gimp

-Steam(patchy support for some games but getting better, all my games work fine)

-OBS

-Houdini

-Maya* (don't care, dont use anymore)

-Modo* (don't care, dont use)

-Agisoft Metashape

---Not Supported---

-Notepadd++ - use the default text editor (which is way better than windows notepad)

-Gaea - use world machine

-World creator - use world machine


-Affinity Designer - use Inkscape ;; 

-Affinity Photo- use Gimp&Krita&Substance ; ;

-Photoshop - use Gimp&Krita&Substance

-All other game stores? - use Lutris but iffy, seems to work ok for most cases, I got all my games running just fine via steam and lutris

-Quixel - Only mixer isn't supported but I dont use that anyway

-Marmoset toolbag - sad times, use substance designer for baking and unity/unreal for showcase

-ScreentoGif -Use Peek (exactly the same but sleak

-Embergen - coming soon!

-3ds Max - use Blender (I use blender anyway)

-lightroom - use darktable (I only need this for photogrammetry anyway)

 

 

--Immediate Problems and software gaps--

adobe/affinity alternatives lacking, Gimp, Krita, Inkscape and substance designer can only take us so far. I really love affinity designer for game UI but I'll have to make do for now. 

No other issues for me.

 

So yea, as you can see the only *major* thing missing is something like the affinity suite. I do this professionally and the only thing holding me back on Linux is this, so there's a massive gap in the market here IMO and affinity could be the only premium suite to fill it.

[Renzatic]

19 minutes ago, MattyWS said:

-Substance - Annoyingly .rpm only, so for debian based linux distros this is a faf - Use Steam Versions

You can use [url=https://ostechnix.com/convert-linux-packages-alien/]Alien[/url] to convert .rpms to .debs, and vice versa. It's a slight pain in the butt, and you'll still have to write your own .desktop file, but it does work.

Also, Quixel Mixer has a Linux version in the works, and the Windows version seems to perform fairly well through Wine. Ditto on that latter bit for Gaea.

[LondonSquirrel]

2 hours ago, MattyWS said:

windows is one big legacy bloat, with patches on patches on patches

That is the Linux kernel in a nutshell.

[Renzatic]

3 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

That is the Linux kernel in a nutshell.

No, the Linux kernel is pretty lean and mean, from what I understand.

It does a good job of explaining X11 though.

[LondonSquirrel]

2 minutes ago, Renzatic said:

No, the Linux kernel is pretty lean and mean, from what I understand.

Then you misunderstand. Over a decade ago, Torvalds said that the Linux kernel was bloated. It has only got much worse since then.

3 minutes ago, Renzatic said:

It does a good job of explaining X11 though.

X11, or X desktops? X11 is not bloated - it has not changed much over the years. X11 desktops like Gnome and KDE, yes they are bloated.

[MattyWS]

3 hours ago, Renzatic said:

You can use [url=https://ostechnix.com/convert-linux-packages-alien/]Alien[/url] to convert .rpms to .debs, and vice versa. It's a slight pain in the butt, and you'll still have to write your own .desktop file, but it does work.

Also, Quixel Mixer has a Linux version in the works, and the Windows version seems to perform fairly well through Wine. Ditto on that latter bit for Gaea.

yea first thing I did was convert substance via alien, however that *is* a faf and the steam versions do simply just work. I havent tried gaea through wine yet I should try that now !

[Renzatic]

32 minutes ago, MattyWS said:

yea first thing I did was convert substance via alien, however that *is* a faf and the steam versions do simply just work. I havent tried gaea through wine yet I should try that now !

I initially tried using the Steam versions, but I got tired of someone popping in scream "HEY WHAT'S UP YOU WANNA PLAY SOME VIDEOGAMES" every time I'd open Steam to fire up Painter, so I just learned how to install it the hard way.

If you're as desperate as I was, and can't get Alien to work, all need to do is unpack the rpm file using your archive manager, drop the the Allegorithmic folder you find within inside of /opt on root, create a .desktop file leading to the executable, and drop that in /.local/share/applications in your Home folder, and BAM...

:jazzhands: LINUX!

...or you could just install Fedora.

[wonderings]

4 hours ago, Renzatic said:

I feel kinda dirty saying this, but now that Apple's supporting Blender with native Metal support, it's really got me wanting to buy a Mac. The Affinity programs are already there, arguably being their home platform. Substance Painter and Designer are there. And now Blender. It's got everything I want, and the performance is apparently outstanding.

...am I...am I a bad person?

Not sure why you would feel dirty saying that. You might be taking and making your OS/Computer choices a little to personally. They are tools to get various tasks done. Buy the best tool for the job, there is no right or wrong, simply what is best for you. 

