Cries from long standing Microsoft fans were heard yesterday after the company released a statement saying that their Paint application is “not in active development and might be removed in future releases.” The application had lost steam as more advanced digital design software has become available, making its user base decline. With that in mind, Microsoft thought it reasonable to plan on discontinuing the software, expectedly leaving nobody upset.
What Microsoft didn’t count on was the aspect of nostalgia. Many fans reminisced on the days when they were bored in school, taking solace in the Paint application to free their minds from dull math problems and get their creative juices flowing.
In response to the statement, fans cracked open their laptops, dipped their brushes with 8-bit graphics, and made some beautiful pieces to show to Microsoft.
The company was pleased with the support. They released a new statement this morning which read “today, we’ve seen an incredible outpouring of support and nostalgia around MS Paint. If there’s anything we learned, it’s that after 32 years, MS Paint has a lot of fans. It’s been amazing to see so much love for our trusty old app.”
While Paint will remain alive, it is no longer going to be a Windows standard. Instead, it will be available from the app store.
