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Doesn't look like a decomp, but a vibecoded clone. A decomp would get sued into oblivion anyway.
I highly doubt this will ever replace the originals, but Adobe would deserve that.
If those apps have all the same tools fully functionally integrated, there’s absolutely zero chance it was vibe coded. It would take longer to vibe code than to remake it by hand, in order to get all of them working together properly. Vibe coding isn’t there yet.
So I have to wear a bunny suit while using it?
Yes. But you should do that at all times anyway
It's vibe coded. Tons of Claude co-authored commits.
if it's a clean room implementation they can sue, but they won't necessarily win. anthropic gave up when claude was translated to rust because none of their code or assets were used, so they had no standing to object to the software itself existing.
this is the same sort of issue john deere has with open source diagnostic software, and nintendo has with some emulators. it's not illegal to copy features so long as you don't reuse any assets. a complete rewrite of photoshop in rust might just get away with it. you can be sure adobe will be pouring over their source for the slimmest bit of their IP. and of course, even if they would lose, there's nothing stopping them from dragging the other party through the courts just to ruin them financially.
Is a "clean room" implementation of anything even possible while using LLMs? It shouldn't be by definition.
the open source rebuilds that were made in days are buggy and a bit broken at present.
I think it could be both. They decompiled it, likely with the help of an llm, and then vibe coded a reimplementation in rust. They claim 'clean-room reimplementation' on github, but I'm not so sure this would be considered clean room. I don't know, tho, let's wait for the lawyers and judges to say.
For anyone that's interested, it is vibe-coded slop. I installed their photoshop clone, pasted in a picture, tried curves, and the text tool. Curves would only show up in the side panel, and it didn't feel like it was making the colors do what they should. Trying to select text after you've typed it makes it disappear. Trying to change the font relied on a dropdown that (unlike PS), doesn't show you what each typeface looks like, and you can't scroll through the dropdown, you just have to manually choose one font at a time.
This ain't it. You're better off with Krita, Gimp, or even Photopea.
Or monkrus
I cannot comment on this specific case because I have not looked at the source code or products, but there's a bigger story here that most people are missing. In the last week, LLMs have been used to decompile multiple video games into human-readable source code that can be easily modified by humans or LLMs. These have resulted in projects mixing elements from Mario, Elden Ring, Minecraft, etc. LLMs are now able to decompile software into usable source (and check if said source compiles to match the original, on a loop).
I am struggling to wrap my mind around the consequences of this development. It basically means that all commercial, closed-source software can now be pirated and modified at will, assuming you have the money to pay for LLM tokens for the decompilation process.
It means more software is about to go cloud-only. Decompiling Photoshop wouldn't have any value if all the actual work is done via cloud GPUs and raw bitmap layers are returned instead. Double bonus for the shareholders you get software as a service and you also get to rent compute by the dollar on top.
That's pretty scary. Hardware is already scarce because of datacenters. If companies like Adobe increase their need for hardware, it will prevent users from building powerful machines. They'll be forced to use lighter machines and access those cloud compute services, and things will balloon from there.
No why do you need Adobe anymore? They had a head start and it seems that is gone
Cloud only would just make it more difficult but still not impossible. Packet data still needs to hit the network and with it, a lot of server information. Truly no software is safe anymore.
I think what will be exceedingly interesting is decompiled drivers for proprietary and out of support hardware for FOSS. Then there's ROMS from a host of device types...
mfs will do literally anything besides use GIMP
Look GIMP is great as an alternative. Happy it exists. It is cumbersome and difficult, it has a steep learning curve and I just gave up and pirated PS
I want to like gimp, but it really borders on unusable unless you really commit to it.
For filthy casual users like me, there is little value in persisting with it. Either use something simple for quick edits, or give to an llm for more complex tasks.
Gimp is useful software for certain cases, but it's not really a Photoshop competitor or alternative. Maybe it could be if someone added the missing features, but I don't see that happen anytime soon.
Gimp can't attach the new stuff Photoshop AI-powered stuff can. It's a difficult to use clone of Photoshop as it was about 8 years ago.
Why would anyone want to use that slop, when GIMP is right there?
I guess they did it for fun and lulz
It's an interesting story, but the comments over there throw some plausible doubt on the "decompiled" aspect.
Holy shit they have a pricing structure? Def gonna catch a lawsuit
It's a sub for AI actions, not sure if that bit is all that relevant.
Adobe will shoot their shot at some point. Shit is identical.
Yeah but they aren't charging for the Adobe clones they are selling something called AI Actions which is their own product I think?
I guess we'll just have to see. Either way I hope this burns Adobe in some way, even if its just extremely annoying for them.
Yayyy! The golden age of AI stealing from companies is here. I could cry.
So all of a sudden hooray for AI, who cares about the water and carbon emissions and "theft" and whatnot?
It was never really about those things in the first place, I'm guessing.
moth supposes none of the people here are serious about using the vibed versions, and are only finding amusement at something bad happening to a very shitty corporation.
it's not really different than laughing about MAGA eating each other. just because one might think it's funny senator foghorn leghorn called trump an asshole, doesn't mean one endorses him in any way. sometimes it's just funny to laugh at bad people's misfortune.
Taking from Adobe is morally, ethically, and spiritually not theft.
and released it as OSS
NO THEY FUCKING HAVEN'T! ALL THEY'VE DONE IS PIRATE IT WITH EXTRA STEPS!
I downloaded the Illustrator clone, ran it and it looked correct. But I didn't try using it beyond looking at the menus. I can't imagine Adobe won't try to do something about this.
Meh I'll skip
It's defo not a decomp. The footprint wouldn't be anywhere so tiny & the code so tidy.
Anyway this: https://github.com/storytold/lightcraft/pull/115 makes it suddenly very interesting, because this one thing could propel the usefulness beyond LR, given it actually works well.
Looks like all the in program AI gen is done in the cloud and the monthly pricing is about credits to that. There is also a web version. Does the suite work disconnected from the internet with or without the AI gen? As someone in print design and production I don't see the magic word I always look for in these alternate tools: Pantone...
this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2026
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