 

3 hours ago, MattyWS said:

My reason for jumping ship from Windows to Linux as my daily driver as a 3D artist and gamer is because I don't believe Windows is a healthy OS. much like photoshop, windows is one big legacy bloat, with patches on patches on patches. it's on ship thst still floats because someone keeps nailing boards to the holes. many Linux distros follow a similar path to Mac, in simplicity and efficiency, so in my mind, I quite see some linux distros as a FOSS MacOS. I think Affinity suite would do well investing in Linux because more and more people are realising it's not a scary programmer OS and in most cases things do just work. I'm here playing all my normal games, using blender, substance designer and unity to make my games the same as I did on windows. I even made some notes;


 

So yea, as you can see the only *major* thing missing is something like the affinity suite. I do this professionally and the only thing holding me back on Linux is this, so there's a massive gap in the market here IMO and affinity could be the only premium suite to fill it.

How is Windows not healthy? You could probably argue the amount of time most people spend in front of a computer is not healthy, but not sure how you can say any OS in itself is not healthy. I have no issues with Windows 10, think it is a good OS and the best version of Windows so far. I play some games and do surfing, the heavy work with Adobe is all done on my Mac. I built my PC myself so maybe the bloat is coming from store bought computers?

[Renzatic]

4 minutes ago, wonderings said:

Not sure why you would feel dirty saying that. You might be taking and making your OS/Computer choices a little to personally. They are tools to get various tasks done. Buy the best tool for the job, there is no right or wrong, simply what is best for you. 

I was being facetious.

Though I am deeply considering a Mac, which does tread on my geek street cred a bit.

[nBlaze]

15 hours ago, wonderings said:

How is Windows not healthy? You could probably argue the amount of time most people spend in front of a computer is not healthy, but not sure how you can say any OS in itself is not healthy. I have no issues with Windows 10, think it is a good OS and the best version of Windows so far. I play some games and do surfing, the heavy work with Adobe is all done on my Mac. I built my PC myself so maybe the bloat is coming from store bought computers?

I suppose he meant bloat as in constantly adding bells and whistles on top of old stuff rather than rewriting some of it from scratch. Like the Settings, which, after 10 years, is still half-baked and doesn't have half the commonly used stuff from the good old (or rather 'ancient') Control Panel. (At least from an IT professional standpoint, maybe end users don't need to go there half as often).

But you could also count other stuff as bloat - ton of useless apps (even before hardware manufacturers add their own), ads and insane amount of telemetry that you can't even turn off without digging in the registry or using third-party software.

[MattyWS]

What nBlaze said. I'm not talking about Windows being unhealthy to use, I'm talking about the OS being filled with floatware *from microsoft*, the fact that they have several versions of software that do the same things (settings... the snipping tool+snip&sketch, random other junk). If you look in the windows store you'll see theres a bunch of stuff including *games* already installed, and some stuff isn't removable. I don't want MS edge, I want to remove it but that shit keeps appearing still. You don't have the control you want over your OS with windows and more importantly Microsoft will scrape every little bit of data out of your usage of their OS. Some services are so reliant on MS as well (anyone remember when an MS server went down and stopped the task bar from functioning correctly? wtf). 

Miss me on that junk. At least with Mac OS you may be limited, but you know what to expect. You know you're a customer because Apple sells hardware and trust as opposed to MS which needs you to use their OS, which is the unhealthy part. Linux is just there for us to use with no bs, Mac is a byproduct of having bought apple hardware, MS's Windows is latching onto their users as hard as facebook is (and no, I don't have a facebook/instagram/whatsapp account, nor a google account). 

TLDR; windows sucks and we shouldn't be forced to use a different OS of our choice, but sadly this is currently true and only developers like Serif have the power to change that. 

[PSDfield]

1+ for Affinity on Linux - I would only work in an Linux OS environment and play in Windows, if the support from Serif and others was there. So far I am stuck on Windows and since Windows 11 comes around and does seam to bring a lot of problems along ... even more reasons to switch to Linux fully in the next five years until Windows 10 is not supported anymore.

