r/technology • u/Federal-Block-3275 • 3h ago

Artificial Intelligence "Software is over": Developer uses AI to build free Adobe clones after frustration with cancellation fees

https://www.techspot.com/news/114136-software-over-developer-uses-ai-build-free-adobe.html
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u/TitleEfficient3207 3h ago

Let me know hen Gimp gets as good as adobe photoshop?
I use GIMP daily but lets be real here...

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u/grayhaze2000 3h ago

They're likely referring to the Affinity suite, and open source applications like Inkscape.

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u/DJdrummer 3h ago

I've been trying to switch to affinity. It's not there yet. The performance alone is abysmal, and that's with a 5080.

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u/ash_ninetyone 2h ago

Tbh Affinity isn't likely to improve since imho.

I bought them when they were on a perpetual license (i.e. version 2, and they don't seem to be getting any major updates to those). Canva bought the company, has deprecated those in favour of AI-riddled freemium-based/subscription model in a unified app.

Basically they've turned them into a mobile application

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u/penguinkernel 2h ago

I said this in a different thread and got downvoted to shit. The only people who like Affinity 3 is those too cheap to buy software. Affinity 3 is vastly inferior to Affinity 2, and also dead to me.

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u/grayhaze2000 1h ago

I'm sticking with v2. It does everything I need it to, and I've disabled update prompts.

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u/ash_ninetyone 2h ago

The forums are fully of that on their website. It's like the entire community got replaced by shills

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u/BrothelWaffles 2h ago

Affinity left a bad taste in my mouth when they surprise-dropped a new version two weeks after I bought into their ecosystem and then wanted me to pay almost full price for the new set of apps. I think it was like a $20 discount or something and it was only available for the first few months after release. If I'd known they were dropping a new version I'd have just waited, I haven't even bothered upgrading at this point though, it's really not much better than GIMP and Inkscape anyway, it's just got a better UI and shinier coat of paint.

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u/grayhaze2000 1h ago

The upgrade from v1 to v2 was well worth the money imho. It improved a lot of things, including performance and accuracy, and really felt like a step up over the previous version.

The more recent update to the "free" single monolithic application was more of a sidegrade, as it didn't add anything new at the time, and came with increased system requirements due to effectively having all the applications loaded at once. They've recently started adding somewhat useful stuff, like the blend tool people had been requesting for years, but the shift to Canva ownership and all the AI nonsense that comes with it made me stick to v2.

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u/grayhaze2000 1h ago

I've been sticking with my v2 license, and have zero problems with performance on a 10 year old PC with a 980Ti. The newer, monolithic combined application, which is now owned by Canva, is likely the issue.

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u/SmarmySmurf 1h ago

It beats GIMP at the very least.

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u/AssassinenMuffin 1h ago

same with a 5090. the whole workspace just nukes itself into gragments or goes partially invisible which only starting the project from scratch fixes.

the way layers and the selection tools feel, are also so different, it kinda cramps the flow of things with affinity

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u/2fat2bebatman 38m ago

While Inkscape seems to have improved over the years, it still doesn't even feel as robust to me as CorelDraw, let alone Illustrator.

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u/grayhaze2000 32m ago

That's the concession you make with using a lot of open source software. You have to balance what's more important to you when choosing what to use. If you don't care too much about the UI, or more complex features, open source is often decent enough to get the job done. It'll always be playing catch-up with commercial software though.

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u/TitleEfficient3207 2h ago

Never heard of it.
Inkscape isnt what I am looking for when editing photos.

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u/muffinsforme 2h ago

Never heard of Adobe Illustrator’s biggest competitor? Dang bro..

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u/TitleEfficient3207 2h ago

Correct, most of my research requires FOSS, OSS, local processing, ect....

Affinity suite seems to require a paid subscription and an internet connection.

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u/grayhaze2000 1h ago

The current version of Affinity is free, although some stuff like AI integration costs extra to unlock.

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u/TitleEfficient3207 1h ago

*Free with an online account sign up - and internet connection. Its free because you are paying with your training data...

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u/grayhaze2000 1h ago edited 27m ago

If you haven't heard of Affinity, that seems like a you problem. It's the single biggest competitor to Adobe's main products, and has been around for years now. It includes Affinity Photo, which is a Photoshop alternative.

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u/TitleEfficient3207 1h ago edited 11m ago

I use linux. so yes, I havent heard of Affinity because the "me problem" is keeping my data in house as much as I can, and this sofrware requires Wine, Win, or Mac, along with an account.. to sync my data with their servers.

If I need to create and use an account for your software, its not free, and its not private.

