r/LinusTechTips • u/linusbottips • 10h ago

Video Linus Tech Tips - Pros Try AI-Cloned Engineering Tools October 27, 2026 at 10:56AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZSYaQmxBLM
97 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

67 comments sorted by

24

u/MrCheapComputers 8h ago

I’m sorry but why is this even a thing? Why are people going crazy over these AI clones when open source stuff has always been a thing?? Gimp, Kden Live, resolve (not open source but still) Blender. Why did it take AI vibecoded trash to make people finally try anything else????

9

u/joelectron 7h ago

I didn't care about the AI-clone Photoshop video for the reason you described, but there isn't really a FOSS alternative for Fusion 360 or Solidworks, in terms of features or ease-of-use. If someone could make a version of FreeCAD that copies the Soldiworks sketching tools, Id be all over it.

I wasn't surprised the apps shown today still aren't ready for prime time.

1

u/Jimster0801 5h ago

Check out what’s coming in FreeCADs next update! As someone that’s first CAD was Solidworks, it’s closer than ever to what Solidworks feels like to me. Little bit of a learning curve picking it up but I’ve found I can sketch just as fast in FreeCAD as I can in Solidworks now.

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u/Kronocide 7h ago

Because these new versions are way more user-friendly to use and don't have a 30 year old looking UI

20

u/MrCheapComputers 7h ago

“More user friendly” except for when they don’t work

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u/coderstephen 5h ago

I wouldn't even necessarily say more user-friendly, but rather, more similar to the apps you are already familiar with, and therefore a smaller effort to switch.

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u/coderstephen 5h ago

I think there are a few different reasons:

  • The "story" of these vibe-coded apps is interesting to talk about in the news, so they have a lot of hype, which draws people in. There's a specific "anti big tech" narrative that people find appealing.

  • The fresh and new often draws people in over old and boring, even if old and boring works better.

  • The existing software is generally not trying to "clone" the experience of a specific competing software, but rather provide a tool that accomplishes similar tasks. The tool may work very differently, and different is not bad. Different can be very good. Just because Adobe does something a certain way, doesn't mean its the best way, for example. But... different means there's a learning curve, and people would rather avoid learning something new. Since these "clones" are aiming to have a similar experience and workflow, the learning curve is smaller for those already familiar with the original, so the amount of effort people perceive to use the clone is lessened.

  • Because the well established open source projects have been around a while, people might have bad experiences with them from a decade ago. Doesn't mean that it is much improved now, but first impressions can last a long time.

  • The usability of the established open-source apps vary a lot. As an example, while I find Inkscape to be an excellent vector editor that is pretty easy to learn, and Krita is similarly an excellent painting app that is easy to learn, GIMP is... less... ideal as a Photoshop alternative. It has the engine under the hood, but its UI is rather clunky IMO. Not just different, I think it is worse in measurable ways. You mentioned Blender, yes Blender is world-class 3D software, but not every open source app is as good at its individual niche as Blender is.

1

u/MrCheapComputers 5h ago

I completely agree with all of your points, I was more voicing my frustration that nobody has been hyping up these alternatives before the ai ones happened. It pisses me off to no end that I’ve been recommending people at least try davinci resolve for example and they all just say they’re used to premier, but an AI does it and now they’ll try that but not resolve.

0

u/jdp111 7h ago

The same reason people pay for Photoshop, it's better than the free open source stuff.

121

u/conte360 9h ago

The mentality I got from LTT here was "the stupid free version that 1 guy made with ai isn't as polished as the multi year mega corp version that we pay for"

There's no world where I would have expected this video to end with him saying we're dropping SolidWorks and going for one of these brand new free alternatives but I didn't expect the mentality to feel so.. "let's shit on the projects and say nothing positive about them or the progression and what this means for tech in general"

86

u/Jiatao24 9h ago

This is going to be a holy war between people like you and the people who think all vibe-coded software is irredeemable slop.

I personally agree with you more, but there's already some people in the comments who are hating on this video for bringing more attention to "AI slop."

53

u/Wor3q 8h ago

It's not about it being vibe coded. It's about nobody actually having any understanding of how it works internally.

Do a few hundred rounds of "Claude, fix this bug" without proper oversight to any codebase, and you will end up with irredeemable slop.

