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Affinity products for Linux


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13 minutes ago, thedrumdoctor said:

How do you cope with integrating iOS devices with Linux, or did you give up trying that one (like me)?

You would likely go down a rabbit hole full of half-baked shell scripts, python scripts using started-but-long-abandoned libraries that sort of implemented some of the features but broke immediately when you updated iOS. And the documentation would be a README.md file containing the words 'To do', some links to some other half-baked discontinued scripts which this one was based on, and a pithy (or is that pitiful) quote about the magnificence of open source software, and free means free as in speech not as in beer. All of which will get you no further to integrating your iOS device with Linux. But if you raise that crucial point, i.e. that you want something that works, you will be beaten about the head by the Linux 'community' about how Apple is bad and you should use a Linux phone instead.

If you value your time, and you should as your time on this planet is limited, you should assign a £ $ € value to each hour of your life. If you find that you will be spending hundreds of £ just to get your iPhone to sync with your Gnome desktop then you might honestly reflect that it would be better just to buy a cheap or secondhand macBook and get on with your life.

That is not to say that Linux and open source do not have value - they do. I use open source software every day. But that value is in the right places, not everywhere. It has been shown for more than 2 decades that the year of the Linux desktop is mañana. And mañana it will still be mañana.

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1 hour ago, thedrumdoctor said:

How do you cope with integrating iOS devices with Linux, or did you give up trying that one (like me)?

I guess I haven't really thought about it but the same way I integrate them with my work Windows desktop. I use dropbox*, I have shared folders on my windows and linux computers via my network. I use Barrier to be able to use my mouse/keyboard across my computers which happens to be cross platform for windows, linux and mac. 

When I worked at Rare and used Affinity photo to hand paint some ship livaries I actually used my ipad with windows and ipad having dropbox, so I would save the psd in there, open it on my ipad, paint the textures with my apple pencil then hit save and it was already on my pc by then. This works the same way on Linux too if you could use affinity photo. :P

I dunno what LondonSquirrel is going on about, I've not had any issues using linux in this way compared to Windows, since dropbox works the same way. I also use Signal for personal messaging which is on every OS (as well as other various things I use tend to be cross platform services like discord, Slack, Blender, Firefox etc) so I dunno... I guess my answer is I haven't needed to do anything extra with Linux than I have with Windows in this case.

*substituted dropbox a few days ago for my own self hosted Nextcloud server which works in the same way and again, has an app across all devices. 

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46 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

 you will be beaten about the head by the Linux 'community' about how Apple is bad and you should use a Linux phone instead.

Well those are the only two options these days... Apple phones or every other phone which is based on the Linux kernal.

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20 minutes ago, MattyWS said:

*substituted dropbox a few days ago for my own self hosted Nextcloud server which works in the same way and again, has an app across all devices.

Thanks for the ‘heads up’. Nextcloud looks like a useful option.

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1 hour ago, LondonSquirrel said:

You would likely go down a rabbit hole full of half-baked shell scripts, python scripts using started-but-long-abandoned libraries that sort of implemented some of the features but broke immediately when you updated iOS. And the documentation would be a README.md file containing the words 'To do', some links to some other half-baked discontinued scripts which this one was based on, and a pithy (or is that pitiful) quote about the magnificence of open source software, and free means free as in speech not as in beer. All of which will get you no further to integrating your iOS device with Linux. But if you raise that crucial point, i.e. that you want something that works, you will be beaten about the head by the Linux 'community' about how Apple is bad and you should use a Linux phone instead.

If you value your time, and you should as your time on this planet is limited, you should assign a £ $ € value to each hour of your life. If you find that you will be spending hundreds of £ just to get your iPhone to sync with your Gnome desktop then you might honestly reflect that it would be better just to buy a cheap or secondhand macBook and get on with your life.

That is not to say that Linux and open source do not have value - they do. I use open source software every day. But that value is in the right places, not everywhere. It has been shown for more than 2 decades that the year of the Linux desktop is mañana. And mañana it will still be mañana.

This does sound like the Linux stereotypical environment and that no mortal should attempt this if they value their sanity, but here I am saying that it's been easy so far for me. Trust me, I'm as 'consumer' as they come.

