IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Paint.net 5.2 alpha now runs on Linux

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Paint.NET is praised as a lightweight, intuitive editor that many users miss on Linux
- “Paint.net is just better in every way.” — 3836293648
- “I use Krita, but I miss Paint.NET … It’s lighter, simpler, and faster with a much more intuitive UX.” — louthy
- “Paint.net is my go-to image editing software … I don’t need the kitchen sink.” — colkassad

2. The AI‑assisted (Claude) rewrite of Direct2D sparked backlash and ethical debate
- “This was written by our good friend Claude, without whom this would NOT have been possible and would NEVER have happened.” — judah (via the forum post quoted in the thread)
- “Thanks to Claude Code, it's now a reality… It's buggy and slow, but real progress is being made.” — haunter
- “Use of Claude Code for an application used by artists. Just a fundamental misalignment of expectations.” — Philpax
- “It's Bluesky, they hate AI so the mob bullied him to delete the posts.” — haunter

3. Licensing status, open‑source alternatives, and cross‑platform viability are hot topics
- “Paint.net was originally MIT licensed but the author closed its source because people did not give him credit.” — RunSet
- “Paint.net used to be an open source collaboration project … Today it is a private closed source project accepting donations.” — nashashmi
- “Paint.net itself is still not open-source, so no distro will distribute it.” — gertop
- “Very different software. Paint.NET is mostly a composition/annotation tool … Krita revolves around digital painting.” — orbital-decay
- “I guess more digital art options on Linux are always good, but … is there even a good reason to use it when something like Krita exists?” — vunderba

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

Paint.NET Lite: Cross‑Platform Simple Image Editor

Summary

  • A lightweight, open‑source rewrite of Paint.NET that runs natively on Linux, macOS, and Windows using SkiaSharp for rendering and Avalonia for the UI.
  • Core value proposition: delivers the familiar, fast, and intuitive Paint.NET experience without the Windows‑only Direct2D dependency or telemetry.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Casual Linux/macOS users who need quick image edits (crop, resize, annotate) and miss Paint.NET’s simplicity.
Core Feature Paint.NET‑like UI with layers, basic effects, and plugin support, all rendered via SkiaSharp.
Tech Stack C#, .NET 8, SkiaSharp (2D graphics), Avalonia UI framework, MIT‑licensed.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • HN commenters repeatedly say “I miss Paint.NET on Linux” and “Pinta is a shallow clone”; this project directly addresses that gap.
  • By avoiding Direct2D and using cross‑platform graphics, it sidesteps the Wine compatibility issues highlighted in the thread, making it a practical alternative that could be packaged in distro repos or Flathub.

Direct2D‑on‑Vulkan Compatibility Layer for Wine

Summary

  • A reusable Wine‑compatible library that translates Direct2D calls to Vulkan/OpenGL, enabling Paint.NET (and other D2D‑reliant Windows apps) to run smoothly on Linux without emulation hacks.
  • Core value proposition: removes the biggest barrier to running Paint.NET on Linux, improving performance and correctness over existing WINE attempts.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Linux users and developers who want to run Paint.NET or similar Windows graphics apps via Wine with near‑native performance.
Core Feature Direct2D API re‑implementation targeting Vulkan, exposing the same interfaces to Wine‑loaded applications.
Tech Stack Rust (for safety), Vulkan headers, Wine DLL bridge, C ABI for compatibility.
Difficulty High
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • The discussion notes that “Direct2D has always been the biggest hurdle for Paint.NET on WINE” and that a clean‑room rewrite would be “perfect for AI” but also risky; a community‑driven, formally tested compatibility layer would be welcomed.
  • Success would unlock not just Paint.NET but many other lightweight Windows tools, sparking broader discussion on HN about cross‑platform graphics layers.

Paint.NET‑Inspired Web Editor (WASM/Rust)

Summary

  • A browser‑based image editor that replicates Paint.NET’s UI and workflow, compiled to WebAssembly using Rust and WebGPU, offering offline‑capable, lightweight editing without installation.
  • Core value proposition: provides Paint.NET‑like simplicity on any OS (including ChromeOS, tablets) while being open source, telemetry‑free, and instantly accessible via a URL.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Users who need quick image edits on any device and prefer not to install native software (e.g., Chromebooks, public computers).
Core Feature Paint.NET‑style toolbar, layers, basic filters, and undo/redo, all running in the browser via WASM.
Tech Stack Rust, wasm‑bindings, WebGPU (or WebGL fallback), React‑like UI library (e.g., Yew), MIT license.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Commenters mention using Photopea as a stopgap but desire a more Paint.NET‑like UI; this delivers that familiarity in a universally accessible format.
  • Being web‑based sidesteps platform‑specific issues (Direct2D, Wine) entirely, and the project could evolve into a PWA, fostering discussion about the future of lightweight web‑native creative tools.

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