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Affinity’s Adobe-rivaling creative suite is now free for six months (www.theverge.com)

submitted 4 months ago by otter@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world 147 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (25 children)

I dumped my Adobe sub and grabbed Affinity Photo a while ago. It does 95% of the things Photoshop does (and 100% of what I need) for a one-time payment that is a fraction of the cost of an Adobe payment. It's runs so so SO much better than PS. I very often saw Photoshop using up to 40gb of RAM and Affinity Photo uses 9gb doing the exact same work with the same files.

Removing Creative Cloud and it's 838 different processes was amazing. Like finally watching your toilet flush after it's been clogged.

[–] 0ops@lemm.ee 11 points 4 months ago

I've only used the v1 affinity suite, so I can't speak for the latest versions of v2, but when I started the first thing I noticed was the performance. It's much more responsive.

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[–] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 89 points 4 months ago (10 children)

The only blocker to me is it doesn't have native Linux support

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 32 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Important point, and they also said they didn't plan on supporting Linux.

They're changing things up after being bought up, but I'm not sure if Linux is a priority for them yet

[–] philpo@feddit.de 20 points 4 months ago

Had a lengthy mail exchange on that topix with them - before them being bought, though.

While they don't plan a native Linux version they absolutely were open to optimise towards better Wine usability - which I totally could live with for now.

But I have no idea how the buying by Canva influenced things - Canva does have a linux app so maybe there are more resources and a different focus now.

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[–] einlander@lemmy.world 83 points 4 months ago (4 children)

The Canva ownership still worries me.

[–] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 18 points 4 months ago (2 children)

For a software that has a perpetual license, I'm not too worried.

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 63 points 4 months ago

Yeah, uh, Adobe products had that too - emphasis on the "had". Lots of complaints from customers that their licenses are just randomly getting deactivated, that they need to buy a new version, that they were supportive piracy...

I own Affinity Photo 1+2 but I will hop ship to yarr town the second they pull bullshit like this. Trust no one, you just get burned.

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Back before software subscriptions were a thing, I had a few different licenses which I would have assumed were perpetual.

In a way they were, but then my version stopped receiving updates and version 2 came out and they wanted me to buy version 2.

So perpetual licenses don’t mean anything if the company wants to be a jerk about it.

[–] kn33@lemmy.world 27 points 4 months ago (2 children)

In a way they were, but then my version stopped receiving updates and version 2 came out and they wanted me to buy version 2.

That's... how it works? Surely you can't expect ongoing, infinite development without paying an ongoing cost. Eventually the current version will become the old version, and stop receiving updates.

I've seen this take before, and it's always been bad.

Back when perpetual licenses were normal - yeah, you could always install that software from the CD or whatever and input your key and activate it. As long as you were running it on a supported OS, it worked. Most of the time you'd get updates for a while, for the most popular software at least, but not always.

Then eventually, everyone who was going to buy it had bought it, mostly. The money stopped rolling in, and no one's going to make updates for free. So updates stopped.

Over time, it would just become not as good. It didn't change, the world around it did. New security vulnerabilities would be found, or the OS would update and it wouldn't be compatible anymore. Sure you could run the old OS, and it would work how it always had. But then vulnerabilities in the old OS would show up, or the newer OS would have a feature you want, or not be compatible with newer software you also want to run. It wouldn't be feasible to run that old software anymore.

That doesn't mean that the company didn't fulfill their promise. A perpetual license you bought, and a perpetual license you got. Office 2003 still runs on Windows XP. But neither of them are secure anymore, and besides, 2003 is missing a ton of features.

So they publish the next major version. It has new features (Office 2007 introduced docx, the ribbon, and SharePoint), and will get security updates while it's supported. People buy it and use it for a while, then the same thing happens as Office 2003. It ages, and goes to the wayside. People start buying Office 2010.

Eventually, the world speeds up. The Internet becomes faster and more reliable. Updates can happen faster and more consistently. People begin to expect updates for longer. The companies decide the best way to respond is to shorten the cycle. Instead of paying a large sum every few years for the latest version, they'll pay a small sum every month. Instead of major updates with new features every few years and only bug fixes or security patches in between, will trickle out new features as they finish along with security updates.

