Skip to main content
Community Manager
April 27, 2011
Not Prioritized

P: Provide support for Linux (2011)

  • April 27, 2011
  • 280 replies
  • 85126 views

I was wondering if Adobe released any Photoshop versions for Linux? Because I looked everywhere in Adobe's site but I could not find any information.

280 replies

New Participant
July 8, 2013

I recently switched to Linux and have yet fully figured out if I can use photoshop in some way, shape or form...I appreciate the help!!

New Participant
June 18, 2015

JJMack you lose a lot of customers who are professional developers. 90% of developers android, web, java and phyton are Linux users. At the moment you are forcing them to create hacks in order to work.

Participating Frequently
June 19, 2015

I have no customers to lose. At 74 I do not have much force left.  While 90% of developers may use Linux they represent a very small fraction of computer users. All computer users use the Internet. All you need to do to see how the computer market stacks up is look at web statistics.

In 203 Linux users represented 2.2% of the market Today that has grown to 5.5%. What percent of Linux users are developers? Linux devloper also love to hack....


JJMack wrote:

I have no customers to lose. At 74 I do not have much force left.  While 90% of developers may use Linux they represent a very small fraction of computer users. All computer users use the Internet. All you need to do to see how the computer market stacks up is look at web statistics.

In 203 Linux users represented 2.2% of the market Today that has grown to 5.5%. What percent of Linux users are developers? Linux devloper also love to hack....

You're reading the numbers wrong in regards to Linux vs. Windows and the number of POTENTIAL users/subscribers to Adobe CC.

[UPDATE (June 2015) – Adobe just updated the total number of subscribers to over 4.6 million!


  • You forget that Google Chrome (education mostly) as well as Android are considered "Linux" devices.
  • In June 2010 Google started to ban Windows computers from it's network, and only allowing those departments with administrative functions to do so. The entire development and engineering teams and departments are using Apple or Linux machines. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/7792685/Google-bans-Microsoft-Windows-on-office-computers.html
  • Mobile has overtaken desktop browsing and web services. Usage share of operating systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • The entire Internet including web services and server infrastructure is +97% Linux/UNIX.
  • Animation, CGI, and film editing pipelines, along with specialty rendering farms are almost all Linux based.
  • Adobe itself uses UNIX-based machines (Apple) to develop and to demo almost all of their products and future technologies.

You're using statistics and charts that have absolutely no baring whether Adobe should... or whether it would be a good financial decision to develop a Linux version. In fact you are behind the times because Adobe themselves are developing for iOS, OSX... and Android first due to their respective cohesive underpinnings and frameworks. A number of advanced technologies that Adobe is integrating into it's products, such as web standard HTML5/CSS3 and Open GL/CL to name just a couple, are all Linux/UNIX/Apache/Google/Apple initiatives.

Adobe makes tools for creatives in print, film and photography... and most important of all... for emerging and ever growing mobile web design and app development. Both of those markets are using UNIX/Linux based devices for development... and also have the vast majority of consumers worldwide for a multitude of devices from TVs, tablets, phones, to notebook/desktop systems.

Administrative vs. creative/development/server/web-services computers is what needs to be considered by Adobe. Not total market-share of all computers. That's just pumping up Microsoft's chest with air rather than muscle... which they do not have in this game any longer like they used to.

April 18, 2013
I'm currently arguing at work to pay someone $50/hr to run Illustrator for a week so that I don't have to buy it and use it on Windows or Mac. I'm sure there are Linux users out there who won't pay for Photoshop. But there are Windows users who pirate it and don't pay now. I personally pay hundreds of dollars every year for software that I run on my Linux desktop. I know dozens of Linux desktop users and every one of them pays hundreds of dollars for software that they run on their Linux desktop.

I'm not a big fan of Wine, but if you have no interest in supporting Linux directly, maybe you would consider contributing development or funds to making Photoshop work well with Wine.

I don't know why I'm even writing this. I've been subscribed to these threads for years and any sane person would have concluded years ago that Photoshop will *never* support Linux. Free, open-source equivalents like gthumb and UFRaw are easy enough to use now that I can kind of do what I need to with them (Photoshop is still easier to use, has more features, supports real fonts, etc.). In a few months or maybe a year or two, I may not need Photoshop any more. Certainly if GIMP gets 16-bit-per-channel support, that will affect your market on Windows and Mac.

So I suppose I'm writing to sort of wave farewell and say, "thanks for the memories" as I ride off into the distance. I really loved Photoshop. It is just about the last remaining piece of non-Linux software that I sometimes open a Windows VM to run. From me, that's a very high compliment. Parting is such sweet sorrow. Best wishes.
Community Manager
March 27, 2013
now we know that the % of GNU/Linux users is equal or superior at the macOS users.

the market is here and many others are just using ms win because theycan't have their cs studio on GNU/Linux

it would be very very nice to have it on linux os 🙂
Participating Frequently
March 26, 2013
With Windows "Blue" it seems Microsoft has full blown contempt toward the desktop, windowed multitasking environment. Can you guys produce the full Creative Suite Master Collection for the Linux platform?

Creative Suite is the only thing keeping me on Windows. And no I don't want to buy special Apple hardware to run OSX.

Community Manager
February 27, 2013
Adobe has always said that GNU/Linux world was not a good place for sell their products, and that Linux's users are not ready for spend for softwares.

Now that this idea is completly trashed by Valve who has launched its Steam platform for Linux, showing a florid market, will Adobe steps in the Linux world too?

Community Manager
February 11, 2013
Corrected translation:

Linux is growing more and more, especially Ubuntu, I only use Windows (I have dual boot) in case of extreme necessity, that is, when I can't run a program like Photoshop and I believe that many others go through what I do, and I believe that it would be a great investment from Adobe to create a version of photoshop for linux.
Community Manager
January 4, 2013
Adobe management , This is a request to provide adobe photoshop version for ubuntu..

Community Manager
January 3, 2013
Linux has had phenomenal momentum in the past 3 years and continues to grow,
with large creative companies like Valve and THQ now supporting linux. Video card and hardware compatibly, commercial licensing and distro support but Adobe does not step into this thriving ecosystem... Why you neglect all these people who want PROFESSIONAL tools in Ubuntu ?Why dont you transfer your Creative Suite to Ubuntu to give it a huge boost ?

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
October 27, 2012
»I vote for the "conspiracy theory"«
It strikes me as remarkable how easily you seem ready to basically call a Photoshop programmer who has generously contributed to this thread (and many others on other issues on this and other Fora) a liar.
Or am I misinterpreting your statement?
Community Manager
October 26, 2012
Photoshop doesn't use Qt in any way.
And Qt is not that easy to port between platforms (we used to have an app that used Qt -- which is why we are not about to use Qt again).