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Comment by saurik | Hacker News Reader

If Adobe ported their apps to Linux (which I can't imagine would even be that hard, as they are already using their own toolkit) I would not only switch but never look back; and if Adobe released their own distribution of Linux and went all-in on some first-party toolkit (so, no Gnome/KDE) I think they might accidentally win a massive segment of the desktop OS market.

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Adobe also thwarted me from daily driving Linux a few years ago when I gave it an honest attempt. I'm practically hoping that Microsoft pulls some shit to step on their toes, like develop competing products, so that Adobe has a real incentive to get its users off of Windows (like Valve does). Microsoft has gotten increasingly aggressive these past 5 years in force-feeding their ecosystem of services to Windows users, and it's making the desktop UX worse for both savvy and non-savvy users.

Apple and Microsoft would simply never allow that to happen. End of story. The Open Source "community" is hell-bent on finding technical solutions for political problems, and this is the best among countless examples of why it's a hopeless mission from the outset.

Can you explain how this is a "technical solution to a political problem"? I totally buy that it might be a politically incorrect move, but Apple, at least, already screws Adobe over constantly... it doesn't even have to be open source: if Adobe released a fully-proprietary first-party userland stack for Linux--one which replaced Gnome and KDE, as these "community" efforts are not just failing but in some cases have become actively evil--I think it could be extremely competitive in the lucrative niche of software (as we are all paying customers who pay more to Adobe than I ever would to Microsoft) for creative professionals.

Well, some parts of the Adobe stack are already web native, meaning they work perfectly in Linux. For example - Photoshop, Lightroom, Acrobat Pro. I believe this will only grow with time, mostly because it makes it easier for them to do subscriptions.

I could see Adobe trying to compete with Apple, maybe even make their own app dist store.

But would you pay for Adobe software on Linux? When Adobe surveyed that they found that what people mean by "Photoshop should run on Linux" is "Photoshop should be installable from the package manager for free on Linux"

Do you have a source for this?

2012:

> Again, we've done the research. The profits aren't there -- very few Linux users are willing to pay for commercial software.

> And the cost of entry is still high because of the fragmented Linux landscape.

> The Linux world has to change before commercial software will have reason to invest in Linux ports.

> And we haven't seen much real change in the Linux market in several years.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussio...

Bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, isn't it?

1. People who use Adobe can't use Linux

2. People who do use Linux aren't willing to pay for Adobe because they don't use Adobe

3. Adobe doesn't see profit in Linux

I am not advocating for Adobe trying to market to existing Linux users who don't use Adobe products: I am advocating for Adobe attempting to commoditize their complement by building a custom distribution of Linux with its own first-party UI toolkit... maybe we call it AdobeOS, similar to how Google decided to make a play with ChromeOS. ChromeOS is now way more popular than "Linux": I think the same would be true for AdobeOS, and I think it would be remarkably little effort for Adobe to move in that direction.

FWIW, I do appreciate: "they don't need to do that as long as Windows doesn't get so bad that you stop using Adobe products because of it", and I sadly appreciate that maybe that market is pretty small (and so far doesn't even include me); but like, the logic for why I could see Apple or Google building their own OS in such a situation somehow stands: Adobe absolutely gets burned by Apple and has most of the same benefits to be had as Google for moving to a self-controlled vertical stack.

Yes: I pay a lot of money for Adobe software on Windows... why would I suddenly stop paying if it ran on some Linux system? I am not "I would use Photoshop if it were on Linux"; I am "I already use all of Adobe's software but I am fed up with Windows".

> all-in on some first-party toolkit

Adobe on macOS is not really native. It is barely usable bloatware. I only use it when I really need to explicitly collaborate on some Indesign thing now. For anything else it is Affinity.

I don't think most people are like you, FWIW: the obsession with "native" toolkits always seems to be something some designers insist is super important (and so I admit it might matter a lot for a couple Adobe apps that awkwardly target people in this demographic), but most of the non-designers I know prefer the exact opposite whenever given a choice...

Maybe this could be useful? https://www.playonlinux.com/en/ (able to run Photoshop myself)

FWIW, I care a lot more about Indesign and Premiere Pro (and I'd need the hardware acceleration to work for the latter): I barely ever use Photoshop (though I do use Lightroom Classic and, every now and again, Illustrator). But like, having to run Windows to do my audio/video editing work is getting unbearable recently with all the BS Microsoft thinks they can feel justified doing :(.

Great solution if you're looking to spend hours installing CS6 built for a 1280x720 display, or CS18 (high DPI support) with very buggy operation and constant crashes. I've been there, done that.

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