I have been running 2.6.4, principally for Publisher on Win 11, also light use of Designer and photo, with no problems so far (I will regret saying that :-)  )

I have down loaded but held off from installing  2.6.5 because the notes say:"We have released a build to try and address a couple of issues found in 2.6.4 and also to make changes to stop the application offering any way to create an account or starting a trial or suggesting that the software can be bought at the end of the trial. Now that version 2.6 is no longer available to buy, the software has stopped offering any way purchase from within the trial.  The build also fixes a number of minor bugs including some for macOS Tahoe regarding regressions that are specific to that environment."

The bug fixes are for mac,  I am on Win 11, and the rest is removing hooks into the Serif account system.  Whilst I would trust Serif I have yet to trust Canva and seeing their direction of travel with affinty.studio I am less inclined to install 2.6.5 until others report no ill effects. Or I start to see problems when Canva start to kill the Serif web site. Already most of the Affinity front end redirects to affinity.studio

I take your point but   The Page Plus development was incremental development of the same app with the same file format that was also incremental to contain the extended features.

In the same way Affinity V2 was an incremental development of V1  and the files were incremental extensions.

affinity-studio is a different single app (from the ground up apparently) with a file format that is completely different to the previous V1 and V2 formats. Not an extended V2 format.

Also the marketing is doing its best to retire Affinity (including the forum and original website) and make affinity-studio a Canva gateway to their subscription system,  as can be seen from comments in some of the social media places. Then again most of the users there seem to be Canva people in the first place.

It was interesting comparing the Canva launch video to similar launches I have been to (Microsoft and ARM, for example)

My point was that the newer versions of the Plus and Affinity apps and incrementally changed file formats because new things were added. Hence, the difficulty in backwards compatibility. It is interesting that Serif did it with some Plus apps, I wonder had we not had Canva but Affinity V3, if they had done that with Affinity?    However, the new .af format is complete new, not an incremental update.   

As Canva has cut off the Affinity forums and website, hence the new affinity studio website on a new URL it is clear they want to distance themselves from V1 and V2, the only way is Canva now. They don't want any backward compatibility with Affinity V1/V2

You can see this with how they are doing the branding, I have seen this before.  Hence, affinty.studio rather than Affinity.   The new affinity is just a sticker on a Canva system. I suspect it will become a-studio over time.

There is now also an Affinity Studio section on the form
https://punster.me/serif/viewforum.php?id=22
Which is probably where this discussion should continue?

I think the difference between how we see things is that one of us was a teacher and the other has spent several decades in the software and electronics industry and has lived through several take-overs like this before.

Serif does still exist, but the Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary are now, as of the date of the Serif takeover by Canva, American and reside in Australia. Serif also lost a lot of Directors at the same time.    Much the same as the Serif Group company

BTW in 2024 Serif made a £35,523,814 loss for the year and one person holds 75% of the shares. Which were transferred 4 months after the appointment of the new Secretary.  After the takeover here has been a change of engineering focus at Serif to be in line with Canva.

The sad thing is sales of V2 incenses were up by 30% in 2024...  I think that Serif could have gone on to greater things as a serious professional alternative to Adobe. .

Yes, I have a perpetual CS6 licence and used one of the Apps 2 days ago.  It is a perpetual licence. That is what I paid for. IT was a contract that is legally enforceable.

With the free Affinity Studio there is no licence as such and what there is they can change at will, including stopping the app you currently have.  So, worst case scenario: anyone who uses the Affinity Studio whilst their computer is connected to the internet could find that Canva have decided to remove/disable or change various features and access unless you upgrade to a new paid subscription. It might be a "light" subscription of €1 a month  (€10 a year in advance) but it will be there.   

Remember whilst there are 10's of thousands who hate subscriptions with a passion we tend to be older, and it is a de-facto reality and normality for the youngsters. Adobe did the calculations and are surviving.

The problem is whilst Adobe are still chasing the pro market it is clear Canva isn't  the direction of travel for the Canva Affinity Studio is not into the pro market.

95% of both presentations concentrated on the bitmap and vector drawing tools.

Disappointed in your post.   
Many wanted a V3 Affinity with a perpetual licence and no subscription.
They haven't got that.

This free studio has, because you have not bought a licence, no obligation to the users. Canva can change it at any time and in any direction, including turning it off. IT also has an optional subscription component.

What is more worrying is the market positioning with Canva, they have taken affinity down market to the non-professional Canva market. Adobe will be pleased.  The push is on AI and the Canvas presentation had a lot of users saying they wanted AI and template to effectively do the wok for them.   

Putting all 2 and 1/2 apps in to one is a backward step.   Especially for Publisher users, the "layout" section being barely mentioned in anyone's presentation and it is looking less like an inDesign competitor by the day.

I have been on the inside of several similar buy outs like this Canva-Affinity one  (not I am not naming names as there are NDA's) and I have seen how it works over the years. Hence, my caution for the future.

Ali if you want to be a Canva shill flounce off and join their Discord. There are many rational heads here who don't like the way Affinity has gone so you will find the discussion is not to your liking.

Now perhaps we can raise the tone back up to an adult level?

MS publisher has gone. MS have discontinued it at last.

"layout" is a pointless name. Also, 95% of the Studio discussed was the vector and bit map imaging. and "layout" only mentioned in passing.  So those of us who publish books and magazines know where we stand.  I went from indesign to A-Pub.  I won't be moving to Canva-Affinity studio.

I have just watched the whole live CANVA thing.  It is ALL AI and subscriptions for no professionals who need "AI" to do the work for them.

Affinity was a small part of it with Ash there. Didn't look comfortable, to be honest. but then it was like a down market version of an Apple Launch on bad acid.  What I Can see having looked at both the Affinity video and the Canva one is Affinity studio is just another access point to the Canva subscription system.  After the base affinity, it will all be subscriptions. You need a (free) Canva account anyway.

As noted by Ash they had three tools with three different UIs different tools and different processes.  That is because you are doing different things. As noted above, for Publisher most of us want a light UI for page layout,  For photo work a dark UI.   Also, most of us tend to spend 90% of our time in one all.  In my case, publisher.

One amusing thing was Canva are doing "the world's best video editing tool"....It then shows a bunch of people in a domestic situation with phones with the circular lights... You can see their target market. I can't see Blackmagic Design with Resolve, worrying.  In the same way I think Adobe will be breathing a sigh of releif. The Affinity threat to Adobe has gone.

You can't blame the Serif owners. Selling Serif is their pension, they can probably afford to retire now. So no hard feelings.

As I said at the end of the Affinity Forum:  Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish.....

So the new Affinity -Canva website https://www.affinity.studio/      Hmmmm

This is a Canva product with a new logo and you need a Canva a account to be involved. the free fonts for V1/2 users is neither here nor there.  There are more free fonts out there than I can use.

I can't see this new Affinity studio, linked to Canva subscriptions, being aimed at the pro or serious armature market. To me, this is going down to a mass market on subscriptions. Perhaps I am a dinosaur but I think there will be a sigh of relief over at Adobe.  I would make sure you have all downloaded V2.6.4  and 2.6.5 (though I am not sure if I trust 2.6.5)