Affinity, the Free Adobe Alternative, Is Officially Coming to Linux

Affinity, the free all-in-one creative suite owned by Canva, is officially coming to Linux. The company confirmed on November 3, in a reply from its official account on X, that a Linux version is "in active development." It gave no release date and no details on packaging or supported distributions.

What was announced

The confirmation is short but unambiguous: asked on X about Linux support, the Affinity account answered that a Linux version is in active development, with no ETA to share yet. Coverage from The Verge, Neowin, and OMG! Ubuntu followed the same day. For a project this requested, an official "yes, we are building it" is the news: Linux has been the most prominent gap in Affinity's platform list since the suite went free.

Affinity today is a single free app for vector design, photo editing, illustration, and page layout, organized in "studios" (Vector, Pixel, Layout, and Sketch) sharing one .af file format. It is available on Windows, macOS, and, as of this week, iPadOS. Serif, the British developer behind the original Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher trio, was acquired by Canva in 2024; the merged, free v3 relaunch followed in October 2025.

Why it matters on Linux

Linux users who want Affinity today rely on unofficial workarounds: a community Wine installer script, AppImage packaging, or a Windows virtual machine with GPU passthrough. They work to a point, but with real friction, including Canva account sign-in problems, broken WebView2-based views, and screen tearing, as Neowin's coverage details. An official, Canva-supported Linux build would replace all of that with a supported path.

The suite's arrival also lands in a healthy ecosystem rather than a vacuum. Free and open-source tools like GIMP, Krita, and Inkscape cover much of the same ground and are not going anywhere. What Affinity adds is a free (as in cost), professionally backed option with strong Adobe file compatibility, which lowers one more barrier for creatives considering a switch to Linux.

What we do not know yet

Everything practical: no release window, no word on whether the Linux build will ship as a native package, Flatpak, Snap, or something else, and no confirmation that every feature will carry over. The announcement is a commitment to build, not a date. We will update when Affinity shares specifics.

Sources

OMG! Ubuntu - It's official: Affinity is coming to Linux
The Verge - The Adobe-rivalling Affinity creative suite is coming to Linux
Neowin - Affinity will soon be getting an official Linux build

Cover image: the Affinity Photo 2 interface, from the official Affinity user guide (Serif). It shows the previous version of the app, not the upcoming Linux build.