Photoshop, etc... They used Rust as the language (could have used any language since the LLMs know them all) and published the source to GitHub. Supposedly a clean-room implementation. If so, Adobe will have an uphill battle doing anything about it.

This Chamath dude and David Sacks are concerned to put it mildly. Chamath claiming it was decompiled. You can't decompile cloud based code because you can't get to it (assuming these products now run in the cloud, no idea, I don't use them). But his point about software being headless is interesting... it means that an LLM could simply exercise/analyze every API - inputs and outputs - and then infer and code up the backend. Once services are headless, agents can treat them as black boxes, learn the contract, and either wrap them or reimplement the useful parts.

No idea how good the replicated products are. If they are decent, well...

Quote:

---

Chamath says IP and software were "effectively rendered worthless" this week, after people decompiled Adobe's core products and published open-source versions, as every service goes headless

"The more important point I want to make though, is I sent this to Nick, there's been a couple things that happened in the last couple days, which I think are incredibly important."

---

Chamath says IP and software were "effectively rendered worthless" this week, after people decompiled Adobe's core products and published open-source versions, as every service goes headless

"The more important point I want to make though, is I sent this to Nick, there's been a… https://t.co/r77MIBlJbY pic.twitter.com/tmbslkU3VV

— Fireside Alpha (@firesidealpha) October 10, 2026

AustinAg2K said:

---

There have open source alternatives to Photoshop (and other Adobe products) that are just as good (or at least very close to as good) for more than a decade. How is this different?

---

They didn't say it was a photoshop alternative. They made it sound like a photoshop clone. But the whole is light on detail so who knows.

AustinAg2K said:

---

There have open source alternatives to Photoshop (and other Adobe products) that are just as good (or at least very close to as good) for more than a decade. How is this different?

---

Well, it's supposedly an exact functional copy and its free.

And it was coded by AI, not a human.

I've used photocraft a little bit for work. I also tried PDFcraft but haven't had a chance to really dive into it yet.

The program sizes are suspiciously small but the programs seem to work. I'm curious how much of Adobe's programs are bloat, tracking, analytics etc.

I have an AdobeCC license through work but it's limited to one install and any other device has to be cloud based, which I hate.

https://getartcraft.com/

That's the link to the program installer if anyone wants to try it out.

Logos Stick said:

---

AustinAg2K said:

---

There have open source alternatives to Photoshop (and other Adobe products) that are just as good (or at least very close to as good) for more than a decade. How is this different?

---

Well, it's supposedly an exact functional copy and its free.

---

You're missing my point. There are already free options for most everything Adobe does. This is true for a lot of software. Companies still pay for software, because they want the support that comes with it. If you go have AI build you something, that's great, but now you've got to support it. When you find a bug that blocks you, you can't call up Adobe and ask them what to do.

If you want a free option for Photoshop, it's already out there.

Adobe and other major software companies that sell a product have been trying to sell what is essentially the same product for decades while trying to squeeze every penny from the end user by going the SaaS model. I get it, but this is the danger. Just like the music industry they priced their product out of their own market, forcing an alternative one altogether to come into existence.

AustinAg2K said:

---

Logos Stick said:

---

AustinAg2K said:

---

There have open source alternatives to Photoshop (and other Adobe products) that are just as good (or at least very close to as good) for more than a decade. How is this different?

---

Well, it's supposedly an exact functional copy and its free.

---

You're missing my point. There are already free options for most everything Adobe does. This is true for a lot of software. Companies still pay for software, because they want the support that comes with it. If you go have AI build you something, that's great, but now you've got to support it. When you find a bug that blocks you, you can't call up Adobe and ask them what to do.

If you want a free option for Photoshop, it's already out there.

---

OK, then this is no big deal. No one will vibe code an exact replica of every software product out there and then charge a fee for vibe coding up fixes to those products. No company will simply have one of their employees vibe code the fixes to the product, in addition to their other duties.