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16 hours ago, LondonSquirrel said:

Actually I am wrong. And I refer you back to an earlier comment I made about certain Linux commercial apps ONLY running on certain Linux distributions. You took issue with that. Substance Designer:

I have a license for Substance Painter and Designer as well, and I'm running it on Fedora 35 no problem. I could also install it natively through Steam if I want, since I crosslinked my accounts.

You're making a mountain out of a molehill here.

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5 hours ago, LondonSquirrel said:

If you value your time, and you should as your time on this planet is limited, you should assign a £ $ € value to each hour of your life. If you find that you will be spending hundreds of £ just to get your iPhone to sync with your Gnome desktop then you might honestly reflect that it would be better just to buy a cheap or secondhand macBook and get on with your life.

Yep....that's about the top and bottom of it. No way could I get the iPhone to sync music or do anything else, other than to appear as another storage device. Total non-starter and put an end to my Linux experimentation (well, along with not being able to use the design tools I can use on Windows and Mac).

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4 hours ago, MattyWS said:

I guess my answer is I haven't needed to do anything extra with Linux than I have with Windows in this case.

Unfortunately, to do anything with Linux, I needed it run music recording software and virtual instruments, plus Affinity design tools and regularly organise and update the music library on my iPhone. I often upload recordings I've made to listen to in the car etc. The only good thing I've got from Linux is discovering the Insync cloud management app which destroys Microsoft's OneDrive app on so many levels.

But if I could get my everyday workflow stuff going on it, I'd have no qualms shifting over and paying for software.

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Not everyone has to like an OS for it to be good though. It's clear LondonSquirrel has some bad memories about Linux. I have bad memories of Mac. Half the software I need doesn't run on Macs, that's not a good argument not support Macs so it shouldn't be a good argument against Linux either. Personal opinions aside Linux is very capable and there are people that want to use it but simply can't because the software we want doesn't exist on it yet. Thats the point.

Inb4 LondonSquirrel makes some tiring comment about 1% in a market waiting to happen or how much more he hates Linux from 10 years ago.

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Been a user of Serif products for as long as I can remember and very rarely commented (in fact I had to make a new account just to post on these new forums! (and misspelt my name)

I've been watching this topic since the start and have a couple of things to say:

I'm in the same position as a few people on here. It would be nice for me to use Linux day-to-day but there are a few programs which I want to use and only run on Windows; the Affinity software amongst others. It would be great, for me personally, if Serif decided to make Linux versions or even just modify them so that Wine could handle them. I am, though, old-school and choose my O/S to run the software I need, not the other way around.

However; I understand how business models work. Serif will have paid for market research and/or conducted their own market research into this topic. No-one on this forum is privy to these results so we can't comment about how many users would, or would not, use Linux versions. The whole point of market research is that, unless there is an overwhelming need, the company will keep quiet on the results. Openly available "statistics" are generally presented by special interest groups and can should be taken with a pinch of salt when making business decisions.

It has to be remembered, as well, that Serif are not out to manipulate the market. Why would a company create software for an operating system in the hope that users will migrate to that OS and therefore create a market? Especially when that software is available on the two main desktop OSs. In order to encourage Linux uptake they would have to stop distributing Windows and Mac versions which is commercially unviable.

The actual demographic they are looking at are potential users of their software who exclusively use Linux. Anyone who uses multiple OSs will simply buy that software on another platform (it doesn't mean they would buy it twice so it's still only one sale).

Serif will make any decision based on a proper business practice. They are unlikely to take much notice of a few users on their forums.

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On 11/16/2021 at 2:06 PM, Alfred said:

Thanks for the ‘heads up’. Nextcloud looks like a useful option.

OffTopic

If you're tech-savvy, you can set up a small home server with its own cloud using a Raspberry Pi.

If you don't want to tinker yourself, devices from Synology, QNAP or ASUSTor are recommended.

The advantage is that you can access your data without being connected to the internet. 

But you also have to realise that a "home server" is not cheap, 

However, the devices are so versatile.  
 

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48 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

I've been using Linux for about 25 years. 

Now try windows. All flavours of driver reinstalls, forced updates, unremovable programs and unresponsive programs for days. Windows would be dead today if it wasn't for Task manager. Meanwhile on Linux it's been a damn pleasant surprise. So much "it's difficult" and "don't use it" kept me away for so long and that hurt my experience more by staying with windows than actually going through with the switch.

