Paint.NET Is Now Available in the Windows Store

Megalith

Megalith

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Legendary old-school drawing app Paint.NET has arrived in the Windows Store, but with a catch: while the classic version is available for free, the Microsoft Store version will cost you $8.99 (currently on sale for $5.99). This decision was made to offset the lack of donations supporting its development.

Paint.NET is now ready to download to any Windows 10 PC with a free trial. There is also a discounted price of $5.99 for the app, which is a savings from the regular $8.99 price tag. That sale runs through all of October. The price is thought more of as a donation to support the app's continued development, although users can use the app with the free trial method instead.
 
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Apparently the issue is that MS has restrictions around how "free" apps can work with alternate revenue streams (likely to provide security to parents that Timmy isn't spewing unknown micro-transactions somewhere), which prevented providing their free version /w it's donation requests.
 
So are they building the "Windows store" INTO the windows 10 OS
or is it just a normal webpage store that you have an option to see or not see?
 
Been using Paint.NET for probably 10 years. Absolutely love it. Got the wife to use it. It has most of the key features of a real photo editing software (layers, rotations, masking, etc). But not too many features that it becomes obtuse like Photoshop. The mod scene is also fairly flaky in terms of finding them and actually downloading them. But in general, I can do pretty much any general photo manipulation I need using Paint.NET and do it quickly.

And it's super lightweight since it uses capabilities tied into the .NET framework.

I honestly would give the guy $9 as a way to say thank you. I have never donated to him and he does deserve something for supporting the software all these years. It is humorous though because when you install the "normal" version there is a long time warning about "This is a free program, if you paid for it you should demand your money back".

You gotta understand, it takes time and money to make this stuff. If you (the user) are relying solely on the creators interest and good will to put out a product, you will end up with Linux where there are tons of great applications that start off strong and then die a year later. People get bored and move on. Money is a motivator to stay.
 
JosiahBradley said:
Does 9$ get you more than say 0$ gimp?
Click to expand...

"Easy to use" is a long running joke when it comes to Gimp. Like telling someone Photoshop is easy to use.

Q: How do I draw line in Photoshop?
A: First select the layer lock filter. Then apply the focus depth modifier macro. Next, simply use the keyboard shortcut ctrl-shift-prntscreen-numlock-esc-W-9 and the plus key (DO NOT HIT numlock before prntscreen as that would be shortcut for uninstall program and delete library)
 
westrock2000 said:
Been using Paint.NET for probably 10 years. Absolutely love it. Got the wife to use it. It has most of the key features of a real photo editing software (layers, rotations, masking, etc). But not too many features that it becomes obtuse like Photoshop. The mod scene is also fairly flaky in terms of finding them and actually downloading them. But in general, I can do pretty much any general photo manipulation I need using Paint.NET and do it quickly.

And it's super lightweight since it uses capabilities tied into the .NET framework.

I honestly would give the guy $9 as a way to say thank you. I have never donated to him and he does deserve something for supporting the software all these years. It is humorous though because when you install the "normal" version there is a long time warning about "This is a free program, if you paid for it you should demand your money back".

You gotta understand, it takes time and money to make this stuff. If you (the user) are relying solely on the creators interest and good will to put out a product, you will end up with Linux where there are tons of great applications that start off strong and then die a year later. People get bored and move on. Money is a motivator to stay.
Click to expand...

This program was free and open source. At version 4 it became just free and stopped letting folks access the source code to remove the possibility of forks. With this move they have turned it into a commercial product and now has to compete with other commercial products. As a free product, it was a kickass program. As a commercial product it competes on a dollar-dollar basis with the likes of photoshop, corel and others in that arena. I have donated in the past, but now that is officially commercial, I will move on to the competitors even though they cost a little more (Corel's paintshop pro is pretty cheap).
 
westrock2000 said:
Been using Paint.NET for probably 10 years. Absolutely love it. Got the wife to use it. It has most of the key features of a real photo editing software (layers, rotations, masking, etc). But not too many features that it becomes obtuse like Photoshop. The mod scene is also fairly flaky in terms of finding them and actually downloading them. But in general, I can do pretty much any general photo manipulation I need using Paint.NET and do it quickly.

And it's super lightweight since it uses capabilities tied into the .NET framework.

I honestly would give the guy $9 as a way to say thank you. I have never donated to him and he does deserve something for supporting the software all these years. It is humorous though because when you install the "normal" version there is a long time warning about "This is a free program, if you paid for it you should demand your money back".

You gotta understand, it takes time and money to make this stuff. If you (the user) are relying solely on the creators interest and good will to put out a product, you will end up with Linux where there are tons of great applications that start off strong and then die a year later. People get bored and move on. Money is a motivator to stay.
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The issue isn't whether or not the developer deserves money for his work. Yes ofcourse he does.

