Vibe Coding Push Targets Microsoft Office After Free Adobe Clones

From Photoshop to PowerPoint in a Matter of Days

Brandon Thomas built a set of free Adobe look-alikes with AI, and he has now moved on to Microsoft. The software engineer, who goes by u/ai_art_is_art on Reddit, has released open-source versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint called WordCraft, GridCraft and DeckCraft. He built them with Anthropic's Claude and posted them to the ArtCraft GitHub, where anyone can download them for free.13 TechRadar's headline on the Office release says the apps are meant to "take down" Microsoft Office. Every outlet covering the story also agrees that the new apps are less finished than the Adobe clones that came first.1

The timing explains why the story has spread. In early October, Gizmodo reported that Thomas, who is based in Atlanta, had used Claude Opus 5.5 and the Rust programming language to recreate Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, Acrobat Pro, After Effects and InDesign. All of them were released under the ArtCraft name.8 About a week later, CNET counted 13 free, open-source apps on the ArtCraft website, now covering both Adobe and Microsoft software.10 AppleInsider also lists clones aimed at AutoCAD (CADCraft) and Avid Pro Tools (SoundCraft).9

What the Office Clones Actually Claim

TechSpot gives the most detailed technical account. It reports that the three Office apps are written in Rust with Claude Opus 5.5 and released under MIT or Apache 2.0 licenses. According to that report, WordCraft runs natively on Windows, macOS, Linux and BSD, and in a browser through WebAssembly. It uses one Rust codebase for every platform and does not rely on Electron or Tauri. It reads and writes .docx files, can import the older .doc format, and exports PDFs with selectable text.

The progress figures come from the project itself, so they should be read as Thomas's own claims. TechSpot says WordCraft has implemented 88% of Word's ribbon commands and estimates about 60% overall feature parity. GridCraft reportedly covers 89% of Excel's ribbon commands and about 98% of its worksheet functions. DeckCraft claims 79% parity across 191 PowerPoint features. By the project's own estimate, GridCraft is only about 50% "ready for real work" and DeckCraft about 55%, and all three apps are still in alpha.

Users who have tried the software describe something rougher than those numbers suggest. One AppleInsider commenter who tested WordCraft said it opened and closed quickly, but found that text boxes would not accept text and that WordArt simply replaced the selected words with placeholder text.9

The Growth Story Is the Real Story

The Office release matters less for the code than for what it shows about distribution. Software that once needed large teams can now gather a big audience within weeks. BGR reports that the official ArtCraft Discord server had about 120,000 members when it wrote its piece, and says the main attraction is the feeling of escaping expensive subscriptions.14 Tom's Hardware also describes the Discord as growing fast, with members suggesting which apps to clone next. CADCraft comes up often among 3D-printing and engineering hobbyists who dislike Autodesk.13 The Manila Bulletin reports that Autodesk appeared to be leading the community's poll on what to clone next.

For a project this new, that level of engagement is unusual. AppleInsider credits the idea of a "free" Photoshop with drawing much of the attention and expects the project to last.9 Thomas is also trying to make money from it. Ground News notes that he sells a Max subscription for generative AI features, which was 20% off at the time.4 So the suite itself is free, but the business depends on enough of that audience paying for AI features. One Reddit commenter said this model "could work" while still calling the current apps unreliable.2

The user-growth pitch is clearly built on frustration with subscriptions. Thomas has said he started the project after being hit by Adobe's "cancellation fee" too many times. He told Lifehacker that AI lets people "take back tech," and in another comment he declared that "Software is over."5 Gizmodo points out that Adobe agreed this year to a $150 million settlement with federal regulators, who had accused it of trapping customers in subscription plans.8 Tom's Hardware calls the Office clones a "targeted protest" against Microsoft's move from one-time purchases to subscription bundles.13 CNET connects their appeal to the cost of living in the US and to irritation with AI features added to products people already use, such as Microsoft's Copilot.10

'There Is No Reason to Save Broken Software'

The line that drew the most attention came when critics asked why Thomas uses AI rather than contributing to existing open-source projects like LibreOffice, GIMP and Thunderbird. "GIMP sucks," he said, adding that it "has always sucked" and that "there is no reason to save broken software."1 He also told a story about LibreOffice losing a 40-page essay during his finals week.1 He has said that AI models let him "work as an entire company."4

The comment has given critics an easy line of attack. The most-upvoted responses in the r/technology thread call the remark hypocritical, coming from someone whose own apps are widely described as buggy.2 Another commenter noted that the quote could be turned against Thomas once his own code gets old.2

The coverage also disagrees about how much of this counts as "vibe coding." Gizmodo quotes Thomas saying he is "not just some casual vibe coder" but a 15-year industry veteran who has built payment systems and robotics software.8 Tom's Hardware says he answered accusations of "AI slop" by insisting he knows how to code.13 Still, the coverage agrees that Claude did most of the work.1 The disagreement matters. If the project's success depends on an experienced engineer directing the AI, it is less of a case that anyone can replace Office over a weekend.

Look-Alike Versus Replacement

Reviews of the Adobe clones show where the Office apps may be headed. Lifehacker found PhotoCraft very close to Photoshop in its menus and tools and could move its everyday workflow over almost unchanged. It still noted bugs and said it would not give up Photoshop.5 Gizmodo said PhotoCraft felt like "glitchy, but real" Photoshop and preferred it to GIMP, though its Free Transform tool misbehaved.8 On Hacker News, Thomas himself called the apps "not anywhere close to ready" and offered bug bounties to contributors.8 WindowsForum, citing How-To Geek, says PhotoCraft uses a lot of memory, lacks more than a dozen key Photoshop tools, and is not ready for professional work.6

Office is harder to break into than Adobe. For years, free options like LibreOffice and Google Docs have done little damage to Microsoft's Office sales, and readers doubt that one developer can keep up with fixes and updates.1 Microsoft 365 brings in more than $100 billion a year, according to BGR, which argues that Microsoft's heavy spending on AI is now producing tools that compete with it.14 Reddit's sharpest counterargument is about files, not features. Businesses have years of .docx and .xlsx documents that must look exactly right, and a clone that renders them slightly wrong is of little use to them.2 Even LibreOffice, after more than 15 years of development, still has trouble with complex layouts, VBA macros and tools such as Power Query.6

The legal questions are also unresolved. AppleInsider compares the "clean-room" claim to the cloning of IBM's BIOS, which held up in court, but warns that copying an interface so closely could still invite litigation. It adds that Adobe would only need to threaten a lawsuit to cause damage.9 Shortly after the Office announcement, TechRadar reported on a separate vibe-coded project: Paul Ford's Tiny Little Office, a browser suite that stores documents in the URL. It suggests the trend goes well beyond one developer.11

The Verdict

The ArtCraft Office apps do not yet threaten Microsoft's main business, and businesses will keep paying for compatibility, security and accountability. CNET reaches a similar conclusion.10 The more lasting lesson is about growth. A single engineer directing an AI model produced 13 recognizable clones and built a six-figure community in just a few weeks.1014 That suggests a convincing interface may now be enough to reach a large consumer audience fast. Whether that audience stays depends on whether these apps open real-world files reliably and keep working through ongoing maintenance. Thomas has not shown he can do that yet.