#adobelightroomclassic — Public Fediverse posts

Are Artcraft’s vibe-coded apps likely replacements for Adobe’s products?

Adobe’s decision to go with a shakedown subscripton model for its Creative Cloud apps has sparked a rush to create alternatives, particularly in the open-source community.

We’ve looked at Darktable and digiKam and Lap among free open-source alternatives to Adobe’s Lightroom Classic for both digital-asset management and RAW editing.

But for people who already have muscle memory for Adobe’s products, these programs have a steep learning curve.

But Artcraft has apparently found a way to clone Adobe’s apps and offer them as freeware.

Artcraft has produced clones of many of Adobe’s apps, such as Lightroom, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects and Illustrator, as well as some of the Microsoft Office Suite and Avid, an audio editor, all of which can be downloaded here.

There’s also a launcher app available that seems like its own version of the Creative Cloud desktop app to ensure you’re using the most up-to-date version of the software (without Adobe’s monthly rent payments).

The creators used the Claude AI to “vibe code” clones in what is described as a clean-room implementation process, in which the app’s functions were duplicated without using any of it’s source code. Vibe coding does programming through describing what the program should do and the AI generating the code.

The programs are written in the Rust programming language, meaning that they will run natively on Windows, Mac and Linux, the latter being something Adobe couldn’t do.

It has captured much, but not all, of the Adobe apps’ functionality, as well as created reasonable facsimilies of the interfaces. Lightcraft, the Lightroom clone, also doesn’t have the print or map modules or lens profiles.

As Andy Hutchinson and others have pointed out, it’s subject selection is not quite ready for prime time.

https://youtu.be/xOtUgbwpx78?si=IRu3WK3ZoGEn_jTU

It also lacks some of the AI features found in Lightroom, but the program is still being developed, so that could change.

I’ve taken it on a test drive, and it worked reasonably well. Was it as good as Lightroom? Not quite, but I could make satisfactory edits on photos. Since I cannot get an Adobe license for my laptop, I think it is a good option for editing photos in the field.

Have you downloaded any of Artcraft’s apps yet? Tell me what you think in the comments.