Some poster, maybe YouBet, said his BIL is now getting paid to vibe code their Tableau replacement (?!) at his company.

Nothing to see here then.

So where would one get access to test this vibe coded app?

ValleyRatAg said:

---

So where would one get access to test this vibe coded app?

---

Look at my post above

Kudos to Adobe for incorporating their own imaging AI into their products. I like that I can just tell Photoshop in plain English how I want the image changed instead of going through layers of arcane menus. Of all the software companies I think Adobe is best prepared for disruptions like this. Techies have known for years about Photoshop alternatives and still Adobe has managed to thrive. This is just the latest alternative imo.

A bigger threat is the move away from PDFs to meet government accessibility requirements. I think Acrobat will dwindle in usage dramatically over the next couple years.

AustinAg2K said:

---

Logos Stick said:

---

AustinAg2K said:

---

There have open source alternatives to Photoshop (and other Adobe products) that are just as good (or at least very close to as good) for more than a decade. How is this different?

---

Well, it's supposedly an exact functional copy and its free.

---

You're missing my point. There are already free options for most everything Adobe does. This is true for a lot of software. Companies still pay for software, because they want the support that comes with it. If you go have AI build you something, that's great, but now you've got to support it. When you find a bug that blocks you, you can't call up Adobe and ask them what to do.

If you want a free option for Photoshop, it's already out there.

---

Why would you need to call anyone for support with an AI built software product whose source code is available? Tell an LLM what the bug is, have it look at the code, and it will fix the issue.

GPT and Claude do a great job of decompiling and replicating software. I've done this a ton the last year for apps with no source code or completely deprecated.

I've used GIMP for years. The biggest challenge with it isn't support, but workflow and guides for how to do things. If a Photoshop clone works with all of the PS guides and Youtube videos, along with all of the plugins and tools, what are you really missing from your creative cloud subscription?

Our IT person was frustrated because after the latest update, Adobe is running constantly in the background eating up our computers' RAM and there is nothing you can do about it. Then, Adobe took over my snip/screenshot tool and I need to somehow revert back to the default tool. THEN when you open a document you get three columns of crap and you have to dig through menus to turn off the AI assistant, co.ments, etc etc. The whole thing is beyond bloated.

Apparently it's a decent but buggy replica.

But the guy who did it is a high level coder who's written a bunch of stuff before AI existed.

We aren't yet at the point where Joe off the street could do this

amercer said:

---

Apparently it's a decent but buggy replica.

But the guy who did it is a high level coder who's written a bunch of stuff before AI existed.

We aren't yet at the point where Joe off the street could do this

---

The guy who did it didn't write a single line of code. That's what vibe coding means. The fact that he's a coder is irrelevant.

Any B average college student at A&M could do what he did.

Logos Stick said:

---

amercer said:

---

Apparently it's a decent but buggy replica.

But the guy who did it is a high level coder who's written a bunch of stuff before AI existed.

We aren't yet at the point where Joe off the street could do this

---

The guy who did it didn't write a single line of code. That's what vibe coding means. The fact that he's a coder is irrelevant.

Any B college student at A&M could do what he did.

---

This.

Not a chance.

AI is great but if you don't know what to ask for you can't get it.

https://gizmodo.com/someone-vibe-coded-a-free-knockoff-of-adobe-creative-suite-2000823322

amercer said:

---

Not a chance.

AI is great but if you don't know what to ask for you can't get it.

https://gizmodo.com/someone-vibe-coded-a-free-knockoff-of-adobe-creative-suite-2000823322

---

Big chance. I know people who have built entire applications who don't know dick about coding.

You said it...all you have to know is the right question. Thus, if you are an SME you can do this.

Someone decompiled the original Halo trilogy this week, they've been able to load like 60 ppl into campaign, play as hunters, etc. It's been a busy week for super intelligence

Cloud apps are dead, but we already knew this.

The headless part is right on. Why do you even need a front end. You just prompt your favorite AI to do it and it handles the rest.

