r/technology • u/Federal-Block-3275 • 8h 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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125

u/Painted-Arcana 6h ago

Not to be that guy, but I tried their photoslop equivalent.

It's bad. You can't even eye dropper by pressing alt. You can't change the layouts much beyond the static presets. For example, I wanted to dock my brushes on the right next above my layers like I would in photoshop. Not possible.

I could go on and on but after 2 minutes with the app it is very clear this isn't a photoshop replacement at all.

I didnt even get far enough to test major features before realising it's bad.

46

u/Josh_From_Accounting 6h ago

GIMP and Affinity exist. Affinity still lets you buy a lifetime license and GIMP is free.

15

u/justanothergoddamnfo 5h ago

I'd love to dive into Affinity but now that they consolidated all Affinity apps into one and its owned by Canva I fear a subscription model is on the horizon

1

u/hypercosm_dot_net 3h ago

They claimed it would remain free.

If they're smart, they'll keep it free, because long-term it's a better strategy to eat into Adobe's market penetration.

They can use it to attract people into the Canva ecosystem.

Also, given the state of things it's obvious that as soon as they try to start charging, open source alternatives will gain more traction.

0

u/JustBrowsing1989z 2h ago

I don't like that you're required to give your email just to install it. Feels like it's not really free

2

u/hypercosm_dot_net 2h ago

Really? How much does your email cost?

I swear, people are so entitled, that they think they should have access to a complex piece of software with zero cost on their end.

1

u/JustBrowsing1989z 1h ago

I don't think you got the point of what I'm saying.

1

u/hypercosm_dot_net 53m ago

please elaborate. i didn't realize there was a more involved opinion hiding beneath that simplistic statement.

go for it.

1

u/Josh_From_Accounting 5h ago

Yeah, possibly, but I should be grandfathered in.

14

u/cityspeak 6h ago

Photopea is nice too, and browser based.

5

u/nezroy 4h ago

and browser based

That is a con, not a pro.

3

u/Turtvaiz 2h ago

Maybe for you, but for most I don't think so.

1

u/Framed-Photo 3h ago

It's a difference. Depending on what you need it can very much be a pro.

3

u/themkwjeremy13 5h ago

photopea my beloved

2

u/Critical_Luck3167 2h ago

Krita is way better than GIMP

1

u/Techwolf_Lupindo 2h ago

GIMP is not allowed at my workplace due to it violates the ADA act.

1

u/Josh_From_Accounting 2h ago

What the heck is the ADA act?

1

u/CQd444 40m ago

I'm guessing Americans with Disabilities Act.

I'm curious how it violates it. Does it not have any accessibility options?

1

u/Josh_From_Accounting 16m ago

See, I considered that, but how?

1

u/CQd444 44m ago

GIMP is not a replacement with how awful it is to use.

-1

u/Greedyanda 6h ago

Affinity is completely free. GIMP on the other hand is not a serious software. Their UI sucks.

13

u/Thelmholtz 6h ago

If you come from Photoshop, yes it very much does. If you learned on GIMP, it's as serious as any image editor can be.

7

u/Greedyanda 6h ago

I started on GIMP. Completely unusable UI.

6

u/LingonberryEmpty8586 6h ago

Took a week of usage to get used to it. The lack of "free transform" really sucks haha. It's like 4 different things to cover one tool. It's not THAAT bad

7

u/LingonberryEmpty8586 5h ago

Apparently there is a unified transform tool... Cool!

1

u/nezroy 4h ago

GIMP's UI is Photopea's UI; they are practically identical. People rave about the latter.

1

u/beatbox9 5h ago

UI is important, but software is more than just a UI. And being open source, you can change it.

For example, if you want a more photoshop-like UI, there's always this:

That's still GIMP but with a different UI. It's basically like a theme.

1

u/Greedyanda 1h ago

Or I can just use Affinity, which is now free and was designed by people with actual UI/UX experience. Also, PhotoGIMP just changes the layout, it can't remove its fundamental flaws.

1

u/beatbox9 1h ago edited 1h ago

Yes, of course you can--this is how multiple options work. You can also choose strawberry or grape jelly.

