Technology

59166 readers

2278 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

After Raising $235K, Abode Remains Committed to Taking on Adobe (petapixel.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by simple@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

TL;DR:

Semple, a multi-disciplinary British artist, promised to build “a brand new suite of world-class design and photography tools, with an uncanny similarity to the tools you’ve been indoctrinated in.”

“There’s a really urgent need for a suite of creative tools for creators that they actually own rather than rent. In a way, this first started when Adobe and Pantone decided to paywall the Pantone colors and I created Freetone — which was a free color plugin so creators could continue to access their palette,” he says.

“I have lawyers, and I’ve taken advice. We have solid plans in place. I would also point out that nobody has seen the final branding and no software that infringes on any of Adobe’s trademarks has been produced,”

“I have successfully challenged IP owned by Tiffany and Co, Pantone, Mattel, and others over the years. I feel we have a good and thorough understanding of where the legal line is and an ability to get as close to that as possible without overstepping it.”

all 9 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] hardypart@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

Awesome guy! I hope he will succeed with this project. I'm also wondering if that guy who made photopea.com is in his team, because if not he should definitely hit him up.

[–] kthxbye_reddit@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

I‘m not yet convinced. Not enough to see what this is going to look like. And I don‘t find the copycat-name very serious. I hear already the lawyers knocking on their doors.

For alternatives to Adobe I can recommend Affinity software, which is a non-subscription alternative and Photopea as a free browser alternative for PS.

[–] ddnomad@infosec.pub 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm highly sceptical of this shipping in a state that can compete with Adobe at the end of it all. The branding itself is asking for trouble, which is just plain stupid if you are serious about long-term and sustainable development of the whole suite, and 180k is not enough to even put together a competent alternative to Illustrator, not to mention Photoshop and InDesign.

And before people start claiming that you can fund this by outsourcing to Eastern Europe / India etc, please bear in mind that you usually get what you pay for. A competent developer with enough experience to actually make this happen won't come cheap, and opportunistic juniors with big ambitions won't deliver.

I wish this project all the luck it can get, but I'm personally banking on Graphite and Inkscape from the FOSS world and Affinity suite from (as of yet) less corpo commercial offerings.

[–] hardypart@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

and opportunistic juniors with big ambitions won’t deliver.

Have you ever heard about photopea.com? Made by ONE guy.

[–] ddnomad@infosec.pub 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've never heard of that project, looks pretty cool! To be clear, I do not say that "one guy" cannot possibly make great software. Passion projects are a thing. What differentiates them from the Abode situation, in my opinion, is that passion projects rarely have strict deadlines and paying backers who expect software that is Adobe-level in terms of quality and polish in a roughly 1 year.

[–] hardypart@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

Fair point.