Brandon Thomas, the software engineer behind the open-source Adobe alternative suite ArtCraft, has announced a new collection of free applications aimed at replacing core Microsoft Office programs.
Developed with the assistance of the Claude AI model, the new suite consists of GridCraft, DeckCraft, and WordCraft, which are designed to replicate Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, respectively. Thomas, an engineer with 15 years of experience who previously went by the Reddit handle u/ai_art_is_art, launched the projects as a counter to subscription-driven business models prevalent across major software vendors.
Addressing critics who dismissed the software as low-effort AI output, Thomas defended his engineering background on X, asserting that modern AI systems enable a single developer to match the operational capacity of an entire company. Beyond eliminating subscription costs, a primary focus for the software is operating natively across Windows, macOS, and Linux to provide a uniform user experience without requiring Linux emulation layers or online-only browser access.
The developer’s growing Discord community has already begun suggesting additional targets for future development, including a tool dubbed “CADcraft” aimed at Autodesk’s proprietary 3D modeling and engineering software. However, the current applications remain far from reaching complete feature parity with the established commercial platforms they seek to emulate.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
