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Affinity for Linux


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I think problem with Linux version is that most designers/photographers do not want to give up OSX.

Right now, 20% of all webdesigners use Linix (pretty high) And being a Web designer/developer myself I can tell you that I would gladly pay twice the price of AFRICA software if it's on Linux and avoid me the regular pain of switching OS.So there is a market, and I'm sure I'm not the only one since I have coleagues that think exactly the same as me

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Something for you Linux folks to consider is one of the major design goals for the Affinity product range is, to the extent possible, total feature parity across the Mac & Windows platforms.

 

Considering the number of Linux distributions & the nearly infinite number of ways they can be configured, realistically, what do you think are the chances that this feature parity could be extended to all or even most of them?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.0 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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Something for you Linux folks to consider is one of the major design goals for the Affinity product range is, to the extent possible, total feature parity across the Mac & Windows platforms.

 

Considering the number of Linux distributions & the nearly infinite number of ways they can be configured, realistically, what do you think are the chances that this feature parity could be extended to all or even most of them?

Most companies that support Linux choose one, namely Ubuntu and stick with it.

Also, apps can be distributed in linux-unversal formats, so this is a lot less of a deal than it seems.

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

The only one reason why many professionals don't goes on Linux, it's because Photoshop, Video Editing and Web developping programs aren't exist on LInux. I starting to hate Microsoft with Windows 10 take control of user softwares by removing it, 

 

I personnally love 1-2 Linux distribution "Deepin Os" and also "Ubuntu original Os". 

 

I have a solution for Web developpement, Brackets, but it's far not comparable of Dreamweaver CC. 

 

Why did you know Start a Kick Starter campaign for your Linux Developping Cost ?

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Kickstarter please!

 

If I reboot to Windows now I am going to use Paint.NET. (Yes, my task is rather trivial.)

I would pay $50 the Affinity Photowhatever this very minute, if there was a version for Linux.

P.S.: I hate Gimp, I don't wanna hear of it ever again, I hope it is dead by now.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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

How about a gofund me campaign? I'd happily pay $100. I'm maigrating to linux from mac. I've finally had it with apple. I know i'm going to miss some of my favorite apps. IMO the lack of polished paid apps is what keeps a lot of people from going to linux, but if we saw more apps like affinity I think it becomes easier. until then i'll probably be dualbooting

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  • 3 weeks later...

I suspect based on their history, and the tone of the answer from the Top Cat, that open source ideology and economics are not a very high priority for Serif. Which is fine. But getting 10,000 linux users to purchase the only high performing graphics app of its kind for desktop Linux would not be difficult. What I find so fascinating is why all of the Linux enthusiasts are keen to spend $50 on Affinity, but are unwilling to give a $10 donation to GIMP development. If every GIMP user donated $10 a year to the project, the development growth of GIMP would be astronomical. 

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But getting 10,000 linux users to purchase the only high performing graphics app of its kind for desktop Linux would not be difficult.

 

 

Fully disagree with that.... Krita (my very favourite open source software, or I'd say, on par with Blender and Wings3D. I do prefer it indeed to all digital painting software I've used, the probable exception of Clip Paint Studio(Manga Studio), but not saying one is better than the other) and GIMP work well, even in my Windows ! And while I have been a Linux user for long, since elder years, not having installed anymore, but been told that in Linux, those apps perform even better. I do use Gimp, and mostly, Krita. This last one is completely professional in my view, as a professional tool for illustrators. There will be always limitations in an application(free like this, or commercial like AP), but heck, I can paint whatever with krita. Wishing AP and AD serve me someday as well for painting. (that day is probably not far)

 

What I find so fascinating is why all of the Linux enthusiasts are keen to spend $50 on Affinity, but are unwilling to give a $10 donation to GIMP development. If every GIMP user donated $10 a year to the project, the development growth of GIMP would be astronomical. 

 

 

Yeah, I agree. But really, GIMP is much more useful and usable than people think... Just for print stuff, no freaking way, I need a lot more control over color managing, color profiles and CMYK. Something a few users, we have asked for years (but they have total right to not develop that). In that very aspect of graphic production, I would agree fully that Linux is way behind.  For RGB only (a lot of digital print companies will do fine for not super top level kind of things, I have a VERY recent pair of commissions done with just sRGB files, as per limitation of those companies, and the result in the printed product was surprisingly good. Their handling of the matter improves every year. And I guess the machines, too...  But you can do this only with certain type of projects.  Many others require serious CMYK and color managing, and all the offset requirements, professional PDF export for print and stuff. DTP is not their priority... I think. )

 

So, unless one is into (and photography related, not necessarily having that requirement) this specific aspect, you can do fine with what is available now in Linux. Ease of use and learn, and certain amount of top level features, I'd say then would be justified the interest on Affinity line, by far. UIs and learning curve aren't an issue for me. For a lot of users, it is.

