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Miscellaneous => Applications => Topic started by: JanusChrist on 13 February 2005, 07:21

Title: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: JanusChrist on 13 February 2005, 07:21
Continuing to de-Gates my computer, I just started using Open Office and foobar2000 music player. Anyone have any suggestions for alternative to MS Paint and something that isn't bloated and prone to rape by black hats like WMP for playing video?
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: mobrien_12 on 13 February 2005, 07:29
Hmm... well the GIMP can handle windows bitmaps pretty well, but it's a really big, powerful program (more like PhotoShop), not a tiny little graphics editor.  

Comparing the GIMP to Paint is like comparing OpenOffice to MS WordPad.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: bedouin on 13 February 2005, 08:09
An alternative to WMP might be VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/).
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: Orethrius on 13 February 2005, 08:09
In answer to the second half of that question, I strongly recommend VideoLAN (http://www.videolan.org).  If that doesn't work, try MPlayer (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html) for your video playing needs.  It's essentially WMP sans ads/spyware/bloat.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: skyman8081 on 13 February 2005, 08:32
Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/) is just what you need.

and try Photoshop as an alterative to paint.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: Calum on 13 February 2005, 11:59
using an ancient version of mediocre player's hardly helping, since it won't play the more recent types of wmv files, and you will have to hunt down codecs for a lot of things yourself, and photoshop is hardly a paint replacement, as it is firstly huge, and secondly, expensive. if huge is not a problem, gimp should more than suit your needs as a paint replacement. it's also more paint-like than photoshop.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 13 February 2005, 14:31
Well I still have MS media player and I've not bothered upgrading to anything because I don't use it much anyway.

As far as the gimp is concerned I've tried it and I didn't like it. For one I've never got it to install properly under Windows and I've used it under Linux and it's not very user friendly it's seems to have lots of advance features but I couldn't even figure out how to draw a line or circle - It takes ages to load too.

I think I'm just going to stick with MS Paint here (unless anyone suggests differant) as I don't need all those features and it's easier to use to. I used to have Paint shop pro (3.0 I think) I tried a new version and I hated it, it had more features but the interface was more cluttered and harder to use. MS Paint is hardly critical to MS' monopoly so I don't care anyway.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: Calum on 13 February 2005, 21:33
i was going to suggest kpaint and some other linux drawing programs, which are probably a  lot more like what you are after, but since you don't care, you're probably just going to keep using windows rather than linux.

and try as you might, you'll never convince me that mswindows is not a cornerstone of microsoft's empire...
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 13 February 2005, 21:54
Quote from: Calum
i was going to suggest kpaint and some other linux drawing programs, which are probably a  lot more like what you are after, but since you don't care, you're probably just going to keep using windows rather than linux.


Well I would really like to use Linux but I'll probably never use it full time, there again we've already had this discussion: http://www.microsuck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8833


Quote from: Calum
and try as you might, you'll never convince me that mswindows is not a cornerstone of microsoft's empire...


I didn't say that, I said:

Quote from: Aloone_Jonez
MS Paint is hardly critical to MS' monopoly so I don't care anyway.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: skyman8081 on 13 February 2005, 22:28
Jasc is turning into Adobe anyway.

and Calum, did you actualy LOOK at the link I provided, even mouserover it.  Media Player Classic is a completely different application than Windows Media Player.

Media Player Classic is an OPEN SOURCE app, that merely LOOKS like Media Player 6.4.  It will play anything you throw at it, there are sites that offer standalone versions of JUST the codecs for a particular format (realmedia in particular).  If you already have quicktime or MP9 installed, it will use their codecs, without actually running the apps themselves.

Very handy app.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: MrX on 14 February 2005, 00:29
as a matter of fact, i just finished building a system for my uncle, with Mdia Player Classic , or called 'Quick Time Alternative'
and with the ffshow codecs, it chopped up and ate everything i threw at it no problem. very customiseable also.

so this is the specs:
Software

Hardware


Mr X
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: Calum on 14 February 2005, 01:21
ok guys, i stand chastised...
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: JanusChrist on 14 February 2005, 01:41
Well right now I'm trying out Paint.net and VLC media player and I'll be sure to give MPC a try also.

Paint.net is wonderful, the only downside is that the head of its developement team works for Microsoft. Paint.net is being built with Windows in mind and doesn't seem to be availible for Linux or Mac (i could be wrong though). Still, it's a better product than MS Paint which hasn't been upgraded since Windows 95 (and Windows 3.1 paint actually had some good qualities that MS trimmed out).

