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Affinity for Linux


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My 2c - I've not read all 18 pages of this thread, but I've seen my use-case and circumstances listed by others - I use a Mac, not because I want to any more, but because I can't get things like Affinity Photo on Linux (I'd probably opt for something Debian based).  If I could buy Affinity Photo for Linux, I'd do so, even though I've already paid for it and Designer on the Mac.  

£50 - £100 for a licence is not going to be a barrier for me.  I can get away with Linux office products or even use MS 365 via a browser, but I can't deal with no decent graphics software, and Affinity products do just what I need. So, I think that if word gets round that you can buy this for Linux, you may lose some Mac licence sales, but you'll lose them to people buying it for Linux.  And you may get some people like me who will happily pay you twice...

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I love to see that so many people is interested in having this actually happening :)

Just like a lot of you have stated, the only thing keeping me from permanently switching to Linux is the lack of Affinity software availability. As soon as that happens, bye-bye Windows!

I'm definitely cheering for this to become a reality :)

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I'm a Linux developer myself, and while I'm not an artist, I've worked with artists, quite a number of whom have stated that they'd definitely make the switch to Linux if they had good alternatives to Photoshop.

On 8/16/2014 at 12:29 PM, TonyB said:

We would only make a Linux version if we were confident we would recoup the $500,000 it would cost us to build it.

I definitely understand this sentiment, and unfortunately the Linux community has gotten this unfair rap for being against non-free (as in price) software, we certainly aren't. I personally have spent 100$ on an application called hopper, as well as 45$ for another application called 010 Editor. Not to mention dozens of games. So there is a definite market for for-profit applications in the Linux community.

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How stupid is not developing affinity on linux, u have like no competition on linux.. it would gain status like photoshop gained many many years ago... how they can not see this as opurtinity. i can even pay double or tripple the price for linux version it that is requiered. But really make it run... and also... ARM chips are the future.. and linux is the only currently really good system that works on that platform. apart from iOS.

Just because there is no affinity on linux i need to buy separate, SSD, + windows. just to use affinity or adobe programs. That is how much value we spend just to get that app.. i am 100% sure... linux users can spend 200-300$ on affinity, and CG/ART studio even more.

 

Edited by Maciej Jurzenka
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  • 2 weeks later...

I tried using affinity designer in a Windows VM on Linux. This sucks. It is too slow to work fluently.

So I tried gimp. Still awful! Not as awful as in the past, but differently awful. Seriously ghastly.

I just can repeat: I expect affinity as the most modern and professional graphics software to be an easy winner with _no_ competition on Linux and it is the only application running on all three platforms which is a huge argument in heterogeneous IT environments (like ours with 25 creative workstations).  And its soooo much cheaper than Adobe's old cr@p. Even my Adobe fanboys were impressed when I showed them some of the circle features of designer to create a logo.

And in my experience it is mostly a myth that teams need the 'integration' of lots of the Adobe CS applications. These dont even work that well (by far) as one might hope or is implied. 

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So, where are we on this Affinity? It's obvious there is a need. Any feedback? What more do we need to do to get this going? We have 18 pages of people begging for this software on Linux. That's just people dedicated enough to search out this form, make an account, and comment. There are plenty of others that aren't that dedicated but would still love to have this software available. What more do we need to do? With the drop of 1.7 I am chomping at the bit to give this a go on Linux desktop.

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  • Staff
2 hours ago, newyear said:

So, where are we on this Affinity?

here

 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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Companies like the one I'm working right now is changing to Linux not because of the cost, but the security and easy integration with cloud stuff. At the beginning I resisted a lot to change from Windows to Linux but in the end it happened like they said to me when I finally changed: "It's just as usable as Windows and MacOS. You will only miss Photoshop." And indeed it's being like this. There is no good option to replace Photoshop. They are barely usable.

I'm not a full time designer, but I have to fix some images several times a day and tasks that usually take a few minutes now takes several minutes and sometimes hours. It's not just my inability with the program, it's the way things are made. Sometimes you have to go to several weird (and not intuitive at all) steps to accomplish simple tasks you make in a click on Photoshop or Affinity Photo. It's a nightmare.

Affinity is by far the best alternative to Photoshop. For some tasks is even better. I know, as a developer, that when people say: "make a version for Linux" is not that easy to do because you don't have just one single Linux distribution. You have literally thousands of them. They differ from each other by a lot and even though they are based on a few major distributions, they are still very different in terms of how the binaries are treated at SO level.

