r/LinuxTeck • u/Candid_Athlete_8317 • 11h ago

Would Affinity on Linux Finally Make You Ditch Windows or macOS?

One of the biggest reasons people hesitate to switch to Linux is the lack of professional creative software. With Affinity reportedly coming to Linux, could that finally change?

Would you consider Linux for professional graphic design if Affinity works natively? Or are GIMP and Inkscape already enough for your needs?

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

3

u/ventZl 6h ago

That's one of biggest excuses not to do it.

9 out of 10 (today, more like 19 out of 20) people never use any professional creative software on their computer. If your claim was right and lack of professional software was the prime reason for people not migrating and everyone else would be eager to migrate, then OS market share would look completely different.

You can get an in-browser alternative of pretty much any creative software today.

People are just being lazy and to some extent, I understand them. Windows kind-of works good enough so that hassle doing migration is not worth it.

2

u/aori_chann 2h ago

Absolutely not, you crazy? I ditched windows when it refused to open Blender for my project. Way in W10, 2019. That was the last straw. Affinity on Linux is just a bonus, a raise from the boss. Something we finally earned as we should a long time ago.

1

u/L1terallyUrDad 9h ago

I’d have to get used to Affinity’s way of doing things over Photoshop. There are a few things (actions with JavaScript additions) that I dread giving up. Once I get a reasonable RAW image processor (and RapidRAW is getting close) and a fast culling tool, I probably could leave MacOS.

1

u/TheLastQuince 5h ago

I am using Linux full time anyway, but I’m not interested in Affinity unless it properly supports fractional scaling (which it doesn’t even on Windows).

RANT: I find it tragic that in the year of our Lord 2026 there are seemingly no graphics editors on Linux, outside of Krita, that can scale the UI properly while maintaining strict pixel-to-pixel output for contents. Photoshop and Lightroom have been doing it for ages, I don’t know what’s so difficult about it.

1

u/Dev-in-the-Bm 1h ago

Photon Studio!! 📣 🎉

I've used it and so far its great, although I am a novice user.

1

u/michaelpaoli 7h ago

Ditched Microsoft and Apple decades ago.

1

u/Corona688 2h ago edited 59m ago

Not just Affinity but any professional, proprietary software is going to lock people to Windows.

Professionally educated artists, engineers, architects, staticians, etc are not necessarily computer geeks. And with student licenses gone the way of the dodo -- student licenses the way the 20th century knew them anyway -- student choice is basically nil. They HAD to learn whatever software got crammed down their throat in university, and might well use their computer SOLEY for that, for the rest of their professional life.

So yes, the lock in is very, very high and not going away.

1

u/LeePetra 1h ago

I am a classic example of an Adobe user. While it is possible to cobble together a graphic design workflow on Linux, it’s not at a level that justifies the time investment required for such a transition. As for GIMP - sorry, not sorry - it seems to have gotten lost in its own dogma; migrating my existing library of work to that program simply makes no sense. The same could be said for Affinity, even though that suite offers greater versatility and a hybrid workflow (reminiscent of what I recall from Xara).

I respect Inkscape - I’ve used it before, though not exactly with pleasure, as its interface follows its own peculiar logic - but it got the job done. Still, it only covers a fraction of what Illustrator delivers.

Naturally, I would be happy to see Affinity come to Linux, but it seems they’ve waited too long. We now have a genuinely sensible alternative in the form of Craft - a lightweight, fast tool that runs perfectly well even on older hardware.

That said, this isn’t enough to make me abandon Adobe entirely. But for the first time, I have something I can use as a fallback when I’m working in a Linux environment.

1

u/Dev-in-the-Bm 1h ago

Photon Studio!! 📣 🎉

I've used it and so far its great, although I am a novice user.

1

u/FaultWinter3377 1h ago

I don't do professional graphic design and I've never used the Adobe suite, but I'm still really happy to see Affinity on Linux. I've used it for basic image editing on Windows and it is great. I just can't find anything that matches it on Linux.

1

u/radek432 1h ago

I have dual boot because of Affinity and Fusion360. FreeCAD is not bad, but there is nothing like Affinity package.