The end of proprietary, subscription based software?

 

Change of the markets

Not too long ago the open-source ArtCraft Suite created by developer Brandon Thomas is gaining massive viral attention and tens of thousands of GitHub stars y customer submission, though the software is still in a buggy, early-alpha state rather than being a finished commercial replacement. [1, 2, 3, 4]. What this process shows, is that established market leaders can never be certain of their plundering, dominant position and their subscription model strategy is under increasing attack, particularly when open source alternatives are free to be obtained while their transient shortcoming of functionality promises to be ameliorated, bearing in mind that the offering of these alternatives has been developed in a remarkably brief period of time.

PhotoCraft logo

What the Clones Are

The Project: Brandon Thomas used Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 AI system and the fast and functional Rust coding language to build a clean-room open-source alternative to seven major Adobe programs in merely a few days. [1, 2, 3]

The Lineup:

• PhotoCraft (Photoshop)
• LightCraft (Lightroom)
• FilmCraft (Premiere Pro)
• EffectCraft (After Effects)
• VectorCraft (Illustrator)
• PDFCraft (Acrobat Pro)
• InDesign clone [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Traction: PhotoCraft alone pulled nearly 20,000 GitHub stars within roughly a week, with the combined repositories crossing Github's 41,000 stars rewards. [1]

Current Status and Limitations

Early Alpha: The developer admits the apps are raw, incomplete, and is not yet ready for daily professional work.[1, 2]
Missing features: Major gaps include proprietary tools, missing typography workflows, plugin support, and AI-driven tools like Adobe's Generative Fill. [1]
Bugs and stability: Users on Hacker News and testing platforms report lagging controls, broken text editing, and occasional crashes, though the core layout and keyframing in apps like FilmCraft have impressed early testers. [1, 2]
Broader expansion: The same developer has already started applying the approach to Microsoft Office clones like WordCraft, GridCraft, and DeckCraft! [1]

Possible consequences

This development incites the suspicion that Brandon Thomas' enterprise sounds the beginning of a much larger effort by other developers to morph the excessively expensive, subscription based makers of proprietary software to be weary of becoming the victim of similar processes, particularly since the global community of clients has become thoroughly fed up with being ruthlessly plundered by greed ridden corporations, that not only inflict ridiculous prices to subscribe to the programs, but also make termination of those subscriptions incredibly difficult (like Adobe did). The departure of more than one head honchos of Adobe's board is a sign that indicates that such a worry is very much upsetting the high corporate circles of professional extortionists.

This development has the capacity to change the relation between proprietary software corporations and their client base entirely. It is certain to have tremendous consequences, particularly since theoretically no proprietary code developing business is immune to similar follow ups of this recent turn of events. It has the capacity to render investments of billions of dollars a huge waste of money. While this sudden alteration of market strategy radiates in a not so distant background, a growing number of coders is considering a similar method to shine as Brandon Thomas did, clients are anticipating what goodies may save them thousands of dollars of subscription fees per year in a near future, while greed ridden corporate leaders are shitting their panties. This development exactly is the type of legal 'anarchy' that has the potential to rid the consumer world of unlawful, yet legalised corporate extortion.

Background fot Thomas' decision

This process of creating alternatives for the Adobe suit, is based on the fact that Thomas discovered it was difficult to leave the Adobe dimension. The apps he included in his alternative suit are the free and open-source answer to Photoshop, but it's just one of what he calls Crafting Apps, and the lineup has grown to 13 at the time of writing. It's going after Lightroom, Premiere, Illustrator, and even Figma, Word, and Excel. Based on what Thomas has posted on Reddit, much of this started with how painful it was to cancel his own Adobe subscription. He says: 'I've been charged cancellation fees more than once myself, which was the primary reason I cut ties with Adobe and have been so keen on hunting down alternatives.' He responded from an incentive that was based on frustration of being unfairly lured into the Adobe environment and faced much difficulty to end his subscription. There is no stronger reason for making such a drastic decision, which causes me to assume he and his team will persist in continuing to develop their Craft alternative suit.

