Affinity on Linux: does it work in 2026?

In our view, Affinity Infinity and the AffinityOnLinux guides are the places to start, because they are the ones still being actively developed. That is a judgment from their activity, not a test result.

How to try Affinity on Linux

1. Check your hardware. You need an x86_64 PC and a recent graphics driver with Vulkan. Affinity Infinity also lists fuse3, zenity, and python3 as requirements.
2. Pick a project from the table above, and get it only from the repository linked there. Read its README before you run anything.
3. Run it. For the AppImage builds, download the file from the project’s Releases page, make it executable with chmod +x, and run it. Affinity Infinity also offers a one-line install script; as with any script you pipe into a shell, read it first.
4. Be patient on first run. Affinity Infinity says first setup takes 10 to 15 minutes and downloads about 1.7 GB.
5. Keep your work portable. Export finished files to open formats such as PSD, SVG, PDF, or TIFF, so you are never locked to one fragile setup.

We give high-level steps here, not full command sequences, because we have not run these projects ourselves and they change often. Each project’s documentation is the authority.

What about a Windows virtual machine?

A Windows VM would run the real Windows version of Affinity and avoid Wine’s gaps. We found no project that documents Affinity in a VM, so we cannot tell you how well it works. Tools such as WinApps show Windows apps in a window on your Linux desktop. Our explanation, not a tested result: a standard VM does not give Affinity direct access to your GPU, so GPU-accelerated features may be slower than on a real Windows PC, and passing a GPU through is an advanced setup.

Familiar desktop layout with useful defaults

An AppImage is a program you run with your own user’s permissions, and we have not audited these projects. Download only from the repositories named on this page, read the README first, and avoid archived or unmaintained builds such as affinity-everywhere.

distro.watch is independent and not affiliated with Canva, Affinity, Serif, the Wine project, or the projects listed. Affinity and Canva are trademarks of their owners.