Running modern versions of Adobe Photoshop on Linux has long been difficult, mainly because the installation process depends on Adobe Creative Cloud, which has historically failed to work properly through Wine. That situation may now be changing. According to a recent update shared by an independent developer known as PhialsBasement, Photoshop 2021 and 2025 can now be installed and run on Linux in a stable way, thanks to a set of new Wine patches that also improve Creative Cloud installer compatibility.
Older Photoshop releases were sometimes able to launch under Wine with limited functionality, but recent versions have been far more problematic. In most cases, the main obstacle was not Photoshop itself, but the Creative Cloud installer, which would crash or freeze during setup. Since Creative Cloud is required for licensing and application management, this prevented many users from running newer Adobe software on Linux.
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The patches released by PhialsBasement target critical issues related to components used by the Creative Cloud installer. More specifically, they address problems involving HTML and JavaScript rendering through MSHTML, as well as XML parsing through MSXML3. These elements are essential for Creative Cloud’s interface and background processes, and failures in them would interrupt the installation process.
Among the changes included in the patch set are adjustments intended to reduce parsing errors and improve compatibility with the way Adobe’s installer expects Windows components to behave. The fixes reportedly include wrapping certain data in CDATA blocks to prevent XML errors, refining Wine’s ID handling behavior, and forcing an Internet Explorer 9–like environment, which better matches the installer’s requirements.
The developer has demonstrated that both Photoshop 2021 and 2025 can be installed successfully and operate as expected on Linux once the modified Wine build is used. This is seen as a meaningful breakthrough for Linux users who rely on Adobe Creative Cloud applications, particularly for professional creative workflows.
PhialsBasement also submitted the fixes to Valve’s Proton repository, although it was reportedly suggested that they should be sent to WineHQ first. Since Proton is focused mainly on gaming compatibility, non-game patches can be harder to integrate.
For now, users interested in testing this solution typically need to manually compile Wine with the patches applied, using the developer’s GitHub sources.