Live data from Hacker News

MS Paint is here to stay

blogs.windows.com

211–220 of 320 posts

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#211

There are much better free [web based] alternatives for WordPad, Paint and Notepad these days and I prefer to use those over these obsolete applications. These are not useful applications, we just like them because of nostalgia. I doubt if Microsoft is removing Paint because of OS base image size. It should be more about source code maintenance and UI consistency. Both WordPad and Paint got ribbon user interface for…

Microsoft should take those apps and put them into Windows by default. It's a trivial thing for us in the tech community to install these ourselves. However, a significant population remains unaware.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#212
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also open up MS Word (almost guaranteed to be installed on a locked down corporate Windows machine), and paste the image into a blank document. For bonus points you can then right click the pasted image, and select 'Save As PNG'.

Customers frequently send me screen shots pasted into a Word document, sigh ...

I frequently get screenshots pasted into PowerPoint "presentations". Couple times I even got a photo of the monitor taken with a cellphone camera.

I don't fault them for this in the least because they did what they knew how to do to accomplish the task and the task was accomplished effectively, I was able to see their screen.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#213

This thread shows clearly the negativity around everything Microsoft does, especially if you compare to other technology companies. Apple deprecates some API or removes a feature? "It's the future, you have to adapt, etc" Microsoft deprecates a toy program made 25 years ago, but still offers the option of downloading it for free? "How dare they, I want it in the base install, etc"

One of the (many, many) reasons I ditched OS X after more than 10 years and went back to Linux and Windows, depending on the task at hand, is the removal of the colored Finder labels. What an inane reason, you may say. But IMHO it was one of the best features ever introduced into desktop computing. Simple, easy to see colored backgrounds that you could assign to files to organize or tag them as you saw fit. (seen/not…

Wasn't removed, just tweaked. It shows a colored dot now instead of a background.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if the entire App and Windows Store system is disabled per corporate policy and/or firewall.

That's not really MS's fault then, is it? If IT doesn't want you installing apps, that's on them.

But you can install any app from Sourceforge/, it's just that MS has chosen not to offer their App Store in the Win10 Long Term Support Branch, which most enterprises use. So they've actually locked you out of the walled garden, which is a bit funny.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my problem with Windows 10. It is no longer an operating system it is an advertising platform.

This isn't massively new either: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Desktop

Active Desktop was always optional, wasn't it? And was it really used for advertising by default? I thought it was mostly arbitrary browser windows that you could attach to the desktop.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#216
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's both. Having ads on some apps doesn't make it not an OS anymore. I won't deny it's an advertising platform, just like android or ios or television or radio or the internet. And while it's equally annoying on all those media/systems, it doesn't lessen their or usefulness

There are ads in the Windows UI. I've been an iOS user for 9 years and can't recall seeing an ad in the OS. So it does not seem "just like" iOS, at all.

Music has started showing Apple Music ads, and Apple has also advertised its News app with a push notification on one of my devices.

The fact that Apple Watch has its own pre-installed app feels like an ad to me as well.

And don't get me started on App Store ads... https://twitter.com/nuthatch/status/879783700279418881

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if the entire App and Windows Store system is disabled per corporate policy and/or firewall.

That's not really MS's fault then, is it? If IT doesn't want you installing apps, that's on them.

Wasn't an issue before MS removed core functionality from their desktop OS. At some point one wonders if Apple's success has Microsoft regretting that Windows wasn't locked down and app-ified from the beginning.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn't be running binaries you don't trust no matter where they come from :) . And honestly I would probably use the MS store if it didn't suck balls. Seriously whoever designed their "modern" UI needs to get booted. It's terrible and the main reason nobody uses the windows app store. Ubuntu, MacOS, and even Steam on Windows all have a good app store interface. MS designed the OS and their version is a UI nigh…

I agree that the Windows App Store is a bad experience. I don't agree that they should extend add/remove programs to encompass this functionality. It's from literally 1995 and should be removed from Windows. It's actually really funny to me how some dialogue boxes and options modals have been unchanged for 20 years.

add/remove is a better UX than the Windows Store even though it's barely been touched for 20 years :)

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#219
post #11

What is, and has been great about MS Paint is that no matter what Windows machine I have been on, I know that I have had it available. No matter if it's my old grandma's computer, if I have needed to quickly do something simple with an image, MS Paint has always been there for me. Now that will no longer be the case. If I have to download and install it on the computer before I use it, then what is the point? It will…

> It will be faster to just google "MS paint online free" and click the first link.

I imagine that will be a common reaction, in which case Microsoft is adding one more to the channels of malware distribution.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#220

This thread shows clearly the negativity around everything Microsoft does, especially if you compare to other technology companies. Apple deprecates some API or removes a feature? "It's the future, you have to adapt, etc" Microsoft deprecates a toy program made 25 years ago, but still offers the option of downloading it for free? "How dare they, I want it in the base install, etc"

One of the (many, many) reasons I ditched OS X after more than 10 years and went back to Linux and Windows, depending on the task at hand, is the removal of the colored Finder labels. What an inane reason, you may say. But IMHO it was one of the best features ever introduced into desktop computing. Simple, easy to see colored backgrounds that you could assign to files to organize or tag them as you saw fit. (seen/not…

Sigh. My client's file server at the time was full of PSD files that designers colour-coded based on how urgent/finished something was. It was the best Finder feature ever.

It's a good example of how Apple's stubbornness can ruin software: some designers had a misguided idea about the cloud ("file systems are bad, people are too dumb for folders"), so they tried to build iCloud around isolated app silos. Then they realised that it gets messy once you have lots of files, and instead of admitting their mistake, they doubled down on not having folders and replaced colour labels by tags (which require more clicks than labels, and are much harder to see).

Of course, one version later they did give up on app-based silos, and introduced iCloud Drive. But what a stupid journey that was, and you can still see the scars in Apple's UI (app-based folders cluttering iCloud Drive, dedicated "tags" input field in every Save File dialog).

Post reply on HN