The thing is - the pricing hasn't actually changed that much. The only difference is that the cycle is smaller, and some people are just now realizing that there has always been a cycle.

CNET posted an article in 2006 with Office 2007 pricing, putting the Home edition at $150. That's $233 now. That's about 3 years, 4 months of Office 365 Personal ($70/year).

3 years after Office 2007 came out, Office 2010 was released. Do you see what I'm getting at? The cost you paid for 2007, in terms of a modern subscription cost, is the same as the time between the two major versions back then.

Sure, you could run it until 2017 with security updates if you were frugal, but trust me it looks pretty goofy to run Office 2007 on Windows 10. And besides, most people didn't. They bought their Windows Vista computer and bought Office 2007 with it at the Best Buy. When they bought their Windows 7 computer at that same Best Buy 3 years later, they bought Office 2010 to go with it.

So really, the license was perpetual, sure. But the software lifetime was never infinite, and people that act like they got cheated on their perpetual license because of that are foolish. The only thing that has changed is the length of the cycle. It went from paying every 3 years and getting major updates every 3 years to having money trickle out and features trickle in.

I know this is a controversial take here, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It just makes it more obvious how much you're spending, because you're paying more often, which some people don't like.

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 9 points 4 months ago

Those are good points actually.

You’ve changed my opinion about how I felt about version 2.

[–] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I'm totally fine as long as I can install ans use the old version, rather lossing access the moment I stop paying. Goofy or not, I only cares if it works.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 15 points 4 months ago

Yep, I'm still suspicious we're in the good phase before things get anti-consumer

[–] philpo@feddit.de 5 points 4 months ago

Absolutely - me,too.

But, to play the optimist for once - Canva could bring some good to Affinity/Serif. Canva is available as a native linux app and Serif in the past has stated multiple times it's mainly the lack of Linux resources and experience that stops them from providing Linux support. So maybe that could be a good influence.

Canva also has a workflow that is based on a webapp that is more "beginner friendly" than Affinity and a good integration between these services could be a good thing as it may remove barriers.

And Canva for a long time had a desire to provide a full production workflow, so maybe affinity gets the long missing library features.

BUT: Now enough with that optimism, sadly I am rather sure enshitification is around the corner. Which will be a sad day for me.

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[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 65 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I would buy Affinity Photo if they had a Linux version. Sure, it could be run in Wine, but I don't like using it for anything except games.

[–] PopOfAfrica@lemmy.world 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't even really run on wine from my experience

[–] wurstgulasch3000@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

I saw a lengthy guide once on how to run it but it wasn't simple. Still better than Photoshop though

[–] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 months ago

True, I rather use Photopea than trying to make it work under wine

[–] rocci@lemmy.ml 22 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Is this a good Photoshop alternative?

[–] finley@lemm.ee 24 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It’s serviceable for most tasks, but for some things Photoshop simply cannot be beat.

It’s better than gimp, which is saying a lot

edit: it's fine for 90% of what people use photoshop for. for the other 10% of edge-case PS wizardry, only PS can do that. it also performs way better than PS and has a native, fully-functional iPad version.

[–] c0smokram3r@midwest.social 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I’ve heard GIMP (also known as GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a legit foss alt.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 30 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Gimp for a full image manipulation suit.

Krita for digital painting/art and a decent gui, still better for light image edits then paint.

Between those two photoshop is essentially overpriced hypeware. Its convenient to have both foss apps packed under a single well designed interface but no where worth what they demand. After adobe leaked the details from my student account back in 2013 they have continuously caused me so much damage they should be paying me.

[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 7 points 4 months ago

I actually use gimp in a semi-professional capacity. I have access to photoshop but I find Photoshop to be very unintuitive whereas Gump has all of its layouts exactly where I expect it to be after a few years of usage.

There are some things that photoshop does better than gimp. It's magic select tool is light years better than gimps, and content aware fill is also light years better, but I, who only need to make occasional minor edits to images to present them to other people one time I'm able to accomplish everything that I need with free software, and if it were up to me alone I would discontinue my Adobe subscription.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 21 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (8 children)

It's good if you can get past it's unintuitive UI.