 

And one thing I am not freaking able to understand... Now I am not interested in Linux, being a graphic software user, by freelance profession, but, during years, I had even two Windows in my machine, and 2 linuxes. And that with the rather smaller HDs that were available by the times, and being way, way harder to install and manage a Linux and multi boot system than now... I know Windows is around 130$ the standalone non OEM version (so to be able to purchase in any computer). But heck. That much of an issue? when all your professional or high end hobby (if not so,why not use the linux graphic software instead, no need for more) applications are going to be installed on whatever the OS, heck, put the not so huge bucks in a Mac OS or Windows license. The latter if you want more amount of applications.  

 

I mean, a true power user of graphical stuff, be it whatever the profile, there should be no issue for one-off purchases (I'm strongly against renting, though) of low to mid cost. Just install [ For work reasons I had to use Wine, and in my tests at least, Windows software on an emulator like Wine (tested other emulators, too) did not perform equally than in a native Windows machine. Might not be the case for others, but I can only trust in what works for me...]  both OSes (Win/Linux) and you then can get almost every application out there for making graphics. And this costs close to nothing. If you have at some point some extra month pay or whatever, I'd ever recommend purchasing an inexpensive Mac with a good graphic card (if that's possible) , as there are indeed "some" Mac apps I'd love to have and use as part of my set of tools.  Trust me, there's no harm in using several OSes (multi boot or several machines). I agree that regular day use, you can't be booting for every stage of a project, but to me, it made a real lot of sense that I'd use one or another OS depending on a full single project. As mostly, each project needs a particular set of tools. Not so painful if one week I'd use windows, the next one using Linux. Did so for years and worked great for me. Just these days I avoid the extra maintenance effort (to me, the only issue I could barely consider, but the depends on the benefits doing so brings to me in each case)  as I have all I want in Windows, because most apps I love (Wings3D, Blender, Krita, Gimp) have today very good and stable Windows ports. The ones being Mac only, I have equally good (if not better) alternatives in Windows. And I truly, truly love the jump in performance (the most significant one in stability and performance was from Vista(an actual downgrade) to Windows 7) in 8.1, and, as is very similar in that, Windows 10. You might not believe me, but I had purchased a cheap, very cheap 18.3 inches laptop just for drawing when am travelling (great screen, though) and was slow as heck, not usable for other than basic user stuff. Purchased a Win 8.1 later on, it works now like charm, fast and snappy. 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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I have been a long time Windows user since the first version came out in the late 80's. I made the switch to Linux back in 2014 for a number of reasons. There are many ex-Windows Users that are looking for a good Photoshop and Dreamweaver replacement for Linux. 

 

Affinity Photo looks like it can fill the Photoshop void in Linux. 

 

Linux Users are not adverse to paying a reasonable amount for quality software that works. Your current pricing for the other platforms is reasonable and a good price point.

 

I also recommend that you launch a Kickstarter campaign to test the Linux market. I believe you will be surprised to see actually how many Linux Users that are hungry for your photo editing product. If you do start a Kickstarter campaign to create a Linux version be sure to let everyone on this forum thread know for we will help spread the word.

 

Someone mentioned Foundry products in another post. These are high-end applications for a niche market. Photo editing has mass appeal. 

 

You may be interested in developing your apps with QT so that they run across all platforms. Here is their link.

https://www.qt.io/application-development/

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  • Staff

rrbachamp,

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums. Thanks for your input. 

 

This discussion is a bit like this. "I used to live in France, but I decided I liked the look of Germany, it suits me better in so many ways. Disney have built a Disneyland in Paris, France, and although there are some fairly good parks in Germany there is nothing like a Disneyworld Germany at the moment. Please build one. I would pay the entrance fee and so would my friends."

 

It's nice to know that you would like one, but we are currently focusing on what we have now or have already announced, and realistically will do so exclusively for quite some time.

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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  • 1 month later...

