Linux is my OS. My writing partners are using Windows and the latest Scrivener. We have no way to exchange projects until Scrivener can Save as… Scrivener LInux 1.9.01 Beta compatible.
Thanks, all!
Bearing in mind that I’m just a long term Scrivener user, not a member of the team:
I would imagine your writing partners are actually using 1.9.7 as that is the current (stable) version on Windows. There is a beta of version 3 for Windows, but it is still very much a work in progress and not recommended for serious projects, but perhaps they are brave enough to use that.
That said, I have a collaborator who has Windows, and I have run Windows 1.9.7 under CrossOver (WINE) on my Mac, and am currently running the v.3 beta for testing purposes. There are a number of Linux users who run Windows Scrivener under WINE, including the v.3 beta, and you can find their postings in the Linux forum within Windows Beta Testing forum. I can only suggest you follow their lead, as I wouldn’t hold your breath on the team making version 3 compatible with the apparently totally different structure and conventions of the no longer developed Linux version.
HTH 
Mark
Mac Scrivener 3 includes an Export as Scrivener 2 Project command, which produces a project compatible with Mac Scrivener 2.8.1 / Win Scrivener 1.9.7. I would expect Win Scrivener 3 will include that command as well. But no, I’m not aware of any plans to support project formats earlier than that.
Linux Scrivener in particular is not officially supported, and there are no plans for further development. Using it for any work, especially collaborative work. is entirely at your own risk.
Katherine
So as a stopgap, how different are the two formats? Is the conversion something that could be scripted?
I have no way to test this, but what about using a shared folder? Export your project to that folder and have your colleagues use Scrivener as they do, but linked to that folder. That way you can edit and sync and circumvent the platform.
The Scrivener 3 format assigns UUIDs to each Binder item, and uses those IDs to tie the content of a file to associated metadata. (You can use the Show Package Contents function on a Mac to see what I mean.) So no, I wouldn’t suggest trying to script the conversion without access to the detailed format spec.
Also, note that the Linux version format is back level even relative to the current Windows version. It uses the Mac Scrivener 2.7 format, while Win Scrivener 1.9.7 uses the same format as Mac Scrivener 2.8.1. (The 2.7 → 2.8 format change was for iOS Scrivener compatibility.)
Katherine
Here is just an example of formats I can save LibreOffice in:
Microsoft Word 2007-2013
Microsoft Word 2003
Microsoft Word 97-2003
I’m perfectly fine with a big fat dialogue that says: “Warning, saving this Scrivener Project to 1.9.0.1 compatibility may cause the loss of some document features.” This is not a wishlist, pie-in-the-sky, recommendation. Saving to an older format is a perfectly reasonable feature request if Scrivener is going to continue to be such a high profile professional development solution.
Thanks, all!
Plenty of professionals who use supported, current versions of Scrivener would probably disagree with that bald assertion.
Scrivener is produced by a small number of developers. They are not subsidized by a large corporation. They sell their product to make their living. Saving back to an older file format that does not support a key feature many customers are using (sync with iOS) makes very little financial or business sense, especially when the use case is to support an operating system that is no longer officially supported.
Because a Scrivener project is a project, not a single document, Microsoft Office cross-compatibility is not really a good example to use.
Moreover, if it wasn’t a good investment of L&L resources to continue to develop the Linux version, why is it a good investment to cater to users who have chosen to stay with it anyway?
Katherine
Katherine,
Thank you for asking your question. The answer is that it is worth money to L&L. And I’ll demonstrate that. If you can tell me that a Windows version of Scrivener that can save to the 1.9.0.1 version is still available to download for Windows licensees, then I can generate sales for you. So, is that the case? Can a Windows licensee download an older version of the Windows Scrivener product that can save to the 1.9.0.1 project file format (therefore allowing transfer between Windows and LInux)?
Thanks, all!
Windows Scrivener 1.9.0 uses the Mac 2.7 format, and can be downloaded here:
literatureandlatte.com/scriv … taller.exe
I wouldn’t recommend installing it, though, as doing so would “undo” more than two years of feature enhancements and bug fixes and would break interoperation with iOS Scrivener.
