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A few memories of elementary school computer class have remained with me. My sense of awe about my computer-savvy classmates who effortlessly created adventure games in HyperCard, for example. Or the fun sounds that made Apple’s Kid Pix so much more fun than Microsoft’s Paint.
Paint and Kid Pix have been in continuous production since their launch dates of 1985 and 1989, respectively. That’s probably part of the reason online communities freaked out on July 24 when Microsoft announced a “deprecated” label for the program when the Windows 10 Fall Creators update hits later this year. The label isn’t necessarily the same as a “slated to removal” label, but Microsoft says deprecated apps are “not in active development and might be removed in future releases.” It’s safe to say that Microsoft has called Paint’s number and now it’s only a matter of time before it disappears.
 Paint was never meant to be much more than a simple graphics editor and was always functionally behind other editors like Photoshop. It was totally limited to bitmap and PCX formats until 1998, and Microsoft made no major overhauls until 2009, when the program gained a much-needed ribbon interface. Paint is still the go-to program for quickly and easily cropping or resizing images, or simply scribbling out an idea, but it’s had lots of competition from Adobe and Mac editors as well as free online editor tools.
While news of the deprecation has spurred a bit of outrage and even tears from online commenters, there’s more to this story than meets the eye. First, Microsoft launched Paint 3D last year to simplify production of 3D-printed parts, so one could imagine the company discontinuing Paint but incorporating its simple handy features into a new iteration of Paint 3D at the same time. And the program could remain in the deprecated column for an indefinite period, so it’s not nearly dead at this point. Microsoft could simply let the program slip from development and let it fade away on its own time.
Also on Microsoft’s killed/deprecated list are Outlook Express, 3D Builder, and the Reader app, but if online reaction is any sort of bellwether users are much, much more upset about their beloved Paint.
Image credit: Navarr Barnier / CC BY 2.0
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