But today, there are some projects to make this easier and the most popular is the Snap project (https://snapcraft.io/). It's made by Canonical and supported/used by Microsoft, Google and Jetbrains (to name a few). It consists in tools and an integrated platform to make publishing things to Linux easier. There are free and paid software there and you can install things with a click, which makes easier for non-developers. Maybe Affinity for Linux can be a viable option right now because of this.

Summing up, Affinity products for Linux would be the best option in the platform with no competition at all, and companies, not just users, may be interested in purchase Affinity licences for their artists.

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Dear @kleber.swf and others,

I understand the frustration. First, Serif said: We would need to be confident that we'd recoup a certain amount of cost. Then the community said: Okay. We will crowdsource that amount. Some folks started preparing a campaign, and Serif was quick to respond: Please don't do it. Even if you raise the money, we decided not to do it.

I also understand the frustration about their lack of oppenness to the community. First they giveth (a set of rules that would make a Linux version possible) then taketh away. And they don't communicate their rationale.

With the immense performance boost of WINE/Linux in recent years, and the compatibility with many triple A titles, people wonder why Affinity products have some secret sause that causes them not to work with WINE. Because WINE-compatibility would seem like a descent middle-ground loved and appreciated by Linux users. I haven't been able to get a comment about that.

While a forthcoming and verbose blog or article from Affinity/Serif to their Linux fanbase - who are often paying customers with a Windows license - about their rationale and answers to the questions about the change of heart and WINE problems would surely make those community members fall in love, Serif is taking a different approach of mostly ignoring the demand except for the occasional sneer that we can't just demand a Linux version. And they are right.

So that's it. We feel like it would make sense to build a Linux version. And with people saying that the core is basically platform independent so 'only' the UI would need to be ported to Linux, it feels closer than ever. But it's not going to happen. Serif has decided. They are not the Linux heros some of us hoped. Let's stop promoting Affinity among our colleagues as Adobe killer, and wait for something more inclusive to come along.

All you can do is go to the posts where some of the staff summarize their position and click thanks -> sad face on the bottom right to document your point of view in numbers.

image.png.9d275cb51ad737a8191c763e5f03b063.png

 

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27 minutes ago, Redsandro said:

Serif is taking a different approach of mostly ignoring the demand except for the occasional sneer that we can't just demand a Linux version.

They are not "ignoring demand" - you simply haven't proven that there is sufficient demand. The noise on here (the same relatively few people making most of it) proves nothing, nor do the odd anecdotal "my company of [X] people would use a Linux version..." posts

And the sneering comes from Linux zealots like yourself, not from Serif. You might want to re-read what you wrote before accusing anyone else of "sneering".

Keith Reeder

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On 5/21/2019 at 4:09 PM, Maciej Jurzenka said:

How stupid is not developing affinity on linux, u have like no competition on linux.. 

"Sneering Linux zealots," as I said.

What would be stupid would be for Serif to throw limited resources into an unknown market, when there's still plenty of work to do on the versions of the software which exist for the two main OS platforms, and which are already paying their way.

 

Keith Reeder

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8 hours ago, kleber.swf said:

Companies like the one I'm working right now is changing to Linux not because of the cost, but the security and easy integration with cloud stuff.

If you can't easily and securely integrate with the Cloud from a Windows or MacOS platform, you're doing it wrong. You don't need Linux for that.

Keith Reeder

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On 5/14/2019 at 2:23 PM, micksear said:

If I could buy Affinity Photo for Linux, I'd do so, even though I've already paid for it and Designer on the Mac.  

£50 - £100 for a licence is not going to be a barrier for me.  I can get away with Linux office products or even use MS 365 via a browser, but I can't deal with no decent graphics software, and Affinity products do just what I need. 

It's not Serif's job to facilitate your dislike of your current OS.

Keith Reeder

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On 2/16/2019 at 5:56 PM, Medical Officer Bones said:

@SrPx Your experience is identical to mine. I tried to switch friends and family to Linux, mainly because the only tasks involved were web browsing and a spot of text processing.

So get them a Chromebook...

Keith Reeder

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12 minutes ago, Redsandro said:

I also understand the frustration about their lack of oppenness to the community. First they giveth (a set of rules that would make a Linux version possible) then taketh away.

