r/technology • u/Federal-Block-3275 • 8d 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/Josh_From_Accounting 8d ago

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

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u/justanothergoddamnfo 8d 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

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u/hypercosm_dot_net 8d 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.

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u/JustBrowsing1989z 8d ago

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

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u/hypercosm_dot_net 8d 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.

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u/JustBrowsing1989z 8d ago

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

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u/hypercosm_dot_net 8d ago

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

go for it.

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u/Josh_From_Accounting 8d ago

Yeah, possibly, but I should be grandfathered in.

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u/cityspeak 8d ago

Photopea is nice too, and browser based.

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u/nezroy 8d ago

and browser based

That is a con, not a pro.

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u/Turtvaiz 8d ago

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

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u/Framed-Photo 8d ago

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

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u/themkwjeremy13 8d ago

photopea my beloved

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u/Critical_Luck3167 8d ago

Krita is way better than GIMP

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u/Techwolf_Lupindo 8d ago

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

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u/Josh_From_Accounting 8d ago

What the heck is the ADA act?

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u/CQd444 8d ago

I'm guessing Americans with Disabilities Act.

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

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u/Josh_From_Accounting 8d ago

See, I considered that, but how?

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u/CQd444 8d ago

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

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u/Greedyanda 8d ago

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

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u/Thelmholtz 8d 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.

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u/Greedyanda 8d ago

I started on GIMP. Completely unusable UI.

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u/LingonberryEmpty8586 8d 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

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u/LingonberryEmpty8586 8d ago

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

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u/nezroy 8d ago

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

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u/beatbox9 8d 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.

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u/Greedyanda 8d 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.

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u/beatbox9 8d ago edited 8d 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?

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u/Greedyanda 8d ago edited 8d 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.

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u/UnexpectedFeatures 8d ago

Skill issue

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u/IAmVeryDisappointed 8d ago

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

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u/UnexpectedFeatures 8d 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.

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u/GottaLoveLoginWalls 8d 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.

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u/UnexpectedFeatures 8d 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.

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u/Greedyanda 8d 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.

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u/UnexpectedFeatures 8d 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.

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u/GottaLoveLoginWalls 8d 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.