Hello, yes, there is an unfilled hole in the market, many people are backend/frontend developers, websites developers etc. and the work in linux because it is much better for them to work in Linux. The biggest problem is dealing with all those designers who are sending you some crappy PSDs. As a programmer myself, I hate Photoshop because it is not used for UX mockups and now because I have to run in under Wine just to open what the designer has done. We, both developers and designers, lack a tool which would be a good choice for our interaction. Affinity designer seems to be a potential candidate to fill the hole in the market, but you really lack Linux support. You seem to spend really much resources on supporting both Win ans Mac native UI APIs, you could spend 1.5-2 times less money and resources if you used Qt for developing for all 3 platforms. Of cource, I cannot say for sure that Qt will be a good choice for you, but still. I haveired designers by myself but next time I do it I will look for a designer who will make a design in Inkscape/GIMP/etc because I will not have to depend from adobe/CC/windows/etc.

 

Adobe's managers partly reasonably write on their forums that in case of releasing a Linux version they will not get new users because only old users will migrate to another OS. In your case a market of post-adobe era is opened to you, and I myself will do everything possible to get the market rid from entirely depending on someon's solutions. Money is the only instrument to do that.

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The " crappy PSD" is a huge industry standard. Is not just "some". You can adhere to it, adapt and provide what the client needs or not (best luck in the latter ! ). But entering in absurd denial when is exactly what the industry as a whole is using, is the way of the Dodo...

 

 I haveired designers by myself but next time I do it I will look for a designer who will make a design in Inkscape/GIMP/etc

 

 

I handle those (and Krita & Blender) without issues, I do FULL projects with them  but limiting your self only to those artists, which is a very small fraction of the artists and graphic designers demographics, will lower WILDLY the graphic quality of your products (be it whatever web/screen output, and much, much more, in every sense, in printed media.)

 

I am as well a front developer, as a graphic designer and illustrator, and IMO, there are TONS of front end developers in Windows and Mac. It'd be a lie to say the opposite, or just not knowing the numbers out of the individual small personal world... 

 

Having worked in Linux-only companies (actually, 3 of the 5 that weren't the other 4 in games), one very important internationally, and me being in Windows-only, providing the developers  -and my self, as one of the front end guys, the main one indeed-  the graphic work with zero issues! 

 

There are TONS of work flows possible not to make the front end people's work harder. Converting a PSD to a Gimp format is one of the easiest and fastest, doable from any Windows or Mac. But there are more, of course.

 

And imo, calling crappy the main workflow format of a legion of artists, developers, and even marketing entire departments is definitely not a clever path...

When a CEO or a a marketing boss ask you for a PSD you can't deny it...

 

market of post-adobe era is opened to you

 

 

Post Adobe era? heheheheheee.... * evil grin *

People like to dream...

 

 

and I myself will do everything possible to get the market rid from entirely depending on someon's solutions. Money is the only instrument to do that.

 

 

Money is one of the fastest ways. But quality and matching the industry standard is equally effective (difficult to get that in open source for having way less resources). In my view, and real usage for real work, Blender has got there, already (not to compete yet with Max and Maya in AAA games, but definitely enough for a legion of freelance workers, and small studios, which is not a small part of the thing). If OS apps keep getting that level of completeness and quality, wont need necessarily money. But money , joined with the open source strength/flexibility could allow it to even surpass a lot of middle range companies and get to compete with the top dogs, even.   I don't see them surpassing Adobe and Autodesk anytime soon.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am also on the minority here asking for Linux versions of Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer.

 

If you ever decide to go for it, perhaps you should talk with Ubuntu/Canonical. It is by far the most popular distro and besides the Appimage format (that someone mentioned earlier) Canonical has developed the universal Snap format that can run on most Linux disros and it is constantly updated by the developers who make it available. (See https://snapcraft.io/)

 

There is really no adequate photo manipulation/vector editing programme on Linux. Gimp is unbelievably complicated and still lacks CMYK support. Krita -even though I really like it- has more odd crashes than it is acceptable. Inkscape also has an unintuitive interface and lacks several important vector editing features.

 

Surely there must be at least 10,000 Linux users who would be willing to buy your software so that you can recoup your initial 500,000 $ development costs.

 

I'm one of them. And I'm sure you could get the Linux press behind you. You already have great reviews everywhere I look and graphic designers really don't like to change their habits to much.

 

But Adobe seems to have forced some people to look elsewhere. The subscription model is a big reason. Also the latest versions of Photoshop and Illustrator are a bit flaky around the edges. They keep changing things they shouldn't that complicate people's workflows.