That isn't completely accurate. They have stated that uncertainties about recovering their development costs is something they do continue to consider, but that does not mean it is the only thing they are considering. They have also very clearly & openly stated that crowd sourced funding does not fit their business model, but that has not stopped the constantly recurring suggestions to do exactly that.

So not only have they never explicitly created a complete set of "rules" for this, at least one of what might loosely be called one of those rules continues to be ignored.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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@Keith Reeder Please use multi quote. If you press Quote on a second message it adds it to the message you're currently writing.

13 minutes ago, Keith Reeder said:

They are not "ignoring demand" - you simply haven't proven that there is sufficient demand. The noise on here (the same relatively few people making most of it) proves nothing, nor do the odd anecdotal "my company of [X] people would use a Linux version..." posts

And the sneering comes from Linux zealots like yourself, not from Serif. You might want to re-read what you wrote before accusing anyone else of "sneering".

I'd say it comes from both. People have this certain image of Serif in their minds: "Serif is the underdog, it's the company that will overthrow Adobe and will be better than it in *all* aspects!" and then when facing reality that no, Serif in fact wants to do its own thing and does not always value outpacing Adobe as much as the quality of its products, there is frustration brewing. I personally have followed some news in regards to the windows Serif apps and I know there are still issues that need to be fixed ASAP and I understand fragmenting the development team at a time like this would thin out the teams even more. So I understand why Serif has this "Sorry, but we currently have no plans to release on Linux" mindset on the matter. They're simply prioritising quality over quantity.

At the same time, I also feel like (because of this back and forth frustration) Serif has come off on the wrong foot and could, to certain people, give off the impression that they are against the community when in fact they have their priorities in a different order. They've said before that they wouldn't want to have a half-assed port (when asked about using WINE to make affinity work on linux) so they clearly want, in case they actually do plan on making a linux release, to have it working on par with the windows and mac versions. The community however is so hungry for a linux Illustrator/Designer that they would take some buggy release over nothing.

So I personally think that there's a bit of a communication issue here. The community sees serif as anti-community and fearful, whereas Serif sees the community as demanding and possibly ignorant because they misinterpret certain things. From that of course it's only a few steps to take to labelling the opposition.

Of course this is just my take on the matter.

18 minutes ago, Keith Reeder said:

If you can't easily and securely integrate with the Cloud from a Windows or MacOS platform, you're doing it wrong. You don't need Linux for that.

The point they were making isn't that you can't on Windows and Mac, it's that it's easier to do it on linux because apps don't have to work around the OS as much as in the aforementioned two.

 

16 minutes ago, Keith Reeder said:

It's not Serif's job to facilitate your dislike of your current OS.

I'd say you're misinterpreting what they're saying in order to have another point against them. They were simply pointing out that they would pay for an extra license if needed. The reasoning is besides the point.

 

17 minutes ago, Keith Reeder said:

And just how many is that?

10? 20?

Now that's just insulting and I'm not going to address this "point" any further.

 

16 minutes ago, Keith Reeder said:

So get them a Chromebook...

That is not as relevant to this topic, but I'm going to point out that older people have a harder time learning new things. My mother for example has such a hard time with phones that not only does she not want outside the android bubble, but she doesn't want anything that isn't samsung's skin either. It's just harder for them to get into new stuff.

 

Anyway, to me your stance is clear that just as you point at frustrated linux users, you yourself are of the same state of mind, just in the opposition, although as is the case for both sides, there are good arguments and gibberish arguments.

Mădălin Vlad
Graphic Designer
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5 hours ago, Keith Reeder said:

If you can't easily and securely integrate with the Cloud from a Windows or MacOS platform, you're doing it wrong. You don't need Linux for that.

You can. But it's just like @mvlad said. It's easier. What I said was just a simplification of all the reasons.

This thread, I hope, is not a flame war about Windows or Mac vs Linux. It's a petition for a version of the programs we like to the OS we use. Just that.

Please stop flooding the topic if you don't agree with the petition.

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Hmm... There's free speech around here, as far as I know. And is not specified any of that by the OP, sorry... And other Affinity users are completely free to give their opinion, not just the ones with a certain point of view. I mean, this is a forum, not change.org or the poll of an open source group where the developers are asking the community what path should they take. This is a private company, that have the freedom to take any direction, and not necessarily with need or obligation to disclose which is it or their reasons for that (that said, they are pretty straightforward, and way more open (and extremely patient) than most software companies I've had experiences with; they have answered this many times).

