Overview of “1047: Adobe has a big problem”
Wes and Scott react to a surprisingly capable, newly built clean-room Adobe suite clone—especially the Photoshop equivalent—and use it as a jumping-off point to discuss the future of creative software, whether “copying” existing tools is enough, and why the next generation of design/editing apps may need to rethink the workflow entirely rather than just imitate Adobe.
Adobe Clone Demo: Why It’s Shocking
What impressed them
- The new app is a clean-room recreation of multiple Adobe tools:
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- Premiere
- Lightroom
- InDesign-like tools
- Animation/After Effects-style features
- Wes tested it with real, complex Photoshop files and found it:
- Very fast
- Much faster to open than Photoshop
- Shockingly close in behavior and output
- It handled many real-world Photoshop features well:
- stacked filters
- masks
- blend modes
- text
- layered effects
- Their reaction: this is not a toy demo; it feels like a legitimate product.
What still doesn’t work
- Some Photoshop interactions are missing or imperfect:
- effect panel collapsing
- certain masking shortcuts
- drag-and-drop behavior
- multi-artboard documents
- Large, complex PSDs can still crash the app.
- The UI is the hardest part to fully replicate, especially the tiny interaction details professionals rely on.
Clean Room Development: How It’s Possible
Their explanation
- They discuss the concept of a clean room implementation:
- one system/person observes and documents behavior
- another system/person writes the code without directly copying the original
- The goal is to recreate functionality without directly reverse-engineering proprietary code.
- They note the project apparently has:
- thousands of tests
- thousands of Photoshop fixture files
- rapid progress over only a couple of weeks
Why it matters
- This demonstrates how quickly modern tooling can recreate professional-grade software.
- It also raises the question of whether the next major creative suite will be:
- a direct clone of Adobe, or
- a totally new interface and workflow.
Bigger Conversation: What Is the Next Photoshop?
Their main thesis
- A straight clone of Photoshop is useful, but probably not the final answer.
- The real winner may be a tool that:
- rethinks the workflow
- feels better to use
- uses AI in a way that improves, rather than awkwardly patches, the experience
Why Adobe is still sticky
- Adobe remains hard to leave because:
- it’s the industry standard
- Photoshop files are deeply embedded in workflows
- many alternatives fail on compatibility and feature completeness
- They note that many “alternatives” are not practical for professional work.
Their prediction
- The next major creative tool won’t just be “Photoshop but free.”
- It will likely be a new interaction model that changes how users think about image editing, just like:
- Figma changed collaborative design
- DaVinci Resolve changed video editing workflows
Figma, MCP, and Platform Control
The Figma tangent
- The conversation shifts to Figma’s stance on MCP / AI tool integrations.
- Wes and Scott discuss Figma being selective about which AI tools can connect through MCP.
- They compare this to other platform behaviors:
- Amazon controlling shopping flows
- Reddit limiting model access
- X/Twitter restricting access
- Anthropic being selective about integrations too
Their takeaway
- Big platforms want to:
- control the experience
- control the ecosystem
- control monetization
- This is not unique to Figma; it’s part of a broader industry pattern.
What They Think Actually Wins
Their “moats”
- Great UI/interaction design
- not just visual polish, but tiny interaction details
- drag, click, hover, state changes, keyboard behaviors
- A founder/team that cares long-term
- Wes jokes that the real moat is someone who keeps caring after day two
- Reliability and bug handling
- They emphasize that “paper cuts” and small bugs can kill adoption even if the core product is impressive
Important insight
- AI makes it easy to build prototypes.
- It is still hard to build durable, polished software that professionals can depend on.
Bugs, Telemetry, and Sentry
Why bug capture matters
- They discuss a crash in the app when opening a large PSD with multiple artboards.
- Their point: once software reaches users, the difference between “cool” and “usable” is often bug tracking and fast iteration.
- They recommend having strong error monitoring in place so issues are captured early.
Sponsor mention
- They give a plug for Sentry as the kind of tool you need once real users start hitting edge cases.
Sick Picks
Scott’s sick pick: 3D-printing a custom rack
- Scott built a 3D-printed equipment rack under his desk.
- It’s designed to hold:
- Raspberry Pi cluster hardware
- Mac Studio / Mac mini
- Synology and network gear
- He praises:
- the sturdiness
- the practical layout
- the aesthetic choices
- He notes he used PETG to avoid warping.
Wes’s sick pick: Insta360 camera
- Wes recommends the Insta360 Luna as a second camera for B-roll and handheld filming.
- He likes it because:
- it’s easy to use
- it avoids tying up his phone
- it simplifies making higher-quality secondary footage
- He compares it to other camera rigs that were too fussy to actually use consistently.
Main Takeaways
- A surprisingly capable Adobe clone is already here, and it’s far better than expected.
- Recreating Photoshop is impressive, but the real innovation will come from new workflows, not just copies.
- UI/interaction quality is the true moat in creative software.
- Big platforms are tightening control over AI integrations and ecosystems.
- Good software still depends on:
- polish
- care
- bug tracking
- relentless iteration