[Anon172]

Hello! I just recently switched from Windows to an Arch-based Linux as my daily driver. Since I can't have dual boot, and my computer can't do Virtual Machines, and Affinity Designer doesn't work with WINE either, I am stuck. I can't use any other program for this, (I mean learning another program would be time-consuming) and if I could, there would be fewer features they can offer than Affinity. I can't do my artwork, and literally anything, without Affinity. And I'm not planning to switch back to Windows, I hate Windows 10 and Windows 11 does not support my computer either. I would be thankful if the developer team could write a native client for Linux as a flatpak package :)

[wonderings]

19 hours ago, Anon172 said:

Hello! I just recently switched from Windows to an Arch-based Linux as my daily driver. Since I can't have dual boot, and my computer can't do Virtual Machines, and Affinity Designer doesn't work with WINE either, I am stuck. I can't use any other program for this, (I mean learning another program would be time-consuming) and if I could, there would be fewer features they can offer than Affinity. I can't do my artwork, and literally anything, without Affinity. And I'm not planning to switch back to Windows, I hate Windows 10 and Windows 11 does not support my computer either. I would be thankful if the developer team could write a native client for Linux as a flatpak package

Why would you switch to an OS that does not support the software you say you absolutely need? That really is putting the cart before the horse. The OS really should be secondary to the software you make your living on. If you can't do what you need to do on Linux then Linux is not for you.

[Pufty]

7 minutes ago, wonderings said:

Why would you switch to an OS that does not support the software you say you absolutely need? That really is putting the cart before the horse. The OS really should be secondary to the software you make your living on. If you can't do what you need to do on Linux then Linux is not for you.

For the answer to your question, a qoute from your quoted message " I hate Windows 10 " and I share the same sentiment. I have so many cool words for windows that I'd be banned for inappropriate language. I refuse to switch back to windows if it's just this one software, because Linux is for me, the software just isn't there. I got the 99% working, I just needed Affinity, buuuuuut I could always go back to my toxic ex - adobe. At least they have some success with WINE.

Still, before I decide that I want to be milked monthly for 60 euros, I'll do my design work on a windows device after work hours, I'll remote connect to a windows device, get a virtual machine or get the compatibility layer working.

[wonderings]

1 hour ago, Pufty said:

For the answer to your question, a qoute from your quoted message " I hate Windows 10 " and I share the same sentiment. I have so many cool words for windows that I'd be banned for inappropriate language. I refuse to switch back to windows if it's just this one software, because Linux is for me, the software just isn't there. I got the 99% working, I just needed Affinity, buuuuuut I could always go back to my toxic ex - adobe. At least they have some success with WINE.

Still, before I decide that I want to be milked monthly for 60 euros, I'll do my design work on a windows device after work hours, I'll remote connect to a windows device, get a virtual machine or get the compatibility layer working.

How often are you really interacting with the OS itself? All the creative is done in the app which is basically the same no matter what OS you are on. I would never make a OS choice for something that does not first support the software I need to use. The software is paramount and the most important piece, everything else is secondary.

If you think 60 Euros is milking you for pro apps that are an industry standard then you might not be charging enough for your work. Adobe is not made or priced for the home hobbiest. We have multiple licenses of Adobe and that is easily covered in half a days work. Not sure why you or anyone would want to make life all that complicated for the sake of an OS.

[Renzatic]

18 minutes ago, wonderings said:

The software is paramount and the most important piece, everything else is secondary.

For me, 90% of the software I use is available in Linux, is generally faster here, and the OS doesn't get gummy over time, requiring me to do housework to get things running smoothly again. I have so many more compelling reasons to stick to Linux than I do to go back to Windows.

The only thing I'm missing is Affinity Photo and Designer. If I had them, either natively, or through WINE, I'd be ticked freaking pink.

But hey, after the Apple event this week, I've decided to sell out, and buy a Mac. I'm still going to push for Affinity on Linux, but I'll have to be an obnoxious hipster about it to fit my new Apple lifestyle.

 

[Pufty]

57 minutes ago, wonderings said:

How often are you really interacting with the OS itself? All the creative is done in the app which is basically the same no matter what OS you are on. I would never make a OS choice for something that does not first support the software I need to use. The software is paramount and the most important piece, everything else is secondary.

If you think 60 Euros is milking you for pro apps that are an industry standard then you might not be charging enough for your work. Adobe is not made or priced for the home hobbiest. We have multiple licenses of Adobe and that is easily covered in half a days work. Not sure why you or anyone would want to make life all that complicated for the sake of an OS.

I use the OS every day. I know I use it, because it has simple use cases we take for granted. For example, you've likely forgotten how often you just Ctrl+Alt+Delete into a Task Manager or Alt+Tab Tab Tab to the next window or hitting the windows key and immediately typing what you want to find. They are windows things that become a habit. I have already noticed that I try to Swing my mouse cursor to the left top of the screen... On the windows work computer (on Linux Gnome it brings an overview of all opened apps and workspaces). Still using windows at work every day, but it's been eating my brains out for a year now and the fact that it's so incorporated in every-day application use is scary, because I have to admit that I'm still being dependent on it... When I hate it.

