Editing Paint.NET (section)

==History==
Paint.NET originated as a [[computer science]] senior design project during spring 2004 at [[Washington State University]]. Version 1.0 consisted of 36,000 lines of code and was written in fifteen weeks.<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://blogs.msdn.com/rickbrew/archive/2004/09/03/225514.aspx|title= Paint.NET v1.1 "Beta 2" Download|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071221034115/http://blogs.msdn.com/rickbrew/archive/2004/09/03/225514.aspx|archive-date = 2007-12-21}}</ref> In contrast, version 3.35 has approximately 162,000 lines of code. The Paint.NET project continued over the summer and into the autumn 2004 semester for both the version 1.1 and 2.0 releases.

Development continued with one programmer who worked on previous versions of Paint.NET while he was a student at WSU. As of May 2006 the program had been downloaded at least 2 million times,<ref name="msdn2million" /> at a rate of about 180,000 per month.<ref name="betanews" />

Initially, Paint.NET was released under a modified version of the [[MIT License]], with the exclusion of the installer, text, and graphics.<ref>[http://www.getpaint.net/license.html Paint.NET – Licensing and FAQ]</ref> However, citing issues with the open source code being [[Plagiarism|plagiarized]] by others that had rebranded the software as their own and bundled user content without their permission, the availability of the source code was restricted, in December 2007 Brewster announced his intent to restrict access to components of the program (including its installer, resources, and user interface).<ref name="backspaceware">{{Cite web |date=December 4, 2007 |title=Freeware Authors: Beware of "Backspaceware" |url=http://blog.getpaint.net/2007/12/04/freeware-authors-beware-of-%E2%80%9Cbackspaceware%E2%80%9D/ |access-date=July 27, 2017 |publisher=paint.net blog}}</ref> In November 2009, the software was made [[proprietary software|proprietary]], restricting the sale or creation of derivative works of the software.<ref name="backspaceware" /><ref>{{Cite web|title = A new license for Paint.NET v3.5|date = 7 November 2009|url = http://blog.getpaint.net/2009/11/06/a-new-license-for-paintnet-v35/|access-date = February 11, 2015}}</ref>

Starting with version 4.0.18, Paint.NET is published in two editions: A classic edition remains [[freeware]], similar to all other versions since 3.5. Another edition, however, is published to [[Microsoft Store (digital)|Microsoft Store]] under a [[trialware]] license and is available to purchase for US$7. According to the developer, this was done to enable the users to contribute to the development with more convenience, even though the old avenue of donation was not closed.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Rubino|first1=Daniel|title=Paint.NET is now available in the Windows Store for all Windows 10 PCs|url=https://www.windowscentral.com/paintnet-now-available-windows-store|website=Windows Central|publisher=Mobile Nations|date=September 30, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last1=Brinkmann|first1=Martin|title=Paint.net lands in Windows Store (but is not free)|url=https://www.ghacks.net/2017/10/01/paint-net-lands-in-windows-store-but-is-not-free/|website=[[ghacks]]|date=October 1, 2017}}</ref>