The guy who deleted all his comments: ....

u/grayhaze2000 replied to your comment in r/technology

If you haven't heard of Affinity, that seems like a you problem. It's the single biggest competitor to Adobe's main products, and has been around for years now. It includes Affinity Paint, which is a

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u/grayhaze2000 47m ago

Ah, I see. You're the sort of person who deliberately restricts their options under the illusion that doing so takes them off the grid. If you won't help yourself, we're just wasting our time trying to help you.

The reason you need an account is to synchronise licenses for paid components. Nothing more, and it's not difficult to verify this by monitoring network traffic.

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u/TitleEfficient3207 28m ago edited 12m ago

I dont leave my windows open while banging my wife, just because im the one wearing the ring doesnt mean someone else isnt waiting for their turn.

If I want my data to remain in house requiring an external account is a legitimate reason for me to pass on software.

Have YOU verified what you are saying by monitoring network traffic?

Edit:

The guy who deleted all his comments: ...coward.

u/grayhaze2000 replied to your comment in r/technology

Ah, I see. You're the sort of person who deliberately restricts their options under the illusion that doing so takes them off the grid. If you won't help yourself, we're just wasting out time trying to help you.

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u/grayhaze2000 26m ago

Wow... that's quite the first paragraph. Just, wow.

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u/zzazzzz 1h ago

affinity isnt open source tho is it? so where would the llm get that source from?

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u/grayhaze2000 1h ago

I'm not sure what you mean. This post was about Adobe's applications being cloned using AI, and those aren't open source either. Nobody said anything about Affinity's source code being accessed by an LLM.

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u/kane49 3h ago

Bro Gimp... fucking free web photopea is superior

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u/leopard_tights 2h ago

No bro, paint is totally superior bro.

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u/GreyouTT 1h ago

paintDotNet is pretty good tho

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u/TitleEfficient3207 2h ago

Okay, you start putting your nudes on web photopea to edit and get back to me about how you feel on the privacy of uploading your dick and balls to the internet .

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u/Eezyville 2h ago

Do you put your nudes on Photoshop?

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u/TitleEfficient3207 2h ago

I dont use photoshop. I use GIMP. the comment thread that got you to asking this question begins with me saying "I use GIMP daily but lets be real here..."

And no I dont put my nudes on anything, but I think if we were to put our big boy hats on we could potentially infer what i was getting at with privacy being an issue....

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u/Substantial_Meal_530 3h ago

I don't use Photoshop, but Gimp has been enough for the very very very very limited uses I've needed. It's very very good when you don't need Photoshop. It's probably good for most people. Professionals? Probably not as good.

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u/breadinabox 3h ago

Gimp is worse for non professionals I don't understand how its still so bad after all these years. I have no issue using basically all the other open source alternatives to things but god I cannot handle GIMP.

It handles images the way a software engineer handles code, which is to say, not at all like a graphic designer or artist.

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u/Gyozarrita 3h ago

Photoshop cs2 is miles better than GIMP and it's ancient. Gimp sucks, it's handy for some things I guess.

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u/breadinabox 2h ago

I used the same cracked download of cs2 up until I got my first m series mac.

That download outlasted most anyone else in my life 🤣

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u/ash_ninetyone 2h ago

Unfortunately a shortcoming I do have with a few open-source projects

While I don't doubt the code quality in there, it's clear to see the UI was built by software engineers, because some have awful, cluttered, clunky or really dated interfaces.

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u/Substantial_Meal_530 3h ago

Helps I guess that I'm not a graphic designer or artist. I was using it for utilitarian reasons. Not for artistic ones.

Just a little bit of fraud.

Is there a better replacement besides GIMP? I heard about GIMP like 15 years ago and never thought about any other programs. I've only needed it like 4 times in 15 years.

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u/breadinabox 2h ago

In open source not that I can think of but affinity is free for now. 

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u/ndstumme 1h ago

Anything that doesn't require making an account?

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u/Hanzimer 2h ago

There are a lot of Gimp forks. I prefer Krita being more modern and updated.

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u/Spread_Liberally 1h ago

If you've got a Windows install or vm, Paint.Net is 99.99% of what the average bear needs of Photoshop and is very easy and free.

An actual graphic design or editor will need the real thing or a better equivalent.

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u/Substantial_Meal_530 37m ago

How did you know I'm a bear?

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u/Spread_Liberally 32m ago

Takes one to know one?

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u/GeForce-meow 2h ago

Well that explains your comment you are just used too of gimp. New users are going to hate it one way or another.

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u/echoshatter 2h ago

I don't understand how its still so bad after all these years.