This said by someone that has not a completely fixed position in the Linux version matter (although my realistic, pragmatic view tells me, or even shouts at me which is the actual situation and probability ). Of course, it helps that some of us are comfy with any OS, and merely care about available software, drivers and commercial support for it...

I don't like the kind of world where some POVs are silenced by a particular group . Indeed, from that perspective, they let you talk and post about this when in any other  software company, insisting over a decision and (repeatedly offered) explanation from the company, ends up just with locking threads. So, I prefer to hear (or read) everyone. This is a forum. Part of that intention of shutting other views is calling different opinions a flame war...while I'm seeing politeness in the majority of those posts.

 

Edited by SrPx
Typos.

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Yes, I would love to have a Linux version of Affinity, especially Publisher. I hate having to dual boot as there is no proper publishing software available on Linux. Even if it were just like a Wine wrap.

Thank you. 

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Quote

Hmm... There's free speech around here, as far as I know. 

No intention to shut anybody up, bro.:7_sweat_smile: Just saying that let's keep the thread focused in what it was created in the first place. Attacking opinions and make fun of arguments isn't very constructive for any type of healthy conversation. And sorry, this post isn't about the topic either hahah. Let's get back to the topic!!

Edited by kleber.swf
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Well, the only contribution that I can make is to tell my use case and the company I work.

I'm convinced that Serif has it's reasons to not make a Linux version and I have no reliable data to convince them of doing such a thing.

Have they shared why? If we know the reason maybe we can help them as a community or give up of the idea for good ahhah

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8 hours ago, Keith Reeder said:

They are not "ignoring demand" - you simply haven't proven that there is sufficient demand. 

I'm sorry, but you can't offer this circulus in demonstrando. Once users started to organize a crowd funding campaign that would definitely prove or disprove whether or not there would be enough demand to recoup the costs, Affinity informed us that they would not do a Linux version even if the goal would be reached, effectively stopping the community initiative from definitively probing the demand.

The result is two-fold. One, we haven't proven demand. But more importantly, you can't argue that we can't prove demand after stopping attempts to do just that.

So yes, it is my view and the view of some of my peers that Serif is actively stifling serious attempts to probe demand. If this perception is wrong, it could be beneficial in a PR sense to write an official statement or semiofficial blog post as suggested before.

Quote

And the sneering comes from Linux zealots like yourself, not from Serif.

This is a classic argumentum ad hominem. I see you do that a lot. There was nothing remotely zealous about my post. Obviously, I'm not inciting a rebellious movement. I'm telling people that further proceedings have lost practical significance, which is basically the opposite of an uncompromising pursuit. Your relentless anti-Linux propaganda stream of logical fallacies over the past year or so (Why? To what end?) have more in common with the definition of a zealot, so I think you are projecting.

8 hours ago, R C-R said:

They have also very clearly & openly stated that crowd sourced funding does not fit their business model, but that has not stopped the constantly recurring suggestions to do exactly that.

They have not done so back when I was in this discussion, two odd years or so ago. So I think "very clearly and openly" is quite a flattering way of saying that someone wrote a comment somewhere between the thousands of posts on this forum. I believe the fact that the "idea" to crowdfund keeps popping up proofs this. People suggesting this weren't there when it almost happened and was shot down. This is why I believe a written blog post or verbose official statement would be a good idea. Everyone can just point to the article and the circular discussion is over.

 

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1 hour ago, Redsandro said:

Once users started to organize a crowd funding campaign that would definitely prove or disprove whether or not there would be enough demand to recoup the costs, Affinity informed us that they would not do a Linux version even if the goal would be reached, effectively stopping the community initiative from definitively probing the demand.

To begin with, a crowd funding campaign does not definitively prove anything about recouping all the costs of development, if for no other reason than all they can do is estimate what it would cost to develop each initial Linux version, much less keep pace with the continuing development & feature improvements of the Mac, Windows, & iPad apps.

Back when these requests for Linux versions first starting appearing, one of the developers mentioned $500K as a ballpark estimate for some initial version, but that was never a "goal" in the sense some people took it to be, nor is it still likely even to be a decent ballpark estimate now, after so many improvements & new features have been added to Photo & Designer.

So consider what it would be like if they did do everything they could now to come up with a really good estimate & then had to explain to crowd funders in 6 months or a year that it was much too optimistic, raise the estimate, & then maybe do that again before the development was feature-complete enough to finally offer it as a retail product on a par with the other versions.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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