Creator of free Adobe clones unveils open-source Microsoft Office Excel, PowerPoint, and Word replications

What happened

Brandon Thomas, developer of ArtCraft, a suite of open-source creative tools meant to replicate Adobe applications for free, has now announced apps to replace Microsoft Office tools such as Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, respectively, named GridCraft, DeckCraft, and WordCraft, that are created with Claude. ArtCraft is expanding its roster of open-source creative tools as cross-platform alternatives to predatory subscription models. Microsoft is a software and software development company based in Redmond.

After his ArtCraft project became popular, many criticisms followed about vibecoded software and AI slop, to which Brandon responded on his X account that he does know how to code, further defending himself. What was once a one-time purchase now comes as a subscription package with various tools that many don’t need; many even have overlapping features and uses, essentially wasting some of the subscription value. It seems that Brandon Thomas is not only creating open-source alternatives, but is also creating a targeted protest against these practices.