3 ms·

MS goes on to open source the famous and non interesting parts of its products. What's next? Notepad, Ms Paint? Shall we see anything bigger than VS Code?

shawnz 8y ago
> Shall we see anything bigger than VS Code? .NET framework?
- sebazzz 8y ago
  That has no use, as you can almost certainly not install and use it anywhere. .NET framework is an OS component you probably don't want to mess with. And Microsoft neither, given they only innovate in .NET Core nowadays.
  - shawnz 8y ago
    OK, .NET core then. The point is the same.
dvtrn 8y ago
"Microsoft open sources MSPaint.exe" two weeks later "Show HN: I added transparency support to MSPaint" two (more) weeks later "Adobe shares plummet as users cancel their subscriptions to Creative Cloud by the thousands, analysts baffled"
- doctorRetro 8y ago
  As an aside, this very proposed scenario makes me wonder how many users with more casual image editing requirements PaintDotNet has taken from Photoshop.
  - dvtrn 8y ago
    The real question is: if Microsoft's Paint gets alpha channel support, what happens to GNU Gimp? :P
- hadrien01 8y ago
  You joke, but Paint actually has a very rudimentary support of transparency: https://www.wikihow.tech/Make-a-Background-Transparent-in-Paint https://www.wikihow.tech/Make-a-Background-Transparent-in-Pa...
  - dvtrn 8y ago
    I wouldn't even call that 'rudimentary' transparency support, since you're still relying on a background color to select an area of your image. What I'm talking about is actual RGB alpha channel support https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGBA_color_space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGBA_color_space But what you have here is still a neat function of MSPaint.exe
  - Someone1234 8y ago
    Be careful Transparent Selection also has a nasty bug. - Rectangular Select part of an image - Move it one pixel or more - With Transparent Selection enabled Rotate -> Rotate 90 Degrees This is the result: https://i.imgur.com/HlAkHM1.png https://i.imgur.com/HlAkHM1.png If you disable Transparent Selection it works as expected. I reported this to Microsoft twice over the last ten years, no fix yet...
- romwell 8y ago
  I know you joke, but in case someone has been unaware, there's Paint.NET[1], which is somewhere between MSPaint-on-steroids and Photoshop-lite. In 7.5MB, it offers most of the features casual users need from a graphics program: layers, transparency, curves, etc. - all in a footprint (and startup time) comparable to that of MSPaint. [1]https://www.getpaint.net/ https://www.getpaint.net/
doctorRetro 8y ago
> open source the famous and non interesting parts of its products. I appreciate you're probably referring to things such as the Windows kernel (just for an example), but this reads like an oxymoron. :)
adzm 8y ago
I would love to see mshtml/trident spun off. While it is not the most modern design, of course, it does have some advantages for embedding and extending with everything having native COM interfaces.

shawnz 8y ago

> Shall we see anything bigger than VS Code? .NET framework?

sebazzz 8y ago
That has no use, as you can almost certainly not install and use it anywhere. .NET framework is an OS component you probably don't want to mess with. And Microsoft neither, given they only innovate in .NET Core nowadays.
- shawnz 8y ago
  OK, .NET core then. The point is the same.

dvtrn 8y ago

"Microsoft open sources MSPaint.exe" two weeks later "Show HN: I added transparency support to MSPaint" two (more) weeks later "Adobe shares plummet as users cancel their subscriptions to Creative Cloud by the thousands, analysts baffled"

doctorRetro 8y ago
As an aside, this very proposed scenario makes me wonder how many users with more casual image editing requirements PaintDotNet has taken from Photoshop.
- dvtrn 8y ago
  The real question is: if Microsoft's Paint gets alpha channel support, what happens to GNU Gimp? :P
hadrien01 8y ago
You joke, but Paint actually has a very rudimentary support of transparency: https://www.wikihow.tech/Make-a-Background-Transparent-in-Paint https://www.wikihow.tech/Make-a-Background-Transparent-in-Pa...
- dvtrn 8y ago
  I wouldn't even call that 'rudimentary' transparency support, since you're still relying on a background color to select an area of your image. What I'm talking about is actual RGB alpha channel support https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGBA_color_space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGBA_color_space But what you have here is still a neat function of MSPaint.exe
- Someone1234 8y ago
  Be careful Transparent Selection also has a nasty bug. - Rectangular Select part of an image - Move it one pixel or more - With Transparent Selection enabled Rotate -> Rotate 90 Degrees This is the result: https://i.imgur.com/HlAkHM1.png https://i.imgur.com/HlAkHM1.png If you disable Transparent Selection it works as expected. I reported this to Microsoft twice over the last ten years, no fix yet...
romwell 8y ago
I know you joke, but in case someone has been unaware, there's Paint.NET[1], which is somewhere between MSPaint-on-steroids and Photoshop-lite. In 7.5MB, it offers most of the features casual users need from a graphics program: layers, transparency, curves, etc. - all in a footprint (and startup time) comparable to that of MSPaint. [1]https://www.getpaint.net/ https://www.getpaint.net/

doctorRetro 8y ago

> open source the famous and non interesting parts of its products. I appreciate you're probably referring to things such as the Windows kernel (just for an example), but this reads like an oxymoron. :)

adzm 8y ago

I would love to see mshtml/trident spun off. While it is not the most modern design, of course, it does have some advantages for embedding and extending with everything having native COM interfaces.