VLC seems decent but I'm thinking I could do better.

Basically, what I want is something that plays JUST VIDEOS because I already use foobar2000 for my music files.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: JanusChrist on 14 February 2005, 02:01
Quote from: Calum
i was going to suggest kpaint and some other linux drawing programs, which are probably a  lot more like what you are after, but since you don't care, you're probably just going to keep using windows rather than linux.

and try as you might, you'll never convince me that mswindows is not a cornerstone of microsoft's empire...


Hey its not like I have a choice. This is my girlfriend's laptop, I'm still about 200 dollars away from completing my own computer. Once I do that, I'll probably partition it as a dual boot with WinXP and Mandrake Linux.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: MrX on 14 February 2005, 05:18
Quote from: JanusChrist
Hey its not like I have a choice. This is my girlfriend's laptop, I'm still about 200 dollars away from completing my own computer. Once I do that, I'll probably partition it as a dual boot with WinXP and Mandrake Linux.


you should read this page here
http://www.microsuck.com/forums/showthread.php?p=91695#post91695
about mandrake.

Mr X
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: JanusChrist on 14 February 2005, 10:04
Quote from: MrX
you should read this page here
http://www.microsuck.com/forums/showthread.php?p=91695#post91695
about mandrake.

Mr X


You linked the wrong thread. Try again.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 15 February 2005, 00:44
Quote from: JanusChrist
You linked the wrong thread. Try again.

I think he means this thread:
http://www.microsuck.com/forums/showthread.php?p=91713#post91713

Quote from: JanusChrist
Well right now I'm trying out Paint.net and VLC media player and I'll be sure to give MPC a try also.

Paint.net is wonderful, the only downside is that the head of its developement team works for Microsoft. Paint.net is being built with Windows in mind and doesn't seem to be availible for Linux or Mac (i could be wrong though). Still, it's a better product than MS Paint which hasn't been upgraded since Windows 95 (and Windows 3.1 paint actually had some good qualities that MS trimmed out).

VLC seems decent but I'm thinking I could do better.

Basically, what I want is something that plays JUST VIDEOS because I already use foobar2000 for my music files.


I still use a copy of Windows 3.1 paint I've installed on my machine running XP for this reason. I don't like the Paint.NET idea it won't run on anything but Windows because it's Microsoft and therefore is not an alternative.

Yey post number 333! :D
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: MrX on 15 February 2005, 07:48
to bad you arent
1337
 yet.

Mr X
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: Brandon Paddock on 10 March 2005, 07:47
Paint .NET is a great little app. It's entirely open-source, and contrary to an above comment, none of the head developers work for Microsoft. They're all students at WSU.
 
They do have a "Microsoft Mentor," Rick Brewster, who helps them out and has done a great job helping to spread the word about Paint .NET, and was one of the original designers before he went to work for Microsoft.
 
I've been following the project, as well as Rick's blog, for a while. You can check it out here if you're interested:
http://blogs.msdn.com/rickbrew/ (http://blogs.msdn.com/rickbrew/)
 
Also, has anyone tried running Paint .NET on Linux (with Mono)?
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: WMD on 10 March 2005, 22:37
Quote
(and Windows 3.1 paint actually had some good qualities that MS trimmed out).

Windows 3.x Paintbrush (it's official name) was a near-complete ripoff of MacPaint, as early as 1984.  I'll be back in a minute with screenshots.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: WMD on 10 March 2005, 22:46
Windows 3.0:
(http://www.i-lo.tarnow.pl/edu/inf/hist/gui/images/w30paint.gif)

MacPaint, pre-release:

[verwijderd door de beheerder]
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: JanusChrist on 10 March 2005, 23:45
Quote from: WMD
Windows 3.x Paintbrush (it's official name) was a near-complete ripoff of MacPaint, as early as 1984.  I'll be back in a minute with screenshots.


Microsoft ripped off a rival software company?? No way!!! :D
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: The Anti-Microsoft on 10 March 2005, 23:54
No, there's not the slightest bit of resemblance between the two.  (Except that they're paint programs.)
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 31 August 2005, 21:46
You need your eyes testing then. :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: Kintaro on 1 September 2005, 19:45
As does your sense of sarcasm.
Title: Re: Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP
Post by: Jenda on 1 September 2005, 21:42
and <> tags