Gotta be some paleolithic linux version you're using if you're having issues today. I've tried a couple and it's just plug and play. Literally kept around some USB drives and got bunch of different distributions or flavors on them.

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21 minutes ago, Pufty said:

Gotta be some paleolithic linux version you're using if you're having issues today. I've tried a couple and it's just plug and play. Literally kept around some USB drives and got bunch of different distributions or flavors on them.

Well, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Last week I had to do urgent video conference - webcam on my main PC died and it suddenly turned out Linux really doesn't like the webcam in my Asus Transformer. After an hour of tinkering I just gave up and decided to just install Win11. Got everything working within 30 mins - preparing installer USB included.
 

Sure, went back to Linux afterwards - 2 hours of actually using Win11 was enough to make me hate it - but it's not always as simple as plug and play.

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I've been using Linux since RedHat 5.2 and ejected WinDOS for home use when they went anal about licensing with XP. My work laptop has been purely Linux for the past 12 years, and on and off for 5 years before that. We currently have one laptop where Linux doesn't support the webcam and another where Win 10 no longer supports the webcam. However, we have many more laptops that won't get a look in for Win 11, but they'll happily run Ubuntu 21.10. I've had to rescue many more WinDOS installs using Linux than the other way around. It's very jarring when I have an IT support task on a WinDOS machine, the clunky UI, the constant disk thrashing and the unfathomable settings! I installed a Linux WinDOS look a like on an old i3 laptop for video conferencing and just left it in the conference room, no one even realised it wasn't WinDOS! I thought there'd be howls of indignation, but there was nothing. That's the laptop where Win 10 no longer supports the webcam and one of the ones which won't get Win 11, but it'll happily run the latest Ubuntu complete with webcam. Fans of any OS will happily throw mud at other OSes, without bothering to get to grips with the other OSes. There are plenty of foibles in Linux, and which ever desktop you run on it, there are plenty in macOS, but there are also plenty in WinDOS.

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1 hour ago, nBlaze said:

Well, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Last week I had to do urgent video conference - webcam on my main PC died and it suddenly turned out Linux really doesn't like the webcam in my Asus Transformer. After an hour of tinkering I just gave up and decided to just install Win11. Got everything working within 30 mins - preparing installer USB included.
 

Sure, went back to Linux afterwards - 2 hours of actually using Win11 was enough to make me hate it - but it's not always as simple as plug and play.

Point taken. At home will try my laptop's cam by curiosity. It just ain't doom and gloom either. I was expecting 'doomsday' when I made the switch, thinking that I'm going to sacrifice all that I hold dear.

519.png.f3663aa9833c98a214fa12ebe8c2e784.png

 

12 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

Installable programs too. Like Adobe. Like MS Office. You know, the sort of things which whether you or I like it, are the 'industry standards'.

And the industry can be (soft version) silly sometimes. I CUT the fat with adobe by going Affinity + Davinci to sate my needs, but Office? The Libre thing works fine. Worked from home handling excel sheets and had no trouble on day 1 of using the alternatives. Looks a bit different, but everything's there...

Nothing else other than Affinity comes to mind when I gotta ask myself of what I'm missing.

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17 minutes ago, Pufty said:

The Libre thing works fine.

Unfortunately this is where you do the 'year of the Linux desktop' a disservice by making this misleading comment. LibreOffice mostly works with MS Office docs, but not always and not accurately. I had to fill in a form made in MS Word. I tried LibreOffice and the results were unusable - LibreOffice could not render the form properly. So when you write comments like 'works fine', that is not the whole story. When Joe User is sent a form as I was and sees the results, he is not going to write back to the sender 'your form is broken in LibreOffice', he is going to use MS Word instead.

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4 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

Unfortunately this is where you do the[...]

 

25 minutes ago, Pufty said:

The Libre thing works fine. Worked from home handling excel sheets and had no trouble on day 1 of using the alternatives. Looks a bit different, but everything's there...

I don't think I'm being misleading. Sure, take the 1 thing and apply it everywhere, but 'works fine' is pretty accurate. I didn't run into any issues. Your doom and gloom is what I would call misleading when I had considered switching to linux years back and I would constantly read how it's unstable, hardcore etc.

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