Mat Lanticus said:

---

lol Adobe can eff right on off. GenAI tools already made Photoshop obsolete.

Their subscription model in this day in age is for morons by morons.

---

The olds to semi olds will continue to use it.

One of the guys I work with is vibe coding one of the SAP apps we have to use. SAP is complete trash. They have a stranglehold on enterprise apps and their product is complete *****

My experience with SAP - not a whole lot - was that you had to drill down and make 50 clicks/selections to complete a single, simple transaction.

Models are only going to get better Jerry. That’s why SaaS is dead https://t.co/fM38pmFcud pic.twitter.com/Rbzjmn6fT2

— Zak Kukoff (@zck) July 7, 2026

YouBet said:

---

amercer said:

---

Not a chance.

AI is great but if you don't know what to ask for you can't get it.

https://gizmodo.com/someone-vibe-coded-a-free-knockoff-of-adobe-creative-suite-2000823322

---

Big chance. I know people who have built entire applications who don't know dick about coding.

You said it...all you have to know is the right question. Thus, if you are an SME you can do this.

---

Sure. I don't think we are at the point where random b students in college are SMEs.

I've been using a lot of AI the last six months, the output would be complete garbage if I didn't have 20 years of knowledge in the area to ask the right questions and then reality check what was coming out.

How long will that be true? 5 years? I don't know. I actually think AI development is going to slow down since the amount of useful data to train on is limited and a significant amount of new data being generated worldwide is slop from the AI itself. But that's another thread

You are missing the point, which is that the intellectual prowess needed to vibe code is not high.

Of course a person would need to understand Photoshop, or any other subject matter, in order to correctly instruct the LLM on what functionality to create. That goes without saying. A "B" level student who knows the ins and outs of Photoshop could do what this developer did.

That person doesn't need to be a cum laude engineer graduate, far from it.

When the computer came out my Dad's company had around 90 secretary/typists. Almost overnight, they went from 90 to 2. Its not that the work went away, it's that the tool made the work accessible to everyone. AI is doing the same thing with SW dev. You don't need to be a domain expert in SW dev, you have a tool for that now. You still need to know what the final product should look like and set the right requirements, but whether you understand Javascript, rust, or python makes no difference.

Logos Stick said:

---

amercer said:

---

Apparently it's a decent but buggy replica.

But the guy who did it is a high level coder who's written a bunch of stuff before AI existed.

We aren't yet at the point where Joe off the street could do this

---

The guy who did it didn't write a single line of code. That's what vibe coding means. The fact that he's a coder is irrelevant.

Any B average college student at A&M could do what he did.

---

100%

I can write some scripting with python, bash and powershell, but I'm not a programmer in the least bit. However, I am putting the finishing touches on a full fledged GRC tool that will allow us to manage and maintain 3 different cybersecurity frameworks, our entire company's documentation for all departments in markdown, harvest evidence for audits, and respond to RFP questions automatically with redactions where necessary.

I've spent two weeks on it, and didn't write a single line of code. I had a 3.7 at A&M, though, so maybe I'm overqualified.

Lol get **** on Adobe.

Watched a reel about game designers combining popular video games by using AI. They then went into and did the same thing to video game libraries, to the point of being able to put a PS5 and its library of games on your PC.

They then jumped to adobe and the like and have been uploading free copies on the internet.

If AI can build it. Soon it will be able to fix those blocks that pop up too.

The question is how "systematic" or "unsystematic" things will become. However, And I literally just thought about this, so may be lots of holes, but high powered search rendered many file atructures unnecessary - even if less efficient.

I could see a day where AI is constantly mapping the corp IT landscape for Company X. Highlighting what needs to be fixed, secured, and improved all the time. And then doing it. It could render structure and systemic ways of doing things moot.

It could also eventually organize everything the most systemically efficient way ever.

Former X product head Nikita Bier:

Technical moats are mostly over at this point. If you’re building something that is meant to be durable, the only moats now are:

• Proprietary data
• Network effects
• A physical component

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) October 12, 2026