- Photoshop now runs on Linux through patched compatibility layers, not official support
- Creative Cloud installers fail due to Windows subsystems missing from standard Linux environments
- Wine struggles with Adobe installers because Internet Explorer’s behavior remains deeply embedded
The longstanding incompatibility between Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite and Linux operating systems remains a major obstacle for users transitioning to open source platforms.
Recent developments suggest this barrier may be starting to weaken due to targeted technical work, as a developer known as PhialsBasement has documented a method to install and run recent versions of Photoshop, specifically the 2021 and 2025 releases, on Linux systems.
This process bypasses the official installation path, which Adobe has limited to Windows and macOS environments.
Deciphering the installer’s demands
The core challenge lies in the complex architecture of the Adobe Creative Cloud installer, which depends on specific Windows subsystems that Linux does not provide natively.
The Wine compatibility layer translates Windows API calls into POSIX compliant calls, but it has traditionally struggled with these installers. The main failure points involved MSHTML and MSXML3.
These components render the installer’s HTML and JavaScript interface and parse its XML configuration files.
The installer framework expects an environment that mimics older Internet Explorer behavior, which standard Wine setups cannot adequately reproduce. The solution introduces a series of patches that change how Wine interacts with these subsystems.
To address XML parsing issues, the patches wrap data in CDATA sections to avoid strict parsing errors on Linux, and also correct Wine’s internal handling of identifiers so system calls route and execute correctly.
A key part of the fix forces Wine to emulate the event handling behavior of Internet Explorer 9. This allows the installer’s user interface to function as its developers intended.
According to the developer’s reports, these changes allow the installation process to complete without errors, and the application runs with stable performance.
This breakthrough gives Linux users access to Photoshop as a capable image editor. It also suggests that other Adobe applications, including video editing software, could run on Linux in the future.
The developer initially submitted the fixes to Valve’s Proton repository, a Wine fork optimized for gaming, but maintainers rejected them and suggested submitting them through WineHQ instead.
As a result, users who want to apply this method must manually compile a patched version of Wine from the developer’s source code.
Despite the technical achievement, the path these patches followed highlights the fragmented nature of compatibility development.
The process requires technical expertise, which limits its practical reach and gives it more symbolic value than immediate widespread use.
This work shows that the barriers blocking professional creative software on Linux are not insurmountable, and upstream adoption of these fixes could improve access to other Adobe applications.
For now, Linux users must rely on unofficial patches, since no native support exists.
Via Tom’s Hardware
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