Vibe-Coded Photoshop Clones Can't Match a 30-Year-Old Brush Engine
Attack of the Vibe Coded Photoshop Clones
A developer tracks a dozen AI-driven attempts to clone Photoshop, some with 165 contributors burning $50,000 in tokens in two weeks. Despite the hype, none can match Photoshop's brush performance on large canvases, and they fail at file compatibility, color management, and basic undo speed. The author argues this is piracy rebranded, not innovation.
If you can't get decent performance today on multicore multi gigahertz computers with many gigabytes of memory you or your AI are not doing a good job.
- reacharavindh
I’d usually follow that logic that using AI models(that basically trained on everything it could get hands on without regard for people’s labor and effort) to steal someone’s right to get paid for their effort. But, this is Adobe we are talking about…
1. Nobody asked them to bundle PhotoShop with all the cloud features and force it down their user’s throat.. Adobe Photoshop as a tool could easily be a one-time paid per version software. Want assets and things only possible in the cloud? Here is an optional cloud feature that costs $x should be the logical default.
Force your users to pay for stuff they didn’t ask for and lock them them in for years?
It feels morally justified that they get wrecked by AI models replicating their tool. If they are legitimately that good that one needs their Cloud justified content, perhaps they will still pay for Adobe. But, that’s all they are entitled to at this point.
- search_facility
To understand hate against Adobe one have to experience attempt to stop Adobe subscription from renewing. This is truly life-changing experience.
- xvxvx
I hear that groups are using AI to reverse-engineer video games, targeting PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo, with some success, and they’re now able to run natively on Linux and Windows.
Add that to the fact all 3 companies have seen massive declines in sales, and hardware costs increasing quite dramatically, this may be the end of the line for the console wars.
Interestingly, Sony released some of their exclusives on PC a few years ago and they sold extremely well. So what did Sony do? Announce that no more exclusives will port to PC. Nice work, guys!
No one hates Adobe more than their paying customers. I hope everyone involved in the move to subscriptions, including the gross cancellation fees, know that they killed the company.
- falsaberN1
Looks like a nerve was struck.
The clones may not be perfect, but now I'll be assuming every hate post is damage control. That's what happens when the arguments are so hyperbolic; Calling AI users pedophiles without proof is a surefire way to make me doubt YOUR argument because of how exhaustingly cliched and predictable it has become to do so.
Oh poor Adobe. They wanted to use AI to save money on employees and make charts go up, but it's being used against them instead. They opened Pandora's box but thought the evils contained within would only affect what they believe are lower castes. They forgot humanity can tame beasts. And they specially forgot nerds exist.
"You are supposed to be subjugated! You are all supposed to be stupid and inferior! Why are you building houses with the stones we throw at you???"
I am not crying any tears for them.
- tlonny
The “Vibe coders are paedophiles” bit caught me slightly off guard.
Felt like that undermined some of the more cogent points the article was making.
- close2
Purely reasoned rant of vibe coded clones.
Here are 2 quotes, which give you a pretty good idea about the whole article:
> They’re spending minimum $2K to vibe code a Photoshop competitor when Affinity Photo is free and Photoshop costs $200 a year. Not very smart economics.
and
> Instead of hurling hate speech and bile at thousands of software engineers who lead innovation at large companies (Adobe, Autodesk, Maxxon, Celsys, and others), show them some gratitude for their efforts. They are the engineers who innovate and everyone else follows.
- SyzygyRhythm
Even aside from the calling the developers pedophiles, the author seems to just throw a bunch of arguments at the wall, hoping some will land. But there seems to be a deep contradiction: if it's true that the projects all suck and are very far from being useful, then Adobe has nothing to worry about. People only use counterfeits willingly when they're a good replacement for the real thing. You can barely call them a clone if they haven't copied the real differentiators.
Personally, I think what the companies really have to worry about isn't these sorts of clones, but that it won't be long before everyone can just spin up some software that does the 5% of the job that they actually care about. Software gets clunky and bloated because every new feature appeals to somebody; it's just not always the same somebody. So there's a ratchet effect where you can never remove a feature because someone will always complain.
- brianhama
To answer the question regarding bloat in adobe software just look at the creative cloud app and how you have to use it to update and install individual applications. Look at the Adobe Genuine Software service that runs on Windows. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.