Paint.NET 5.2 Alpha Adds Extremely Experimental Linux Support via WINE
Paint.net 5.2 alpha now runs on Linux
Paint.NET 5.2 Alpha (build 9739) is now available, bringing extremely experimental support for running on WINE/Linux. This build also updates the image editor to .NET 11 Preview, fixing a nasty WinForms input bug from .NET 10, and adds more tiling modes to the new Mosaic effect. Performance improves via crossgen in composite mode, and the installer only requests UAC elevation when necessary. The alpha can be downloaded from the built-in updater (with pre-release opt-in) or via GitHub releases.
This alpha build is updated to use .NET 11, and contains updated translations, new tiling modes for the new Mosaic effect, and EXTREMELY experimental support for running on WINE/Linux.
- joshuaissac
I see they finally got the domain name paint.net. They used to be at getpaint.net, and the paint company that owned paint.net had a link saying something like 'if you are looking for the graphics software, go to getpaint.net'.
- tkot
I know nothing about writing an image editor or graphics programming but maybe someone here can fill me in - would it be more or less difficult ("would it take more or less tokens" is probably the right question to ask these days) to replace the Windows-specific APIs with cross-platform alternatives (I guess Skia instead of Direct2D and something like Avalonia or Uno instead of Win32-based UI?) instead of re-implementing Direct2D?
- tech234a
Apparently the author got a surprising amount of backlash on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rickbrew.bsky.social/post/3muiv4phe...
- haunter
Here is the source code of the last open source (MIT) release from 2008
Wonder if it can be built for modern Linux
https://web.archive.org/web/20080000000000*/http://www.dotpd...
- Fire-Dragon-DoL
Oh god YES!
I paid for paint.net on Windows because it's the only software I find reasonably simple AND reasonably advanced, covering all my usage.
The lack of a linux version was a huge disappointment, especially since most of my computers are switching to windows (I have 2 more on windows and was evaluating moving one of the two over!)
- xnx
I didn't realize Paint.net was closed-source now. What's the best alternative, Pinta?
- yodon
This is via Wine, so presumably it should also run on Macs now.
Paint.net is the only thing I miss from my days on Windows machines, so super excited about this!
- nashashmi
Paint.net used to be an open source collaboration project by Rick Brewster, a Microsoft Employee and the students at the University of Washington. Today it is a private closed source project accepting donations, and still headed by Rick Brewster.