 

On a final note I'm a print and web designer. Been using Adobe since 1996 and moved to Ubuntu because I got kind of fed up with the latest MacOs (how older programmes stop running in newer versions) and Windows 10 (Microsoft can keep its telemetry to itself).

 

It's not cool having to use a Virtual Machine for graphics work, but still Ubuntu makes things much easier for someone who also develops websites and I am not willing to go back to Apple or Microsoft.

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Surely there must be at least 10,000 Linux users who would be willing to buy your software so that you can recoup your initial 500,000 $ development costs.

I don't know much about this but realistically, apart from expensive enterprise level apps, how many actively supported retail apps are there that run 'out of the box' on Ubuntu or any other flavor of Linux, & how many users actually buy them?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.0 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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I don't know much about this but realistically, apart from expensive enterprise level apps, how many actively supported retail apps are there that run 'out of the box' on Ubuntu or any other flavor of Linux, & how many users actually buy them?

 

I am no market specialist. Just a plain user.

 

For example JetBrains http://www.jetbrains.com sells its apps to Linux users through its website.

 

In 2013 they held a presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfQh1tcOPsc#t=1812 and they disclosed that the distribution of their clients is:

50% Windows

30% Mac

20% Linux

 

20% is not too bad, I suppose.

 

Again this is just an example that a casual Google search returned.

 

I'm no Linux expert, neither do I pretend to be. I'm just a designer who happens to use Linux after giving up on Apple and Microsoft.

But I do know that there are more designers on Linux, than people think.

 

Obviously if Serif decides to pursue Linux they would need to research it first.

And I am aware -as it has been made explicitly clear in previous posts- that there will be no Linux versions in the foreseeable future.

But still I just wanted to add my voice in this thread.

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...

For example JetBrains http://www.jetbrains.com sells its apps to Linux users through its website.

...

 

Well most JetBrains products are Java based and thus do from ground up work more or less after the run everywhere where a Java VM exists principle (are using platform portable bytecode due to the underlayed JVM). Pretty much the same as Netbeans, Eclipse ... and most other Java based tools here. - Meaning it's much easier here in contrast (with little effort) to offer things  also for different platforms.

 

The problem with porting software to different platforms is mostly programming language and the frontend side related here, so to say providing a smooth adaption to all the related OS principles which usability wise do differ. Windows, Mac, Linux all have different UI programming usability schemes here one has to take into account! - It's even more adventures, if you also additionally go to change used programming languages due to certain OS restrictions here in terms of UI standards and the like.

 

 

To give an example...

 

...once needed a custom tool for performing something for changing things in a specific binary file format. I used Java those days a lot and thus also used it to develop that tool. Development the whole thing on Win with a Java IDE took a week or so, including designing the algorithm, test cases, UI, debugging, documentation, online help etc. etc. The fine thing was that software also worked fine on the Mac and on Linux without ever testing those myself on those platforms (users later told me that they used it instead on those OSes without any problems the same way as under Win).

 

So far so good, after a year or so I was doing a lot of VS C# stuff and one day thought hey let's take that Java tool from once and port it over to C# for a more native Win UI look and in order to see, if there are general performance differences between reusing some Java and C# code here. Porting over the whole Java code (including UI stuff, online help system things etc.) over to C# took one and a half day and was mostly a smooth no brainer since there are a lot of similarities between both languages, also in terms of what their corresponding libraries do functional wise offer etc. Most time have been spend to UI element differences here, like different behavior of table views and the way you have to apply data for those (read/write) and some other data structures with corresponding UI connections. - In short, the whole was pretty easy adaptable and not of that much effort to port over.

 

Some months later went on to port that whole initially in Java developed stuff over to OSX but natively. Also I wanted to see how good mixed language programming on OSX (Swift, ObjC) with Xcode works. And there the nightmare began, I took Swift for the UI (frontend part) and used ObjC for the data (backend) part, due to the way GUI apps work on OSX with different usage metaphers in terms of patterns, delegation, bindings to OS features etc. a lot of things were more complicated and completely different to do here. - In short it took me nearly two weeks to port that Java stuff over to a native OSX app. :)

 

EDIT: Forgotten to mention that mixed programming on OSX indeed worked mostly as indicated by Apple via bridging. Though I recall that at one specific porting stage I still needed an own developed C mediator inbetween some Swift and ObjC objects, in order for them to be able to call and use each other objects at all, since there was no direct API interoperational way.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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nah, hope someday Affinity would developed all their awesome software into linux , but what really pain here is to many version of linux 

 

That's not really too much of a problem. The vast majority of developers choose either Red Hat or Ubuntu as the primary targets for their software, and leave everyone else to their own devices.