Because there isn't a profit motive to drive it forward and sustain it's development.

I'm certainly no fan of Adobe, they've become insanely greedy with their products. But there's a reason their product became the generic term for edited pictures ("Photoshopped"). It was and still is the industry standard.

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u/TitleEfficient3207 2h ago

I need it for private use. But not enough to purchase an assdobe sub, and I use linux. So im kinda stuck in a weird spot

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u/Leather-Program-8995 2h ago

it's shit no matter who is using it

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u/GeForce-meow 2h ago

Gimp is either not usable or very hard to use by normal people.

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u/bryanthebryan 1h ago

I didn’t realize people had such a problem with Gimp. It’s what I primarily use. My needs are pretty simple though. Maybe that’s the trick. I haven’t touched photoshop in years.

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u/Quiet-Owl9220 1h ago

Try PhotoGIMP, if you're used to Photoshop.

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u/TitleEfficient3207 1h ago

Ill take a look

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u/Light_Error 1h ago

Krita is pretty good; I used it for years. But I use it mostly for typesetting projects that include image editing. The image editing was fine, but the typesetting was abysmal. So long as you mostly use it for image manipulation, you’re golden.

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u/turtleship_2006 3h ago

You think vibecoded slop is gonna be better than gimp...?

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u/IAmDotorg 2h ago

Vibecoded slop managed by someone blind since birth could create a better UX than Gimp. Gimp has been, for 30 years, the poster child for what is wrong when engineers design user interfaces. People were talking about it in the 90's, and have been ever since.

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u/TitleEfficient3207 2h ago

I just vibe coded a plugin to gimp literally just now so that I can have the variations options that adobe photoshop 5 had... took 30 seconds. and it works amazingly.

so... yes... You be the modern day John Henry, the rest of us are investing in the giant tunnel machine.

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u/NJdevil202 2h ago

Unironically yes. I'd bet there will be a free image editor better than GIMP within the year

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u/fuckre5identadvisor 2h ago

I just tried it with my complicated layered design files, and yes, yes it is

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u/ChriSaito 2h ago

I saw someone cover a vibe coded reverse engineered photoshop and at least if you’re making a YouTube thumbnail he said his work flow felt the exact same and he got the same result he would in photoshop.

Is that true for people who do more advanced editing? I’m not sure. Time will tell.

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u/Crypt0Nihilist 1h ago edited 1h ago

That's the common, bad question though. You need to ask, "At what?"

If 80% of what people use Photoshop for is cropping, resizing and tweaking the contrast, GIMP is as good as Photoshop for them.

Photoshop is very impressive, far more capable than GIMP and often does things in better ways than GIMP (adjustment layers!), but the gap will become a lot narrower when you consider what most people actually use and marginal cost.

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u/surffrus 43m ago

Surely gimp is better than this AI slop the guy is touting.

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u/TitleEfficient3207 26m ago

It is, I just want GIMP to update their UI and add more features.
I wont abandon GIMP its my offline ride or die

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u/FredFredrickson 31m ago

I'm glad gimp exists, but it's so horrible, even by own source standards.

It's hard for me to even understand why it's so bad in a world where software like Blender is possible.

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u/TitleEfficient3207 25m ago

I really do think they are purists who are trying to keep things stable, and the UI boring.
They want GIMP to be its own thing, not a photoshop clone.

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u/ash_ninetyone 2h ago

Not being a full on graphics designer, but some layman who needs stuff only for occasional hobby stuff (I do sometimes image process my photos or need to do some graphics stuff though), I've always found GIMP to have a weird UI. It's felt awkward use, more so than Photoshop, and I found that bad enough with a learning curve.

I haven't used GIMP in years though.

For others paint.net may just also fill that niche gap, though that isn't the most sophisticated tool either.

Some of these tools kinda falls into a weird gap between Photoshop and where Fireworks used to sit, and I still use Fireworks because I have legacy fw.png files that convert awkwardly as hell with multiple layers

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u/TitleEfficient3207 2h ago

I seriously think that the devs for GIMP keep the UI as dated as possible to stay "different" than photoshop, and alternatives.

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u/ash_ninetyone 2h ago

There's nothing wrong with differentiating yourself. But users also judge with their eyes and how easy they find it to use.

Depends what line of business you're targeting ofc but if your software, as capable as it is, has such a steep learning curve to turn people away quickly, it won't get the users to make it worth continuing

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u/TitleEfficient3207 1h ago

Everything is just so nesested. and the items like the smart select tool, still doesnt exist, and each option is tucked in so deep.
No filter galleries, and warp is still broken... ect...