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Pasta might be an improvement over its current UI.

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[–] MMNT@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Depends on what you want to use it for, but yes it is. Especially since it's way cheaper.

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[–] vodkasolution@feddit.it 19 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Those who actually use it, can they write down a simple comparison?

[–] CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I did not use Photoshop particularly long, but I have been using the Affinity Suite both on a pc and a tablet for over a year now and can say it's definitely quite good. Everything is where you think it should be, the workflow feels very usable with no major learning curve (looking at you, GIMP), and overall the only thing I don't like about it is its lack of Linux support. I would assume that absolute professionals won't be able to find everything they like/want, but if you're reading this, chances are you're gonna be more than satisfied, if FOSS options don't quite work for you.

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 months ago

I use the suite professionally. I come from the Corel world (which I slowly got to hate, but sunken cost, etc.) which I have gladly escaped. The suite is just a bonkers value. I live in Linux, but have a windows virtual machine just for Affinity.

[–] Virkkunen@fedia.io 9 points 4 months ago

Check this video as well. I do share most of that experience of having to Google how to do some things because it's not immediately obvious, and some other things do take more clicks/effort than they should've compared to Photoshop. All in all, it has completely replaced Photoshop for my use case.

[–] JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago (4 children)

It's a very good app suite that gets the UX right esp if you use multiple of their apps but it falls short in areas that Adobe has had more r&d money thrown at, such as vector tracing, proper vector brushes, and proper psd support (you can import psd files, you cannot export fully editable psd files). I used it myself for branding and UI design for a few years and it's definitely worth the money, but they do have some issues as I've said before. Their file format isn't open source either afaik and there is no plugin support so it's a friendlier looking and cheaper closed ecosystem.

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[–] twoface@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 months ago

I have been using Affinity Photo for a couple of years now. Not in a professional way, just for some small personal things. Before buying Affinity Photo I used PS for the same purposes for a few years.

I don't see me going back to PS, since Affinity has everything I need. Sadly, I don't remember specifics, but a few things work a bit different in Affinity, but the workflow is quite similar.

Note that I am not using the latest version, so things might have changed.

[–] Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 4 months ago

I checked it out last night. The photo editor is close enough to photoshop that I'll be glad to buy it. From my preliminary perusing of the tools and features, the only thing I used in photoshop that isn't in affinity photo was the ability to animate things. I'm sure there are some other more important details between the two, but as a hobbyist for graphic design it fits my needs just fine.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Those who actually use it, can they write down a simple comparison?

Those AI features are completely absent from Affinity. That said, Serif was recently bought by Canva who have AI features in their web suite, so I expect those to come to Affinity at some point, possibly requiring a subscription for cloud-enabled features (regular Affinity feature set will remain pay-once and offline, according to announcements). I hope some AI-supported upscaler will come to Affinity. I currently use some free web tool for nicer upscaling.

Also, Affinity apps don't support file format plugins at all. AVIF and HEIF aren't supported, so you'll need external converters to open those.

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[–] Goodie@lemmy.world 18 points 4 months ago (5 children)

If they had library management even close to what lightroom offers, I'd be there.

I may yet jump ship for photoshop.

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[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And then what?

[–] NateNate60@lemmy.world 36 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Then you can get permanent access for 165 USD (one-off payment)

[–] hightrix@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It goes on sale often. I think I got it for $50 a while back.

Easily worth it. Supporting a customer friendly business model is how we keep nice things.

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[–] slooopy_potatoe@lemm.ee 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They lost all credibility when they sold out to Canva in my opinion.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

I didn't know that but yep, I feel the same way. I have absolutely nothing good to say about Canva after having to work with a bunch of people who sent me files from it.

[–] Eggyhead@kbin.run 12 points 4 months ago

As a teacher, I use publisher all the time to make prints and materials for lessons. I’m still learning new tricks with it. And having Affinity Photo integrated means I click a tab and can better toy with images without having to swap the application.

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