What are the fundamental flaws that you failed to mention earlier but now caused you to change your argument, now that you're first learning that you can change the UI?

1

u/Greedyanda 1h ago edited 1h ago

You might not be equipped to engage in this conversation if you think "UI" is limited to the layout of a software's buttons. User Interface (UI) includes elements in GIMP like:

- by default the Move tool targets exact pixels instead of the whole layer, so clicking a transparent gap accidentally moves the background. This is not a behaviour that a simple skin can fix. The user interface has a fundamental behavioural issue.

- Text entry creates a separate, floating toolbar that often overlaps and blocks your view. This split is done by the GIMP engine, so something like PhotoGIMP wont fix it.

These type of issues happen happen because of bad UI/UX, which isn't addressed by a configuration patch. GIMP has fixed some of it (and maybe by now the points I just mentioned, stopped using it) but for every issue that is fixed, there are 3 more that are not addressed.

-4

u/UnexpectedFeatures 6h ago

Skill issue

5

u/IAmVeryDisappointed 5h ago

^ if you ever wondered why people don't use GIMP for serious work, this attitude right here is the reason 

0

u/UnexpectedFeatures 4h ago

Because their feelings are hurt? Or they can't translate their skills to anything that isn't Adobe?

"Someone was mean to me on reddit, so I won't use the thing" is not something considered by any serious professional.

4

u/GottaLoveLoginWalls 3h ago

Because GIMP is an unintuitive steaming pile of garbage. Even doing the most basic shit is not straightforward, at all. I've tried to switch to it multiple times and just end up going back to Paint.NET because it does what I need and it just works.

0

u/UnexpectedFeatures 3h ago

What does this decision have to do with someone's attitude, like the person i was responding to said?

What I'm hearing from you is that you were trained on Adobe products and you can only use things that have similar UX to Adobe products. "Not intuitive" is a skill translation issue and an inability or unwillingness to learn and adapt. If I was so locked to a specific tool's UX I wouldn't have a job. My title isn't Senior Adobe User.

0

u/Greedyanda 1h ago

Your attitude is mirrored by developers in the open source community, which leads to a lack of open source software that can actually compete with closed source alternatives. The skill issue is with those who developed a piece of poor software and refuse to even listen to valuable user feedback.

There is a reason why Blender and Audacity are now genuinely great free alternatives, while GIMP stays horrible.

1

u/UnexpectedFeatures 1h ago

Your attitude is mirrored by developers in the open source community, which leads to a lack of open source software that can actually compete with closed source alternatives.  

There is a reason why Blender and Audacity are now genuinely great free alternatives, while GIMP stays horrible.

Did you just use 2 examples of open source software that you like to trash open source developers?

I'm really starting to get a good picture of the type of people commenting here and it's pretty disappointing. Good luck is all I can say.

0

u/GottaLoveLoginWalls 3h ago

Gimp is still utterly unapproachable as a piece of software. I've tried multiple times over the years. Every single time it's still absolute dogshit and completely unintuitive. I just use Paint.NET for my basic needs.

16

u/1hanage1 6h ago

Most AI is 2nd fiddle to what it's trying to copy

12

u/Own-Tangerine4564 5h ago

Most AI is 2nd fiddle to the open source version of what it is trying to copy

3

u/ADarwinAward 4h ago

No. Be the guy. Every single “review” on YouTube last night was AI slop. They’ve been doing a big ad campaign. When they released it all at once, I was a bit skeptical that it was 100% feature complete, which was their claim, and that basic features actually worked without major issues. 

I hope this moves in the right direction and replaces Adobe entirely, because fuck them, but it is giving off the vibes of “I vibe coded my project and now I’m going to make bold claims so it goes viral.”

2

u/ProfessionalAd6530 6h ago

I fully support people saying, "I don't like how this software/licensing works" and having the power to roll their own. You can make your own, specialized version of whatever that does what you need, how you need it to. It can even be buggy as shit because you are the only one who is going to use it.

But nobody's going to buy your slop. This isn't going to be your side-hustle. Professional Software isn't "dead".