The issue is feeding the cancer that is the windows Microsoft store (or whatever they're calling it this week) to give the guy money after MS skims 30%.

What's worse is you'll end up not with program files you can move freely to another drive, PC, or even different version of Windows. Instead you'll have have a DRM jailed, UWP wrappered Win32 fake app tied to a Microsoft account, which you can't copy to another drive or PC because the program files are obfuscated. And it'll only work on Windows 10, and only as long as Microsoft hasn't yet abandoned the store like they did the Windows 8.x store - where they left people with app purchases to rot.

TLDR: just get the exe version from the website and donate directly if you want to show your appreciation for the software. You'll get the same update experience with the exe version, so the store version is literally giving MS money for nothing, and getting a version with all kinds of extra limitations.
 
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More hilarious, it seems Microsoft is now actively censoring reviews for the store version that mention it's free at the website.

Asshats. But you can imagine how cancerous things would become for software distribution if MS ever got any kind of momentum going with that store.
 
Loose Nut said:
So are they building the "Windows store" INTO the windows 10 OS
or is it just a normal webpage store that you have an option to see or not see?
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Windows store has been inside Windows since Windows 8. Search for store and it will come up.

And I get the impression that some here seem to think Paint.NET is a Microsoft product. It is not.
 
DPI said:
For a free program, yes.
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You do know that the guy needs to eat you know, food costs money. $8.99 is not a lot to ask for when you consider other programs like it (Photoshop) are far more expensive and requires a yearly subscription. Oh... the agony of spending $8.99 ($5.99 for a limited time) as a one-time fee is so going to hurt you so badly.

cyberguyz said:
With this move they have turned it into a commercial product and now has to compete with other commercial products.
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How is it commercial? You can still download program for free if you're an absolute cheapskate.

No wonder why lots of programs that once started out as free end up being paid-for programs. Ungrateful bastards.
 
DPI said:
More hilarious, it seems Microsoft is now actively censoring reviews for the store version that mention it's free at the website. Asshats.
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Oh, you mean like what Steam does. But because it's Microsoft people get their panties in a twist.

The hypocrisy knows no bounds here.
 
Microsoft is the one responsible for this new charge to get it as a Windows Store UWP app, not the developer, so point the finger where it actually needs to be pointed.

Been a long time user of Paint.NET and still use it almost daily right alongside Paint Shop Pro 7.04. They do everything I require for image editing, with incredibly small space requirements, and that's about as simple as it gets. Both programs load in under 1 second even on my older laptop with a 1st gen Sandy Bridge dual core i7, they get the job done just fine and they don't require 3GB+ of space (barely 100MB of drive space consumed by both programs total).

And as mentioend earlier, Paint.NET even works with Photoshop layers support (for .PSD files) as well with a plugin that's free too: http://www.psdplugin.com/

Pretty amazing tool considering the sheer size of it, highly efficient coding that is tough to beat. And as noted, Paint.NET is still free and more than likely always will be in its native form:

https://www.getpaint.net/
 
Tiberian said:
Microsoft is the one responsible for this new charge to get it as a Windows Store UWP app, not the developer, so point the finger where it actually needs to be pointed.
Click to expand...
How so? There's lot of free programs on the Windows Store.

Tiberian said:
highly efficient coding that is tough to beat
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And to think that the program is written in Microsoft .NET, C# to be specific.
 
Gigus Fire said:
why would you bother to pay for it through the windows store?
Click to expand...
Perhaps to give credit where credit is due. The program is a great program... the guy should be paid for his hard work!!!

Have you donated to the guy? Have you thrown him any money lately? You should!
 
trparky said:
Perhaps to give credit where credit is due. The program is a great program... the guy should be paid for his hard work!!!

Have you donated to the guy? Have you thrown him any money lately? You should!
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This has nothing to do with anything. Do you think the microsoft store doesn't take a cut?
 
Yes and so does Steam but nobody complains about Steam taking a cut. But since it's Microsoft it's suddenly bad. Bullshit. The hypocrisy knows no bounds here.
 
Where's the outrage against Steam? Oh yeah... nowhere to be found.

If you're going to crucify Microsoft for doing something then you better damn well crucify others for doing the same thing. My hypocrisy only goes so far!
 
trparky said:
Yes and so does Steam but nobody complains about Steam taking a cut. But since it's Microsoft it's suddenly bad. Bullshit. The hypocrisy knows no bounds here.
Click to expand...
The cut is the least of the issue. It's about the extra bullshit that Microsoft goes out of their way to layer on top.

Steam doesn't obfuscate program files.
Steam doesn't require DRM.
Steam doesn't discriminate windows versions.
Steam won't censor a review that mentions a free or cheaper way to get the software.
Steam purchases won't become useless with a new version of Windows.

Shall I go on?
 