On Linux my creative work load consists of Blender, Davinci Resolve and would be Affinity, then there's the other load consisting of VS Code - Web Designer. So not always using Design Apps, but still a Designer. I also make use of Computer hardware for playing games. Blender and Affinity are 30% incorporated in my daily work, the rest are creative hobbies and starting to freelance. I'm no big shot painter who ONLY uses ancient elephant tooth-fiber hair for their work or else they may not get the perfect stroke, so I can live without Affinity. Like I lived without Adobe for a while until stumbling upon Affinity. I just don't want to switch again and don't want to wrestle the damn windows updates anymore for some better FPS and render times. I'm limited, which brings me to your 2nd line. 60 Is a lot for me and the cancellation fee with adobe was GOD DAMN 360 EUROS when I couldn't pay the 60! Damn hated adobe for that. Pay was irregular, no freelance jobs at the time, 60 was a month of food. Pay is better now, but I'm still living in low standards, so I have to keep my spending in check. I can afford to pay adobe the 60, but then I'm trapped again. One person and three programs. I mostly end up opening one program a day, but I find use in all three over the month, so it's not ideal or good enough to go back.

 

[wonderings]

On 10/21/2021 at 12:55 PM, Pufty said:

I use the OS every day. I know I use it, because it has simple use cases we take for granted. For example, you've likely forgotten how often you just Ctrl+Alt+Delete into a Task Manager or Alt+Tab Tab Tab to the next window or hitting the windows key and immediately typing what you want to find. They are windows things that become a habit. I have already noticed that I try to Swing my mouse cursor to the left top of the screen... On the windows work computer (on Linux Gnome it brings an overview of all opened apps and workspaces). Still using windows at work every day, but it's been eating my brains out for a year now and the fact that it's so incorporated in every-day application use is scary, because I have to admit that I'm still being dependent on it... When I hate it.

On Linux my creative work load consists of Blender, Davinci Resolve and would be Affinity, then there's the other load consisting of VS Code - Web Designer. So not always using Design Apps, but still a Designer. I also make use of Computer hardware for playing games. Blender and Affinity are 30% incorporated in my daily work, the rest are creative hobbies and starting to freelance. I'm no big shot painter who ONLY uses ancient elephant tooth-fiber hair for their work or else they may not get the perfect stroke, so I can live without Affinity. Like I lived without Adobe for a while until stumbling upon Affinity. I just don't want to switch again and don't want to wrestle the damn windows updates anymore for some better FPS and render times. I'm limited, which brings me to your 2nd line. 60 Is a lot for me and the cancellation fee with adobe was GOD DAMN 360 EUROS when I couldn't pay the 60! Damn hated adobe for that. Pay was irregular, no freelance jobs at the time, 60 was a month of food. Pay is better now, but I'm still living in low standards, so I have to keep my spending in check. I can afford to pay adobe the 60, but then I'm trapped again. One person and three programs. I mostly end up opening one program a day, but I find use in all three over the month, so it's not ideal or good enough to go back.

 

The need is not as dire for you then if you can get by without it. My original post regarding this as to Anon172 who said:

"I am stuck. I can't use any other program for this, (I mean learning another program would be time-consuming) and if I could, there would be fewer features they can offer than Affinity. I can't do my artwork, and literally anything"

[Pufty]

45 minutes ago, wonderings said:

The need is not as dire for you then if you can get by without it. My original post regarding this as to Anon172 who said:

"I am stuck. I can't use any other program for this, (I mean learning another program would be time-consuming) and if I could, there would be fewer features they can offer than Affinity. I can't do my artwork, and literally anything"

And I mean it would be time consuming. I'm still interested in Affinity on Linux, am I not? I share a similar sentiment, I'm just assuming I'm much more uncaring for sacrifice. I held roughly the same perspective from OS to program. I still would be interested in "Affinity products for Linux" and have a sneaking suspicion that more and more people will jump ship with Windows as Linux has gotten friendlier for new users. I already probably mentioned how I am super inexperienced in the whole Linux command console scene, yet here I am... Already used to using Linux daily for almost everything I need and developing user habits.

I'll be here, contributing to the discussion towards supporting Affinity on Linux even if I decide to quit using it, use it through compatibility layers or only at work. I'll still be FOR Affinity on Linux, instead of against. At least that's the impression I'm getting from you

[Renzatic]

6 minutes ago, Pufty said:

Already used to using Linux daily for almost everything I need and developing user habits.

If you use Affinity Photo primarily for painting, I'd suggest learning Krita a bit more. It's arguably a better program for that than AP is, though it is weaker for photo editing.