 

Plus, with Flatpak/Snap distributables making inroads into the Linux scene, having to fret over whether a program will work as well on Distro B as it does Distro A might soon be a thing of a past. 

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There is really no adequate photo manipulation/vector editing programme on Linux. Gimp is unbelievably complicated and still lacks CMYK support. Krita -even though I really like it- has more odd crashes than it is acceptable. Inkscape also has an unintuitive interface and lacks several important vector editing features.

 

Surely there must be at least 10,000 Linux users who would be willing to buy your software so that you can recoup your initial 500,000 $ development costs.

 

I'm one of them. And I'm sure you could get the Linux press behind you. You already have great reviews everywhere I look and graphic designers really don't like to change their habits to much.

 

But Adobe seems to have forced some people to look elsewhere. The subscription model is a big reason. Also the latest versions of Photoshop and Illustrator are a bit flaky around the edges. They keep changing things they shouldn't that complicate people's workflows.

 

On a final note I'm a print and web designer. Been using Adobe since 1996 and moved to Ubuntu because I got kind of fed up with the latest MacOs (how older programmes stop running in newer versions) and Windows 10 (Microsoft can keep its telemetry to itself).

 

It's not cool having to use a Virtual Machine for graphics work, but still Ubuntu makes things much easier for someone who also develops websites and I am not willing to go back to Apple or Microsoft.

 

 

Gimp is extremely useful in good hands. It makes anyone used to PS layout to cringe and run away like avoiding a fiery dragon, but like with Blender (although this one is IMO quite at a higher level than anything in the graphic area in open source, with the exception of Krita), it has a lot of depth, and gives you the possibility to work professionally. My only issue is it lacks a lot of features to work with advanced color managing, cmyk work flows, and other print related stuff. But there are a lot of fields where it allows top quality work, if you are ready to make a work of adaptation (problem is that 90% of people is lazy to learn different UIs). Also, even with the lack of printing features, you can export to Scribus, or use several available specialized tools available in Linux for color management and export. Complex workflow, I know, but doable, and professional, if done well. I does not  match AP (as neither Inkscape to AD) by any means in terms of completeness and professional features, I'd say. Yep. But still, Gimp is really good, and very powerful. Krita crashes ?  Well I have "some", but really few compared to before, it definitely does not get in the way for professional production, and I am on Windows, not Linux !! I have been using it for a while in totally professional illustration projects, and works like charm, with an average creepy old machine ! . Really, testimonies like these about these 3 applications should *not* be trusted. Inkscape unintuitive ? Give me a break.. for a total newbie, that wouldn't have touched AI ever, is MORE intuitive than AI. I agree that for people like me coming from AI is another world, but is pretty direct and easy to handle. And this one has indeed crashes on Windows, mor ethan Krita, but are things you can easily detect and spot to avoid them. And that is not different to what 3DS max was back in my times at companies, in 2005, 2006, etc. Even more crashy, you would just avoid the situations were was expected a crash... Like with so  many apps in very complex workflows. Inkscape has served me GREATLY while at certain company, did lots of vector art with it. Not willing to just contradict you for the act of doing so, you have very interesting points and aspects in your post, but I cannot even distantly agree with any of the mentioned about the three tools. AP and AD are QUITE better, of course. But for example, not better in painting than Krita (for now) Inkscape has a great tracer embedded, has some very interesting export features, and some other features make working with it a charm. In other fields, it has serious lacks, too. Merely the story of any application, commercial or not.

 

The royal issue people keep not seeing is that is not only a matter of money, which, BTW, is way much more considering they would start a whole platform that then would have it really hard to close (even more angry masses than today) if wouldn't be able to maintain all teams, 500k is ...NOTHING, in software development. The problem besides numbers are way, way different (higher), is that time is ALREADY super short. They can't cope already with what is in their plate, how could them engage just now ALSO that huge task ?? I mean, they have the Publisher pending, and they are probably having every single human, dog and cat at full throttle just for releasing the 1.6 AD and AP... can't you see that is an issue with time and resources ??

 

 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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Really, testimonies like these about these 3 applications should *not* be trusted.

 

This is a request thread for Affinity Serif Linux versions. Not a flame war.

 

I'm only going to say the following, so that perhaps, you can understand why people like me, find said apps difficult to work with.