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I'll pay them $9 just for the use I've gotten out of it so far.

Thanks guys, good product.
 
DPI said:
Steam doesn't obfuscate program files into a bullshit wrapper.
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There is a technical point to this though, they want to make sure that no programs files can be tampered with by viruses and other malware. They're trying to recreate the idea that all programs run within a sandbox much like apps do on Google Android and Apple iOS. That's really the only way Windows will ever become anywhere close to being as secure a platform that both Google Android and Apple iOS is.
 
Your technical point is good one, but it comes with too many restrictions for many PC users. Couple that with the general distrust MS has earned, and the idea that they are doing this for any reason that is good for consumers gets pretty difficult to swallow.
 
Gorankar said:
Your technical point is good one, but it comes with too many restrictions for many PC users.
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We, as technically included users, may find that environment to be too restrictive but to those people who are absolutely sick and tired of their systems being infected all the damn time, this change would be very welcome.
 
Think about it this way... Do you have anyone in your life that you would just love to rip that PC away and hand them an iPad (or Android equivalent)? You know the kind, the kind of person that no matter how many times you have tried to teach them safe computing habits and watched them do an absolutely boneheaded mistake which makes you want to not only scream at them but rip their head off. I'm sure that you know a lot of people like that. Those are the people who I would love to just rip the PC away from, tell them they are too stupid to use a PC, and to hand them an iPad and say "Here, you can't possibly fuck up using this".

A lot of people need this kind of hand-holding and they need a whole lot more. This is what Microsoft is trying to do with the Windows Store, turn Windows into a secure platform that people can trust and depend upon with a trustworthy ecosystem which is the exact opposite of what we have now which is the equivalent of the Wild Wild West.
 
trparky said:
Think about it this way... Do you have anyone in your life that you would just love to rip that PC away and hand them an iPad (or Android equivalent)? You know the kind, the kind of person that no matter how many times you have tried to teach them safe computing habits and watched them do an absolutely boneheaded mistake which makes you want to not only scream at them but rip their head off. I'm sure that you know a lot of people like that. Those are the people who I would love to just rip the PC away from, tell them they are too stupid to use a PC, and to hand them an iPad and say "Here, you can't possibly fuck up using this".

A lot of people need this kind of hand-holding and they need a whole lot more. This is what Microsoft is trying to do with the Windows Store, turn Windows into a secure platform that people can trust and depend upon with a trustworthy ecosystem which is the exact opposite of what we have now which is the equivalent of the Wild Wild West.
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By selling free products and taking a cut.
 
trparky said:
A lot of people need this kind of hand-holding and they need a whole lot more. This is what Microsoft is trying to do with the Windows Store, turn Windows into a secure platform that people can trust and depend upon with a trustworthy ecosystem which is the exact opposite of what we have now which is the equivalent of the Wild Wild West.
Click to expand...

Yeah except the "wild west" has been lining MIcrosoft's pockets with hundreds of billions of dollars for about three decades. Its been very profitable for them. So trying to now pivot and cripple legacy windows into a nanny OS just isn't going to translate or really create any value for users.

And I'd argue that Microsoft is not interested in actually creating a secure platform - otherwise they wouldn't be building this supposed "secure platform" on top of the 3 decades worth of spaghetti code. They actually had a shot with Windows RT but abandoned it quickly.

Microsoft doesn't want to put any work in actually innovating and creating killer first party apps that get people interested in the windows store. They want the "five minute abs" version; to skip straight to the part where they're taking a 30% cut off anything in the store without lifting a finger.

The kind of people that can't get certain kinds of computing done on a mobile device and for whom windows proper is "too scary cuz they might get a virus", are just increasingly going to be resorting to chromebooks - the transition is already well underway in educational, medical and business sectors. Zero-effort rebrands like Windows "S" is too little, too late.
 
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DPI said:
It's been working out just fine.
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Oh so you have no problem with the fact that Windows is a virus-ridden cesspool of filth? I myself have a problem with that and I know that a lot of other people do as well.
 
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trparky said:
Oh so you have no problem with the fact that Windows is a virus-ridden cesspool? I myself have a problem with that and I know that a lot of other people do as well.
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Putting your straw man aside for a moment since that's not what I said, the windows 10 store is not an antivirus, anti-malware or security multiplier.

If anything, the store is a bigger threat than just a vanilla installation of Windows 7 with a decent antivirus. Why, because it's an anything-but-curated trashdump of third worlder scam apps and knockoff apps. Actually take a look in there sometime and tell me I'm lying.
 
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But if you need to get your apps from a store where the apps are curated and filtered that should reduce malware infection down to near zero. At least, in theory of course.
 
Unless you shut off the ability to install programs except from the store, the common infection routes, clicking shit in emails, and web browsers, will remain. The store, at this point offers no real protection.
 
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