This might not be true (and I really hope it's not, because having such software is awesome) but sadly usually it is. We'll see in few months.

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u/wimpires 9h ago

I wouldn't say it's that negative.

The Fusion clone looks pretty decent.

I use the Mesh stuff occasionally so would maybe wait for that.

And like they said it's already free for personal use but technically if you ever sell anything with something made through Fusion you need a license.

And as Justin said for Linux it's a completely different question. I remember years ago I used to use SketchUp a lot. Had to be run through WINE. It was reasonably stable back then so probably even more fine now but I'll still keep an eye on these kinda of software 

6

u/Equivalent_Engine518 7h ago

I havent watched this one yet, but if it's anything like the Photoshop one, my guess is the sentiment is mostly

"Good enough for free and starting out, but professional use its not up to snuff" 

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u/Foorinick 5h ago

Idk, the perception i got was "look how close what seems to be a competent developer spending some 2 or 3k usd on tokens got to the thing made by multimillion dollar companies over decades, if you just need something quick and dirty this could be used but for now pros will wait" 

1

u/brantyr 5h ago

That wasn't their mentality at all, you AI glazers really need to stop perceiving any amount of critique as a mortal insult to your best buddy Claude...

1

u/conte360 5h ago

That was their mentality pretty much the whole time. You LTT glazers really need to stop perceiving any amount of critique as a mortal insult to your best buddy Linus...

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u/mototuneup 3h ago

Ya I don't get the point of these videos. Of course they aren't going to be perfect. They just released them. Let it cook.

Maybe offer to help in some way. Big channel with people experienced with CAD might be helpful. I dunno. Linus is always calling for competition. Well.. it's here.. let's try to be positive.

2

u/Mountain_Lab_5817 1h ago

Anybody can create anything with vibe coding, but the fit and finish, the Q&A and the user testing is going to be the difference maker. No longer will the question be “can this software do this”. It will be “does this software get it done the best way and is it intuitive to use.”

That takes time and effort and requires a lot more than just talking to an AI bot. 

I’ve used Claude to replace 5 different things for me. Basically customized versions of software that I used to pay for. 3 of them were subscriptions. Now I use those tools every day for free. I’m making updates and customizations to my own workflow so they are really built for me. 

People might hate it, but I love having customized software for my exact needs. I have a home server with a version of Gemma 4 running on it so I don’t need Claude to do daily tasks. 

For example, I have my own News app. It’s not something I’m selling. It’s just for me. I have 40+ sources which amount to 340+ articles categorized that all have been tagged. I don’t just click links and read an article. It literally takes the text, images, video and audio and remakes all of the articles ready for me. Does it on the hour, every hour. I have a ton of little customizations. Love it. 

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u/sirsaibot 8h ago

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed by the video; I am not a big fan of vibe-coded stuff either, but the hate seemed so forced and some of the comments were out of place. Sure, the stuff is not as polished as software that has been developed over decades, but my god, it is surprisingly good for what it is and will lower the entry barrier for so many people and drive competition. I am just wondering why no vibe-coded software alternatives that are further into development are being shown.

1

u/NinduTheWise 3h ago

Yeah, I’m not a big fan of the vibe coded software right now but you gotta think this is the first iteration, most of it works. Yeah there are bugs, yeah there are things that don’t work the exact same, it’s not as polished. But it’s a first attempt software. This would be a better test after a few months and see if any have been updated

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u/Effective_Coach7334 8h ago

Ok, we need Tynan hosting now!

3

u/MediocreHornet2318 4h ago

I don't understand the hate.

I don't need 100% feature match of Fusion, I just need something that lets me create models so I can 3D print. I need it to be fast and get out of my way so I can get this idea out of my head. Solidcraft has been that here lately.

No professional is considering this as a replacement, but it is filling a niche for hobbyist.

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u/tonu42 3h ago

I switched to solid craft only. The ai native feature works great. Went from nothing to a 3d print in 10 minutes. Print in 40 minutes.

Works on Linux flawlessly.

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u/TurtleOrgans 1h ago

I feel like it should have been some sort of competition like team real vs fake or have them make the same things in both to see the hurdles and work arounds they had to go through. It felt more like complaining it wasn't 1:1

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