It would also “generate sales” for Linux users to run the most recent version of Win Scrivener under WINE, and that approach doesn’t require significant development on our part.
The question is not whether what you’re proposing is worth money to L&L. The question is whether it would generate enough additional sales to justify the cost of development. I’m skeptical.
Katherine
Katherine, I believe that link is dead.
Ugh. You’re right. Will investigate. – Katherine
Katherine,
Thank you for pursuing that.
In the meanwhile, I found over at this forum link:
Scrivener 3 files compatible with Scrivener 2?
(https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/scrivener-3-files-compatible-with-scrivener-2/39956/1)
This comment, in reference to Mac Scrivener 3, “You can export a scrivener 2 compatible version of your project from Scrivener 3. File > Export > As Scrivener 2 project…” -Silverdragon.
Katherine, could you please query with the team whether Scrivener 3 (Mac & eventually Windows) Exporting to Scrivener 1.9.0.1 is feasible. I understand it represents a measurable amount of work - and more, a significant burden on QA test.
Thanks, all!
Note that this is export to the 2.8/2.9 IOS-aware version of the Scrivener 2 doc (equivalent of 1.9.7.0 on Windows), not to the pre-iOS sync version. Since Scrivener 3 for Mac represents the complete feature set for 3.0 (for now) and that’s the target the Windows version is shooting towards…I would advise you to not get your hopes up on this. 2.9 exists for Mac precisely so people can have it in parallel with Scrivener 3.x and keep co-existence with Windows 1.9.7.0 for file format but have a single 3.x license that activates both versions, until Windows 3.x is released. It has been positioned as a safety net for migration, not a feature meant for serious back-and-forth collaboration feature like you’re talking about.
The Windows 1.9.0 download link is now functional.
Again, I am not sure why it is in L&L’s interest to add support for an unsupported beta version that is already more than two years old, and is two significant leaps (iOS Scrivener support, Scrivener 3) behind Scrivener’s current incarnation.
Katherine
Thank you, Katherine, for all your hard work on this.
For the other folks interested in this thread, the now working Windows 1.9.0 (Linux compatible) link is NOT the one Katherine posted earlier in the thread (That one is still dead), it is this one:
https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/release-notes?os=Windows
Thanks, all!
I would like to voice that I would really appreciate an opportunity to purchase a Linux version of Scrivener compatible with Scrivener 3 projects. My motivation is Mac OS X’s turnoffs - increased system bloat and user tracking, and a High Sierra update that rendered a 3rd party internal drive nonfunctional - which have frustrated me to the point that I am seriously exploring switching to Linux.
However, Scrivener has been crucial to effectively managing my art history research projects for years and is the sole piece of software I regularly use that lacks a Linux equivalent. 
I recently paid for the Scrivener 3 upgrade for Mac and have upgraded my active projects to the new format. I would greatly prefer to give more money to Scrivener than deal with the time suck of downgrading my projects to see if they work on Scrivener Linux 1.9.x beta.
The potential market of paid Scrivener Linux users may be greater than Literature and Latte assumes! More people are becoming frustrated with Windows and Mac OS background tracking or want to run leaner systems. Adobe’s shift to a subscription model for Photoshop etc pushed me to discover that GIMP and InkScape barely suck at all anymore. To prepare the research, code and graphics for a web-based MA practicum project, I used Scrivener, GIMP, and Atom, 2 of which offer Linux versions. Only Scrivener is holding me back from taking the plunge to Linux. Scrivener is incredibly useful software for organizing humanities research; in my department it went from one faculty member’s best-kept secret to the tool of choice for many of our graduate students.
I doubt that. Desktop Linux holds 0.66% of the market. And how many of those users need a writing software? 1000?
With an estimate like that you’re probably not a Linux user yourself. I am, and I would pay for the latest version. Not all software that runs on Linux is free, or must be free.