Opening new doors for Linux 

Because Thomas' team also developed a Linux version of their suit, it changes the landscape of available programs in the Linux sphere completely. Until not too long ago, Linux users were forced to us GIMP of Krita, both of which never reached the level of functionality of Adobe's programs. This is a powerful incentive for many users to persuade a switch to Linux from Windows. Even more so since the team also has a focus on the Microsoft Office suit. Personally, I am more than content to use Libre Office, but professional users that need the more deeply tucked away functions of the Microsoft Office programs, may not be as content as I am with Libre Office.

And Thomas's team does not stop here; they also have a focus on a 3D program, named Solid Craft, which is certain to make more users curious to the rapid expansion of specific programs in Linux. Since this development took off at such an astonishing pace, it may persuade other developers to focus on other programs that currently are absent in Linux' program management. It could well be the start of a significant increase of Linux users. Like a modest number of developers before him, Thomas incentive has the potential to change the OS market in a drastic way, particularly since he showed that using Claude AI and the Rust coding language are perfectly capable to do the job, even already now that they still are in the Alpha version.

In addition the Proton program is increasing and improving, alongside Steam and Winboat its code that allows a rapidly expanding number of Windows programs to run on Linux. Many users that have been considering a switch to Linux, now suddenly have a lot more reason to actually do it, while there is not a lot that Adobe, Microsoft and AutoDesk can do legally to stop this magnificent turn of events. Thomas has fueled a true software revolution, that has been long overdue, but is now more than making up for that. Linux users and users that are considering moving to Linux, are almost holding their breath to what happens next. I think this remarkable shift also makes Linus Torvald very happy. Hang in there users, keep breathing and see what will take place in the near future, now that it appears you actually have one.

Fed up with paying a fortune for propriety software?

 

Years ago, probably somewhere around 2009, I was surprised that the Lotus databased program, started to sell their product in on a subscription based offer. There could be other software corporations that did it before, but I worked at the European Space Agency at the time in ICT support, where I encountered  the subscription based scam first. The corporation that soon after ripped off its users to an unprecedented and therefore shameless level, of course was Adobe that profited from users that had a relation with their customers, that often required legacy files to be edited. But after that, things got even worse, when 3D program producers, like AutoCAD, Maya, Solid Works and Cinema 4D began to ruthlessly plunder their customers in a way by enforcing ridiculously expensive prices of thousands of dollars per year on their clients, that were trapped in the same situation as Adobe users.

Open source library

When you are thoroughly agree with the unbounded greed of software producers, you may want to take a good look at the YouTube channel of Explainer Chris and explainerguy0 In which its creator discusses a slew of open source programs that do exactly of very close to what the rip off sellers try to kick down the throats of their users. In many cases, these free programs are often capable of opening, exporting and editing those of their ransacking competitors. I think this channel is definitively worth taking a peek at for many users, that feel violated financially by the makers of software that they use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGWSs6laAO0

and

https://youtu.be/AqPi6WjzM_Q

In the top link video over 40 programs are explained in which their functionality is explained, that cost absolutely nothing. Those that are thoroughly fed up with the extremely overpriced market leaders to rob their users blind in a perpetual way, will find these channels interesting. I am sure that many will find the suggestions offered worth a small amount of their time to relief the contant of their wallets. Outside of the channels presented in this blog entry, there are many sites on the Internet that suggest zero cost alternatives for the organised corporations that pillage people silly institutionally.

Shit! (pardon my French)

 

In this short blog article I show a cartoon that I drew a very long time ago in CorelDRAW, years later edited in Affinity Designer and recently, added more detail in Canva, that has bought Affinity. In the latter program I had to restart working from a bitmap (which I manually traced in CorelDRAW), since I no longer have that program, but I must admit, this is relatively easy in Canva, that combines Vector, Pixel and Layout (which is a full function DTP module) in a single Studio environment (....), that saves and opens these files in a single format (which is significantly useful). I nicked the original file from somewhere on the web, but over time added many details it did not contain. Painstakingly tinkering often characterises many aspects of my artwork, that forces me to use a lot of functions and tricks, that 'normal' people probably rarely apply.

