Canva is seriously considering porting Affinity to Linux - a move that could transform desktop Linux and challenge Adobe.
More options is always good (they can miss me with that gen AI trash though)
I wonder how easy it is to use compared to GIMP or Krita?
(I still suck with Krita but that’s a me thing lol)
In this thread:
- users rejoicing
- users who never donated a cent to krita or gimp shitting on it
As usual, the entitlement amongst users stays high.
I’ve donated to Krita and I’m rejoicing!
Doubtful
I tried to like Krita. I’ve used it extensively for a few years. But it’s just not good. For all the reasons mentioned in this thread.
Yoo!! Let’s go
As a Linux desktop user for almost two decades, can you explain to me how this Affinity thing I have never heard of, can “transform desktop Linux”?
Based on tone, I doubt this is a real question but others may have the same one.
Moving to Linux can be difficult if Linux provides no viable alternative for software that you rely on.
Despite the availability of things like GIMP and Krita, Photoshop and other Adobe products are perhaps the most often cited software preventing user migration to Linux.
Affinity is the software most often cited as being a viable replacement for Adobe (on any platform). Currently, Affinity does not support Linux.
Therefore, the thesis here is that Affinity becoming available on Linux would make Linux a viable option for a material number of potential new users.
This would have implications for both the popularity of Linux as a desktop and Affinity as an alternative, weakening the hold Adobe has on professional media.
I think the significance is overstated. I do not believe the impact would be as spectacular as predicted here. But the basic argument is valid. It would be a positive development and everything that gets the ball rolling contributes to the eventual snowball.
I will let people create new wallpapers.
Have you tried reading the article?
Sorry but no. With such a title it’s very likely a clickbait, or a badly written one which the article doesn’t actually interest me.
You should read it. It’s something that could reshape the desktop software market.
(I didn’t read it either)
Finally a good (Proprietary) alternative to GIMP.
Would be Cool if it also supported ARM64.But gimp is basically photo shop.
/S
We already have apps, we don’t need AI powered slop to come into our space.
Like what apps?
Seriously. Canva is horrid.
Canva ≠ Affinity (for now). The o my requirement is a Canva account, but the app works fully locally. Still, it’s a downgrade from v2
The ever “art” app that sends every single of your creation to feed their AI? Thanks, no.
They don’t? Your files are local, the software’s local.
I’m sure people who need this app would find it easier to switch to linux if that app becomes available on linux.
More options means better ease of switching.
Honestly, it seems kind of moot if it already works in the browser. It’s a negligible amount of work to make an app use a browser engine to run offline to run their stack, but some heavy lifting to do a direct port to any specific OS without an adjoining framework to help in the cosmetics of everything.
That being said, they could also use a unified framework to do one release for every OS, which again is pretty much the same as making offline work for anywhere.
My fear is they do something stupid like build in GTK, and then QT users have UI problems, or vice versa. Seems easier to just go with a unified (non-electron) kit that runs everywhere the same way.
When Fusion 360 or SolidWorks in on Linux I’ll switch.
If you don’t mind an older version say 2017, you can run Siemens NX 12 CAD/CAM/FEA on REL or SUSE (OpenSUSE). They dropped GUI support after NX12, now the latest version only runs non GUI for batching CAD or Drawing automation and solving etc
I will never use unigraphics ever again, but thank you for letting me know there is an alternative!
I’ve switched to FreeCAD from Fusion 360 myself, after the 1.0 release everything became much more user friendly (they even have an “Inventor” layout if you want to keep the same UI style).
Granted, I’m early in my engineering career, so I probably can stomach more jank, but for my 3D printing fun and class projects, it seems fine.
I’ll have to give FreeCAD another go, last time(1 year ago 1.0 release week) it took me ages just to make a basic pegboard adapter, something Ive do in minutes on SolidEdge, Fusion and even Tinkercad
I’ve been using Scribus for layout design for years. It works well, but there’s a huge learning curve. Being able to have another option would at least be welcomed.
This would be MAJOR for me.
Got affinity designer v2 installed on Linux works ok with small files. Affinity (v3) works if i don’t place more than one rectangle.
Native Linux would be really appreciated
A major reason these kinds of things are happening is the EU move toward digital sovereignty.
Since there isn’t exactly a non-US commercial OS available and Linux is good enough for most everything, we’re starting to see a lot of interest in the open source world and moving towards open and standards-based software.
Commercial companies recognize that the EU governments represent a huge potential source of income. Some categories of software have essentially no Linux support… this leaves a huge vacuum to be filled by a company who can create professional image editing/CAD software which also works on Linux.
If Affinity is the only large, commercially supported professional publishing software available then they become the defacto winner of all of these new EU Digital Sovereignty contracts.
The annoying part is Dassault had linux cad software and they killed it.