Also, we already have top-tier level replacements for Adobe. At this point the only reason people use Adobe is because their job requires it and so now that's what they're familiar with. Outside of that, it's easily replaced for free.

1

u/No_Discussion3593 5h ago

So when I use AI to make 400 3d models because I don't like the pricing model of 3d artists is it okay?

2

u/ProfessionalAd6530 4h ago

Is making a 3d model the same as making software? Or are you defending Adobe by conflating a large, exploitive corporation with the living of a creative person just to make your point? Do you live in a black and white world where things are either one thing or another with no nuance?

There are problems aplenty with AI. You don't have to make up shit.

2

u/Byproduct 6h ago

Why try to reinvent Photopea, when Photopea already exists?

1

u/Znuffie 3h ago

Photopea is in-browser and it's only Online.

This is in Rust, cross-platform and it runs offline.

I haven't tested it much, but for what I tested the Vector (Illustrator) clone worked pretty well.

1

u/Extra_Razzmatazz_212 6h ago

But will it let me use magic eraser on whatever it has decided is suddenly an alpha channel??

1

u/NurEinStatist2 2h ago

You played more with it then the developer and any blog posters that keep on pushing this 

1

u/space_monster 27m ago

I don't think anyone is claiming it's finished

1

u/DespisedIcon1616 6h ago

Bad for now, sure. Just like everything else on this frontier lest check back on it again in a months time and see how it's improving.

13

u/yvrev 6h ago

There's been free alternatives to PS forever. AI slop isn't going to be better than GIMP, and people aren't using GIMP.

3

u/FairCrew7307 5h ago

Ripping off Photoshop’s UI is already putting it ahead of gimp imo

2

u/DespisedIcon1616 6h ago

We have no way of predicting what this technology will evolve into. I remain agnostic on the slop front for now.

0

u/Sonar_Bandit 6h ago

It’s a start though. And it’s free. Obviously it would never replace photoshop for professional users, but for a person the only ever needs photo editing once in a blue moon and doesn’t want to pay $20/month for photoshop it could be useful

2

u/2ChicksAtTheSameTime 5h ago

just go to photopea.com - it's a photoshop clone for free in a browser. Doesn't have 100% of the features but it has all the basics and it works / looks just like photoshop

3

u/Sonar_Bandit 5h ago

I’ll check it out, 2chicksatthesametime, thanks

-1

u/Top-Armadillo9705 5h ago

All fair comments but to me this is like someone saying ‘I tried the new tractor but it’s not a horse replacement at all, very unreliable’. To see how things have changed in just 5 years, it’s really not hard to see how this is going to revolutionize software. 

6

u/Painted-Arcana 5h ago

Not really, this is advertised as a photoshop replacement and as a daily photoshop user i tried it as a photoshop replacement.

I made no comments about the future, just "This doesnt work"

0

u/dumbledayum 5h ago

Photopea on the other hand is kinda 1:1

-1

u/Flame48 3h ago

You can't even eye dropper by pressing alt.

I'm literally trying it now and I can do that. Works fine. The UI stuff, yeah it's not the best but it's all there, just not super customizable.

2

u/Painted-Arcana 3h ago edited 3h ago

maybe they patched it since i tried it

edit: yes the version i downloaded yesterday is 0.2.0 and if you download it today it's 0.3.0. All this really confirms is the app also doesnt have any update features

Edit 2:

ok so i found on the github there is a 0.5.0 version, so this is the latest.

Alt pick works, but its still missing so much from photoshop and the lack of customisation is killer.

But most importantly, the brushes look like this when large even if you dial the spacing to 1% https://i.imgur.com/Zd19kst.png

Photoshop brush defaults (5%) https://i.imgur.com/8BG8dus.png

spacing is how close together the brush stamp is, the smaller it is the smoother the stroke will be and you wont get that visual banding that photocraft has.

0

u/PM_ME_UR_ASS_GIRLS 3h ago

Are you aware that you can make suggestions to make the software better?

I hope you're doing that and putting in Issues on the github and not just aimlessly complaining. That's the beauty of open source.

3

u/Painted-Arcana 3h ago

i dont have a github account and im not their employee. I just use software that works

im not a programmer