Canva's combination of vector and pixel modules actually help a lot to continue to work on pixel based legacy files and CorelDRAW files that I can't open, since I no longer have the program; I recommend Canva to artists that share a similar problem that I have more often than I used to encounter in the past. Canva, by the way is free of charge, which perhaps is the beginning of the death knell for the absolutely ridiculously priced Adobe suit (with the exception of AI modules, that I think many artists never use). By the way, the spider web is empty, because its owner was eaten by the snake, before he began to devour the pig, which prohibited the serpent from answering the phone.  Anyway, below you see the image I referred to. And I apologise for the title of this cartoon. Oh and click on the image to see a larger version in Google's lightbox. Enjoy and maybe see you in the next blog entry to come, that is if I continue to live to write one.

Benda's Napoleonbob tank modification concept

 

When looking at designs that appeal to me, I often feel the urge to slightly change parts to make them even better, in my opinion anyway. This feeling was rather strong when watching the Benda Napoleonbob. I like Benda for their creative design and sturdy construction; the brand stands out in both those departments. I decided to tweak the shape of the tank with the Indian motorcycle design in the back of my mind, that gives attention to the shape of the tank, that drastically changes the appearance of a motorcycle. The modification was drawn in vectors in Canva's Affinity Designer. Below you see the version with the modified tank and below that the original photo of the Napoleonbob for reference. The tank in the modified version also is larger which increases the volume in order to contain more fuel (perhaps 3 to 4 litres). Click the images to see a larger version of them in Google's lightbox.

My version with a modified tank

The original Benda Napoleanbob

Of course a tank that has a larger fuel capacity moves the motorcycle's centre of gravity upwards somewhat, but I assume - because the engine already is placed very low in the frame - that this modification will not have dramatic consequences, besides gaining physical appeal in my opinion. The engine, tank and front suspension unit look more integrated, while the overall top section of the motorcycle looks more fluent and polished. Ultimately the (outer) lines of the construction parts determine if a product design feels balanced or not. The original Benda's cylinder heads have a kind of an upward arch, while the tank's lower edge has a downward arch; these do not match. The modified tank's lower side has an upward arch, as well as the cylinder heads of the engine; these match. The latter creates a visual balance besides making the tank's volume larger.

Transition from Affinity Designer 2 to Canva Studio 3.2

 

After quite a long period of hesitation I upgraded from Affinity Designer version 2.0 to version 3.2. I admit that I was not exactly thrilled by the way in which the acquisition of the Affinity suit by Canva had taken place. In addition to which I dislike the AI component subscription model that the 3.2 version is included. After testing it however, I decided to implement the upgrade anyway. The transition was handled in quite a logical way, I must say; The vector, pixel and DTP modules are now combined into a single program, about which I was often puzzled why Affinity had not done that when they still owned the entire suit, particularly since most of the necessary conditions to make an assembly work, were already in existence. I have fiddled with the Canva version for a day or two and I admit their Studio version makes a lot of sense and speeds up the time to complete a file or document significantly, regardless if it is a vector or pixel file or a DTP document.

Canva Studio logo

I still think Serif (the company that originally built the Affinity suit) could have done a similar thing by themselves. But now we will never know if that would at some point have taken place. Around the time that the acquisition took place Affinity's technical head honcho wrote that there will be no subscription model, but that strategy did not emerge. It is one of the things that bothers me most, simply because it went on to the subscription path anyway. That could be expected to be honest, but it would show dignity if the buy and own the program would have been extended. But Affinity is of course much smaller than Canva and they would probably not have a feasible opportunity to continue what they seemed to have in mind. Outside of that, smaller companies get overtaken by bigger ones all the time when they have developed interesting programs. But that could have been shared with the Affinity user base in a more honest way, which explains my hesitation to upgrade. It just shows that in modern times it requires to take promises of the smaller business before the acquisition with a grain of salt.

First file created in Canva Studio.
The black & white photo of Carl Jung
was coloured with Canva's AI module.

However, the upgrades that are implemented under the Canva flag are too effective to ignore. Users must obviously accept that the overtaking of a small company's project by a larger player is what today's business world reflects. The dog eat dog mantra just whacks good intentions and leaves users with no choice then to deal with the result of an acquisition, if they want to profit from regular updates of the program they chose to use. In this article I am not going into the details of the improvements of functionality; I need more time to make a sensible effort in that direction and may do so in a not too distant future. I wrote this post mainly because I felt the urge to express what bothered me about the events surrounding Canva's acquisition against the promises made by Affinity around the take over.

