Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe • Hacker News Board

Re: Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe

#261

Post by kfarr » Tue, Mar 26, 2024, 4:45 PM UTC

rpastuszak wrote: post #103

rcarmo wrote: post #93

Oh boy. I willingly gave my money to Affinity because I don’t want a subscription model, I don’t want my creative apps to rely on the cloud _at all_ to work _and_ I want native Mac apps. I am not reassured by their FAQ at all. I suspect a year from now Canva will break at least one (if not all three) of these features and force me to leave Affinity by version 3. It would be extremely ironic if Gimp was the only graph…

> It would be extremely ironic if Gimp was the only graphics app left standing I could use without all of the above nonsense I know successful agencies relying on OSS tools only (such as Gimp and Penpot) so I wouldn't mind that. I hope Gimp will have its Blender moment (I've been using Blender for years, but always kept coming back to Maya, this changed with the new UI)

Agreed, GIMP is powerful and just one UI refresh away from being a true alternative for many.

Re: Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe

#262

Post by oliwarner » Tue, Mar 26, 2024, 4:45 PM UTC

I'd perform undignified sex acts on camera for supported Linux and Android versions. I'd pay too if that helps. I think lot of Linux developer-creatives would.

I love Inkscape and GIMP but they desperately need domestic competition.

What I didn't manage to read was are they buying Serif or buying this from Serif?

Re: Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe

#263

Post by melodyogonna » Tue, Mar 26, 2024, 4:49 PM UTC

dean2432 wrote: post #65

microflash wrote: post #11

The link should probably be changed to official announcement.[1] That said, this is pretty dismaying. I've been using Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo for years. Their standalone and non-subscription based apps are perfect for my usecase. Compared to Adobe, they are a no-brainer. But, I don't think Canva would leave them be as is. Either next versions will be a subscription or a rug pull is coming for the existin…

of course. big corporations only think about profit. affinity as we know it are dead.

Is there a company that doesn't think about profit?

Re: Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe

#264

Post by omgmajk » Tue, Mar 26, 2024, 4:49 PM UTC

TheCapeGreek wrote: post #79

I've never seen much hate for Canva until this thread. HN will really hate on any kind of acquisition, regardless of if the acquirer is a "big bad" like Adobe or not.

It's not really hard to see why though. Software which only real saving grace is a better license model than the bigger fish gets bought by another bigger fish to ultimately, most likely, get put in the same license model.

Re: Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe

#265

Post by graypegg » Tue, Mar 26, 2024, 4:51 PM UTC

From the forum, on the topic of the buyout:

"[I] Realise there seems to be a distinct lack of faith flying around here, but we'll be revealing more about our plans in the coming days and yes I'm sure you will all be pleased with what we have to say." - Ash

So that's at least possibly a sign of better information to follow.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/201413-aff...

Re: Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe

#266

Post by josefresco » Tue, Mar 26, 2024, 4:53 PM UTC

mortenjorck wrote: post #167

This would be a great time for Canva to reassure customers that they don’t intend to change Affinity‘s business model. Not to say such assurances are even a reliable indicator of future plans, but it would at least be a nice gesture.

No changes "at this time" is the key phrase here. Not exactly reassuring.

Re: Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe

#267

Post by robertoandred » Tue, Mar 26, 2024, 4:56 PM UTC

timeon wrote: post #63

throwaway2990 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Due to subscriptions.

And bloatware. Affinity runs smoother on Mac.

Eh, they take like 30 seconds just to open the app.

Re: Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe

#268

Post by chrisoconnell » Tue, Mar 26, 2024, 4:58 PM UTC

GlacierFox wrote: post #121

blowski wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On what basis? Is Canva somehow cheating? I don't know, as I'm not a designer in any way.

Yes.

Explain why it's cheating? I'm a designer. I have been for over a decade. I don't use Canva, but I use Sketch, Figma, etc., and create templates or utilize templates made by others as starting places.

How is Canva any different than this? Part of design is being able to recognize what good design is, and utilizing the tools available to you. If Canva get the job done, and looks good, and has been sufficiently modified to meet the specified criteria supplied in the assignment or spec, how is it cheating?

The only way I could see is if they didn't modify the slides and part of the assignment was to create a unique branded slide presentation and they just used an out of the box design. In which case, no design work was done.

Someone shouldn't be penalized for the outcome based on the tools utilized unless the spec specifically excludes it.

It's like telling a clothing e-commerce company that they shouldn't use Shopify. If the work is done, why waste your time building an e-commerce site from scratch if it meets the specified need?

Canva is a great tool, and saves my clients thousands of dollars, while I get to avoid doing the completely mind numbing process of working in PowerPoint or designing social media posts. It's a win/win.

Re: Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe

#269

Post by mandmandam » Tue, Mar 26, 2024, 5:01 PM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #241

omnimus wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried Affinity? The software itself is a lot better than Adobe in many fundamentals. It’s faster, crashes less, supports a lot more file formats, connection between the individual programs is perfect, they add new quite innovative features at constant pace. Adobe is pretty much legacy software that gets close to zero development, its ridden with bugs that will be never fixed. The reason why everyone hates th…

> The software itself is a lot better than Adobe in many fundamentals. It’s faster, crashes less, supports a lot more file formats, connection between the individual programs is perfect, they add new quite innovative features at constant pace. I disagree with all your points. I've been using Adobe for 20 years and Affinity Design and Photo since they released in 2013 or so. Adobe apps are faster on Apple Silicon than…

> I haven't experienced a crash in years with Adobe

Haha wow. I find this incredibly hard to believe (also Apple Silicon). You ought to play the Lotto.

> Design is still missing a lot from Illustrator.

"A lot" is drastically overstating the case. And in many ways Designer is leagues better.

But it's all kinda moot - fuck Adobe. Fuck their dark patterns, fuck their bugs, fuck their pricing, fuck their monopoly.

Re: Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe

#270

Post by LordAtlas » Tue, Mar 26, 2024, 5:01 PM UTC

rcarmo wrote: post #93

Oh boy. I willingly gave my money to Affinity because I don’t want a subscription model, I don’t want my creative apps to rely on the cloud _at all_ to work _and_ I want native Mac apps. I am not reassured by their FAQ at all. I suspect a year from now Canva will break at least one (if not all three) of these features and force me to leave Affinity by version 3. It would be extremely ironic if Gimp was the only graph…

Affinity already disappointed the original believers when they started off telling people they could pay a one-time fee and get all future updates for free. They then ditched version 1.xx buyers by releasing a version 2 that you could only use if you paid them again.