 

Gimp has destructive editing. No adjustment layers. No CMYK. I'm not going to go into the interface. These two issues make it unusable for me.

 

Inkscape type menu is almost unusable. I spend a lot of time with type and I really cannot be bothered, because I simply don't have the time.

 

Krita I really like. But try opening a big PSD file with it. It will crash and burn. And it's supposed to have excellent PSD support.

 

I'm using latest versions on all of them for the past 2 years.

 

And with that I'm out.

 

I'm aware that there will probably be no Linux versions for Serif software. But I would be willing to pay for it.

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PS did not have adjustment layers (heck, some people might not remember it, but very poorly editable text, too, for a while. I can speak from version 2.0 and up(all the way up to 7.x and then all the CS versions and etc)) . And the CMYK thing can be sort of helped with external tools, for people really loving the Linux OS since long. PS had destructive editing for many years (still has it, depending on what you look at) . None of this stopped me or other graphic design colleagues to work with it professionally. Entire companies delivered super professional output for print with it by then.

 

The points you mention do happen with those tools, I agree. Gimp's UI has quite to be desired, several workflows are slower than they could be,  Krita crashes with big files unless the machine is quite good, Inskcape type handling, and a collection of other things have a lot of room of improvement (ie, has an issue in Windows at least not allowing to configure well the undo button in the Wacom pen's side button) . And even quite many more issues (not that PS, AI or AP/AD are perfect, either, tho) . But IMO is quite a stretch to state that they are unusable, or not usable professionally. (but you then have added, they are not for you, that's different...). if not having the time or patience for them, is totally reasonable not to use them. In all fairness, I should say I never use any of them as the only editor, I tend to use a bunch of tools. I'd say as much that they are not for everyone. I've been using them all from many more years than the last two (like Blender (since before 1.x) and Wings3D (since the very first thing released)). And I know some Gimp aces doing extremely advanced stuff with it. They know Gimp super deep handling techniques as I can know PS, for example... So, yeah, Gimp is usable.

 

Well, saying 3 of the main applications for graphics in linux are not usable is a bit of a flame, too, in my book. But you might not see it that way.. Also, several Linux users in this thread have made statements quite much more of the flame type, imo....

 

If anything, I've said it before, but... I do think -very personal opinion-  they "might" do a Linux version (but they have stated very clearly that they have no interest in doing a Linux version, you really should keep that very in mind, curiously, almost all the pages of this thread are even after them saying that! :o ) much later on, not just now. Seems to me that the road plans include more polishing what is already released (releasing many applications and polishing none would be the way of the Dodo as a business), AP and  AD for Mac and Windows, then A.Publisher (no idea on the plans of the ipad versions), then is when a Linux version could be considered, if by then they have not developed some bad karma against it with these threads... What could be useful for your cause, would be to find really relevant data (not just personal opinions or the stats of a site which user base can only or mostly be Linux users, by its nature, and mentioning only percentages, not absolute numbers. )  that demonstrates that there is a mass of potential buyers, enough to generate a totally new branch and team of development. But in what numbers are really these Linux graphic software buyers, some hard data. Then you would be helping the cause such a ton more. Rants are going to do the opposite, put them in a negative position, maybe. Data about how many users , quantify the customers target, that definitely could move things one way or the other. I do firmly believe -having zero insight about the company's staff or directors opinion- that any software developer would be eager to develop for a platform if they thought (provided they technically could afford it) there was a sure success in sells. As money pay the salaries and everything.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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Well, saying 3 of the main applications for graphics in linux are not usable is a bit of a flame, too, in my book. But you might not see it that way.. Also, several Linux users in this thread have made statements quite much more of the flame type, imo....

 

Didn't say they're unusable in my first post. I said that they're not adequate. That's a big difference.

 

And I do use them for certain things. For example I really like painting and drawing with Krita and the G'MIC filter for coloring artwork in Gimp is awesome.

 

I am open minded about new tools. And don't expect them to be like Adobe. I've used Pixelmator in the past (it gets the job done but doesn't have CMYK either).

 

IMO Graphics apps should have some functioning core features (like proper type handling, CMYK etc) for print designers.

 

Print will not go away in our lifetimes. No matter what they say.

 

Affinity seems very promising. That's why I bothered posting in this thread. Even though they made it explicitly clear that there will be no Linux versions.

 

Also I understand your last point. But it's not my job to look into Linux market stats. No way! Got better things to do with my time. LOL!

 

Guess that if I ever go back to Apple I'll give Affinity a spin.

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