Second image edited in Canva Studio,
after having created it in Affinity
Designer version 2.0 many years
ago. The dragon's colours were
made vibrant and saturated.

I am not pleased by the way the acquisition went, but I am satisfied with the functionality of Canva Studio and rather displeased with the subscription model aspect of it. But the newly introduced function upgrades allow me to work faster and better, partly because of an increased AI integration, while offering a suit that includes functions that give Adobe a pain in the rear end. Since 3.2 is significantly improved over version 2.0, I am curious what the future of Canva Studio will bring; will they go head on against Adobe and just keep adding functions that makes the more attractive for graphic designers or have they a few surprises that will surprise the future of graphic design and DTP. Bearing in mind how relatively fast Canva Studio introduced the upgrades to compared to Affinity Designer, we will most likely not have to wait a long to find out, I would guess.

Oh and by the way, I think Affinity and Canva have created a program that absolutely is going to destroy the shamelessly greed ridden Adobe empire. The software design and price are infinitely better what Adobe offers, that besides the huge subscription cost, has created a frustratingly complex path to get rid of Adobe products. Once users join Adobe, they are in a prison. Perhaps joining forces was the modestly concealed objective of the Affinity and Canva teams, that witnessed all of Adobe's competitors being bought over the years and then disappeared by the strategy of the (soon to be former) design market behemoth. The Affinity Canva Studio program's fantastic functionality - integrating vector, pixel and DTP in a single environment without ancient algorithms and UI like many Adobe programs have - already is well on its way to accomplish Adobe's much needed obliteration. In addition many Affinity processes take place in real time, so that users can actually see (unlike Adobe) what the result of their effort manipulation will actually look like while doing it. In the next blog entry I have made a simple exclusively vector modification to Benda's Napoleonbob motorcycle tank, that was entirely created in Affinity Canva Studio. Go take a peek and check it out.

Plasticity 3D program

 

Not too long ago the Plasticity 3D program was launched at a fair price, far below the very expensive traditional 3D programs, without without a subscription strategy, including a very comprehensive UI. Blender is an open source 3D program, downloadable at no cost that includes a 2D drawing module and an animation part, but its UI is horrifically difficult to learn. Plasticity's UI is logical, comprehensive and much more easy to absorb, offering a ton of functions that elevates it to the level of the established, very costly 3D programs, that currently dominate the CAD and 3D design market. To those that have discovered Plasticity will never return to their previously used, hugely overpriced programs and subscription based models. In addition Plasticity has what it calls a Blender Bridge that allows to further optimise textures and improve them with Blender's node editing tool. I would like to suggest to people that are into CAD and (product)design to pay a visit to their website, that demonstrates the program's capability and versatility in a clear way. Mind you, there are different versions, that include upgrades to the previous ones on the list. The meaningful upgrades have come at a reasonably elevated pace, adding tons of functions each time and expanding import and export possibilities. 

Plasticity 3D logo

I haven't yet had the time to dive into the possibilities of Plasticity, but I can already say with absolute certainty that I find it already far better and hugely less expensive than the top notch 3D programs that I have tried before. And one of its major bonusses is that you own the program once you have bought it, without having to pay subscription fees over and again. On Youtube there are a ton of videos that offer designers tutorials from simple to advanced designs - this link is the result of a search. Visit those channels as well if the aim is to quickly learn the program's possibilities and different design methods you should use by applying other functions to achieve better results.

For smooth and effective designs that have zero or close to none strain areas, Plasticity's Studio version's XNurbs function is an excellent and flawlessly working tool, that allow to make excellent use of advanced production tools. Its development has literally raced past the flawed functions - like intricate, diverse filleting - in other programs, that require applying a ton of time consuming work arounds, that required much time and skill to correct; Plasticity does these things right at the first try. It raises the question why programs in roughly the same league are so much more expensive than Plasticity is, while many of them trick users into poverty inciting subscription programs.

On Github there is a file packed with curated Plasticity tutorials; the page also includes links to tutorial sites of experienced Plasticity users. This page offers a list of resources on Plasticity's own website, that may be of interest to designers and CAD developers, including the much praised Discord public Plasticity forum. Anyway, enjoy this magnificent program and ditch the unaffordable 3D programs you used before. Plasticity is up to the challenge.