Run Adobe's own Creative Cloud applications on Linux using a patched Wine runtime and a setup/launcher tool. Sign in with your own Adobe account and use your own entitlement. No Adobe application binaries or activation bypasses are distributed by this project.
I started this project to get Adobe's apps working on Linux. I'm sharing the patches, setup tools and test results because there's enough here for other people to try, and more work than I can finish on my own. If you'd like to help, start with one workflow or bug. The findings point to concrete problems and small Wine reproducers.
Experimental v0.1.0 prerelease. Real photo, design and video workflows have been demonstrated on Linux. This release packages the working foundation and its known limitations so others can use it, test more hardware and contribute improvements. It is not an Adobe-supported Linux port or complete Windows parity.
Install it · Progress and screenshots · Compatibility · Research index · Contribute
These combine historical results with fresh September9–13 checks. “Demonstrated” does not promise that every feature, format or future Adobe update works. The strongest current starting points are the tested Photoshop and Illustrator workflows; other applications retain the limitations below.
| Application | Demonstrated work | Current release position |
|---|---|---|
| Photoshop | Layers, drawing, text, filters, Camera Raw, PSD save/reopen and image exports; working canvas/panels; selected GPU and AI operations | Final-candidate core workflow and a 30-minute small-document session verified; high memory use and larger documents remain limits |
| Illustrator | Vector drawing, real-font text, native AI save/reopen and PNG/SVG/PDF exports | Final-candidate core workflow and a 30-minute small-document session verified; high memory use and larger documents remain limits |
| Premiere Pro + Media Encoder | Native cuts, audible H.264/AAC handoff/export and saved queue/project reopen verified. Disabling the OpenCL vendor shim restores correct monitors on this AMD host; the launcher now defaults to that setting | Native default creation/import/edit/save/reopen and moving frames reached; New Project controls can disappear after Browse, some controls paint incorrectly, and initial workspace can need repaint. Repeated30-second plays include both clean runs and intermittent audio gaps; absolute drift and consistent interactive reliability remain open |
| InDesign | Final-candidate linked image/styled text, native INDD edit/save/reopen and inspected PDF/IDML verified | Scripts-panel focus/repaint and high memory remain limits; native Quit returned255 despite Adobe reporting normal termination |
| After Effects | Native five-layer project/save/reopen and matching six-second H.264/four TIFF frames verified | Interactive viewer remained black at sampled frames and during playback; controls can need repaint |
| Lightroom Classic | Fresh catalog/import/organization and Basic/Tone Curve/HSL/Detail preview/export pairs verified; the private fix also passes ten Library launches and native catalog reopen | Full29 runtime opens the saved catalog and produces matching edited exports with a normal exit. Later missing main-thread pulses and an unresponsive File menu keep Library consistency open; earlier startup/menu qualifications remain |
| Other apps | Bridge metadata/browsing, Animate exports, InCopy documents, Audition editing and Character Animator rendering have scoped evidence | See known limits; capture, physical devices and specialist workflows are not generally qualified |
Audition and Character Animator microphone capture have measured corruption. Experimental audio fixes are not installed defaults and do not establish reliable capture across devices or long sessions. Dimension object creation, Acrobat current-version/repeat launch, Fresco deployment and Substance entitlement also have unresolved limits. Start with the open problems. DONE.md retains the original acceptance checklist.
Download the source and runtime from the v0.1.0 release. The two-command installation is:
curl --fail --location --proto '=https' --proto-redir '=https' https://github.com/tristanmuzzu/adobe-for-linux/releases/download/v0.1.0/adobe-for-linux-source.tar.gz | tar -xz
cd adobe-for-linux && ./bin/adobe-linux setupAlready have this source folder? Run ./bin/adobe-linux setup from it.
Setup checks prerequisites, installs the checksum-pinned runtime on Ubuntu 26.04
or builds the same patched Wine for other x86-64 distributions, handles Adobe's
installer and local runtime components, then opens Creative Cloud. Sign in with
your Adobe account and install your licensed apps. Use the generated desktop
launchers or ./bin/adobe-linux run photoshop afterward.
