# AffinityOnLinux: the install is a curl piped into python3, under a third name

> A repository of scripts and configurations for running Affinity on Linux through Wine, offered as an AppImage or a Python graphical installer fetched straight from a raw URL. The README links a release tag from last November while the newest release is a numbered build from this month, the section titled License contains no license at all, and a wget log sits in the root.

**ryzendew/Linux-Affinity-Installer** — A repository that helps users get affinity software working on GNU/Linux 🐧

- Repository: https://github.com/ryzendew/Linux-Affinity-Installer
- Website: https://www.youtube.com/c/MattsCreative
- Stars: 3,186 · Forks: 98
- Language: Python
- License: not declared
- Published: 2026-09-24 · Updated: 2026-09-24 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/ryzendew-linux-affinity-installer

## The repository, the title and the download links use three names

The repository is called Linux-Affinity-Installer. The document at the top of it is titled AffinityOnLinux, and every download path inside that document belongs to a third name, ryzendew/AffinityOnLinux. The AppImage link points at a release tag under that path, and the installer command fetches a script from a raw URL under it as well. The project description is a fourth phrasing again, saying the repository helps users get Affinity software working on GNU/Linux. None of this is a problem while you follow the document, but it is a problem for anything that derives a location automatically, and it is why the homepage field is not a site for this project at all but a YouTube channel.

## The recommended install pipes a remote script into python3

The route the README presents as having the full features and the latest updates is a single line:

```bash
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ryzendew/AffinityOnLinux/refs/heads/main/AffinityScripts/AffinityLinuxInstaller.py | python3
```

Read what that line does. It downloads a Python file from the default branch of a repository and hands it straight to the interpreter, so the code that sets up Wine is chosen by whatever is on that branch at the moment you run it, with no version, no checksum and no review step between the download and execution. That is a normal trade for a convenience installer and an unusual one for a project that asks users to hold a commercial licence, since the script is the thing that installs it. The alternative route is offered first, and it is the safer of the two: download an AppImage, make it executable, run it.

## The AppImage quick start links a release from last November

The three step AppImage instructions point the download at a release tag named for the Wine build it contains, an AppImage tagged for Wine 10.10 and published in November 2025. The newest releases in the same repository use a different convention entirely: a build numbered 3.3.0 published on 2026-10-02 whose title is Update the appimage to 3.3.0, preceded by 3.2.0 in December 2025 with the title Updated Affinity to 3.2.0. So the tag scheme changed from a descriptive name to a version number, and the quick start still cites the older descriptive tag. The filename the instructions tell you to run is neither of the two, since it carries neither the Wine version nor the release number.

## The issue tracker has a reading requirement attached to it

The first block of the document is a warning, and it is about the tracker rather than the software. It says not to open an issue until you have read the README completely, read all the documentation pages, searched existing issues, and checked the known issues page, and it states that issues opened without reading the documentation will be closed immediately. The closing paragraph asks readers to take the time, on the grounds that the documentation answers most common questions. What counts as documentation is a wide surface: an installation guide, a system requirements page, a GUI installer guide, pages for Wine versions, hardware acceleration, OpenCL, legacy scripts and settings, a known issues page, a contributing page, and one page per distribution covering Arch, Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin, Pop OS, PikaOS and openSUSE.

## Five package managers and one package name that pins a Python minor

The graphical installer needs PyQt6, and the document says it will try to install it automatically, with manual commands given per distribution family. Arch and its relatives use pacman to install a package called python-pyqt6. Fedora and Nobara use dnf with two packages, the base one and an svg variant. PikaOS and Ubuntu use apt with the svg package. openSUSE uses zypper with a package named for a specific interpreter, python313-PyQt6, which ties that line to Python 3.13 rather than to a floating version. On Ubuntu 25.10 the svg package is called an additional step if you hit interface problems, so the documented set differs between a distribution version and its neighbours.

## Two categories of support are refused in writing

The document states its own limits, which is rarer than it should be. On AMD and Intel GPUs the author says the OpenCL and Wine GPU bugs cannot be fixed because there is no access to that hardware for testing, and points at two alternatives instead, the vkd3d-proton translation layer and DXVK. On distributions, there is no support for Bazzite or Manjaro, with the AppImage offered at your own risk. Those two sentences define the project's real shape: it is maintained by one person, tested on one GPU family, and the pages it links for hardware acceleration and system requirements are where the excluded cases are documented in full.

## The section titled License contains no license

The document has a License heading, and what sits under it is a notice about someone else's product. It says the project provides installation scripts and configurations for running Affinity software on Linux, that Affinity is a commercial product by Serif (Europe) Ltd, and that you should ensure you have a valid license before installing. A second paragraph adds that the project is not affiliated with, endorsed by or associated with Serif, and that trademarks belong to their owners. So the terms for using these scripts are not stated in the document, and the tree agrees: there is no licence file at the root, and the packaging data records no licence either. The one-line note at the top of the file, that work in the future will be stopped, sits above all of this.

## A wget log is committed next to the scripts

The top level tells you what this project is made of. AffinityScripts holds the installer, Guide holds the GUI and settings guides, docs holds the pages the warning tells you to read, Patch holds patches, icons holds artwork and tests holds a test directory. Two files are less expected. A file named wget-log sits at the root, which is the default log wget writes when it runs, so a download log ended up committed. And a registry file for a Wine dark theme sits beside the screenshots, which tells you that part of what this project does is change how the Windows applications look once they are running under Wine.

## Conclusion

This is a compatibility project rather than a port, and it is honest about its edges: it names the distributions it will not support, the GPU vendors it cannot debug, and asks you to hold your own Affinity license. Two things to settle before you use it. The Python route executes a script fetched from the network with no checksum step documented, so read it first and prefer the AppImage if your distribution is supported. And the AppImage quick start links an older tag than the newest release, so check which artefact you actually download. Treat the repository as a maintained snapshot rather than a growing project, since the README says work in the future will be stopped.

## FAQ

### Can I install Affinity in Linux?

Yes, through this project. AffinityOnLinux installs and runs Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher and the unified Affinity v3 application on Linux by setting up Wine with the needed configurations, dependencies and optimisations. You need your own valid Affinity licence.

### Do I need an Affinity licence to use AffinityOnLinux?

Yes. The README states that Affinity is a commercial product by Serif (Europe) Ltd and asks you to ensure you have a valid license before installing, and it adds that the project is not affiliated with, endorsed by or associated with Serif.

### Is Affinity Designer being discontinued?

The repository says nothing about the vendor's product plans. What it documents is that Affinity Designer is one of the applications the installer supports, alongside Photo, Publisher and the unified v3 application, with the newest release numbered 3.3.0.

### Does AffinityOnLinux support AMD or Intel GPUs?

Not for debugging. The README states the author cannot fix OpenCL or Wine GPU bugs for AMD or Intel hardware because they have no access to those GPUs for testing, and recommends vkd3d-proton or DXVK instead.

### Which is better, GIMP or Affinity Photo on Linux?

This repository makes no comparison. It provides installation scripts and configurations for running Affinity software on Linux through Wine, and evaluates no other editors, free or commercial.

## Sources

- [Issues](https://github.com/ryzendew/Linux-Affinity-Installer/issues)
- [Project website](https://www.youtube.com/c/MattsCreative)
- [README](https://github.com/ryzendew/Linux-Affinity-Installer/blob/main/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/ryzendew/Linux-Affinity-Installer/releases)
- [ryzendew/Linux-Affinity-Installer on GitHub](https://github.com/ryzendew/Linux-Affinity-Installer)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/ryzendew-linux-affinity-installer