Use a Linux desktop with working graphics/audio and enough RAM and disk space for Adobe applications. The current tests used a 16GB AMD laptop with substantial swap; larger projects benefit from more memory. Other GPUs/distributions and an independent account remain unqualified. The prebuilt runtime needs Ubuntu 26.04-era libraries; the source-build route handles different library versions. Setup reports missing system packages and preserves progress when a step fails. Keep this source folder for its launcher tools.
See the installation guide for prerequisites, retries, parallel installations and local runtime archives. To hand the work to your agent, send it this README and the agent guide. Adobe account entry and app selection remain yours.
The full 29-patch runtime includes the Lightroom version-resource fix. Core Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign/Premiere-to-Media Encoder demonstrations were measured on the preceding 28-patch candidate; full29 adds that separately tested fix and passes native Lightroom integration with responsiveness limits. Existing installed runtimes were preserved. The release review records the exact builds and scope; this is not a claim that every app was requalified on every build.
A clean Ubuntu userspace test now reaches personal Google sign-in, an entitled Photoshop27.10 download, local image editing, PSD save/reopen and matching PNG output on the full29 runtime. It also exposed startup crashes, a helper error, automatic CPU compositing fallback and a lingering process after Quit. This is not yet a reliably repeatable experience for everyone. The setup fixes and complete test qualifications are included.
./bin/adobe-linux doctor
./bin/adobe-linux runtime-info
./bin/adobe-linux known-issues photoshop
./bin/adobe-linux known-issues audition
./bin/adobe-linux --helpdoctor checks the selected Wine loader, server and Unix modules for unresolved
ELF dependencies on this host. It reports missing libraries and a loader that
cannot run as failures. Libraries loaded by name at runtime, driver behavior and
Adobe workflows still need separate checks. Some other doctor probes start Wine;
use runtime-info alone when you only need the selected build identity.
runtime-info --json records the Wine path the launcher selects, its binary
hash, build profile and patch receipt. It also compares the recorded patches
with this checkout's numbered source series. It reads files without starting
Wine; matching receipts do not establish application compatibility. Builds
made by build-wine from now on also stage an informational build-inputs
record (pinned source hash, configure arguments, compiler paths, launcher
hash); runtimes built earlier or staged by hand report it as unrecorded. That
record is provenance, not proof of binary reproducibility.
known-issues combines numbered acceptance gaps with current release limits,
including failures behind historical DONE labels. Unknown names return an error.
It does not run an app. verify checks launch/window appearance; it does not
verify editing or exports and should not be run while another Adobe session has
unsaved work.
Some launch paths use network isolation to avoid unresolved hangs. For Creative Cloud, only its UI is isolated; Adobe Desktop Service keeps network access for application downloads. Other isolated applications lose online features. Do not infer cloud support from offline editing or from a successful operation in another app.
Keep backups of real projects. Test unfamiliar workflows on copies. Do not uninstall an Adobe app as troubleshooting cleanup: an earlier Acrobat uninstall removed a shared runtime needed by the other apps.
Start with CONTRIBUTING.md and FINDINGS.md. You can test one workflow on another GPU, review a standalone Wine reproducer, or investigate a named application bug. You don't need to use AI tools or read the whole research archive first. Development did use AI coding tools; the contribution guide explains that history and how contributors get credit.
- Small Wine patches to review
- Application results and screenshots
- Research summaries by topic
- Original investigation ledger
The public repository includes research result summaries, selected screenshots and synthetic output files. The release evidence archive contains the same public selection. Full raw logs, dumps, account state, Adobe installations and private machine instructions remain in the research archive. Historical findings retain their dates, tested builds and recorded failures. The v0.1.0 download is the original release snapshot; documentation on the main branch may be newer.
The public work contains 29 runtime patches and roughly 32,000 lines of launcher, helper and test source, including comments and blank lines. The runtime patches add 1,516 diff lines and remove 84. These counts exclude Wine's upstream source, logs and generated output; they are an inventory, not a productivity claim.
Scripts are under the repository license. Preserve the upstream licensing and attribution applicable to Wine-derived changes. Adobe software continues to be obtained from Adobe and licensed by Adobe.
The previous long README, including the investigation history, is preserved in the archive.