Martin Owens
2017-07-24 16:57:59 UTC
Alex I've moved this to the devel channel since it's not a board issue.
Reply below.
As an Artist, the tools that we use are an important way of working. They inform the art we make, provide the feel and texture that's created from the limitations of the medium.
In software, we have a curious contemptible situation. One where your art tools can be taken away from you by a software corporation. That you were using the tool to make art is not a consideration to them, only that the costs to them of maintaining them have gotten high enough for them to cut the chord.
Recently Microsoft have decided to decommission MS Paint. It's a simple tool which has a history going back to 1985, and while it's no Gimp or Photoshop, it does have it's own style which many artists still use to great effect. But now it's being discontinued.
Inkscape had a similar problem back in it's history. Back before it was called Inkscape. Development of a vector art tool had become too difficult for one developer, and setting up a project to collaborate is a lot of work. But there was a need from artists to continue the project and not let it die. From Artists came the continuation of the software, many many years after the original developer had stopped working on it.
It was only possible to do this because Inkscape is Free Software. Meaning it gives you, the artist, the user, the unequivocal right to own in a fundamental fashion the software tool that you use.
If you want to take Inkscape's code, and move it in a different direction, you can. Ponyscape did. If you want to continue the project on past the life of the developers currently working on it, you have that freedom. Either through developing your own code, or by hiring people to work on it for you.
The big point here is that Inkscape will never die. So long as there is an Artist that wants to draw or an engineer that wants to cut designs. There will be an Inkscape project. It can not be killed by a corporation, it can't be killed by the copyright holders, you and your friends can continue the project no matter what authority says.
It would be best if Microsoft granted the same Freedoms to their users, that we do to ours. The Free Software ideal is that users should always have these Freedoms, but for now we will have to recreate and reinvent proprietary software each time it's discontinued and encourage users to ALWAYS demand that the software they use grant freedom to them. Even if they get that software from Microsoft, Adobe or anyone else.
(For MSPaint alternatives, see http://alternativeto.net/software/microsoft-paint/?license=opensource)
Thoughts?
Best Regards, Martin Owens
Reply below.
Hi All,
Would it be inappropriate to make some kind of Social Media push to
try and catch some MS Paint users now that MS have marked it for
destruction?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40705466
I know Paint isn't a vector editor, but there might be some casual
sketchers who'd be interested to know what their options are :)
This is what I would do, but it's more of a blog entry:Would it be inappropriate to make some kind of Social Media push to
try and catch some MS Paint users now that MS have marked it for
destruction?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40705466
I know Paint isn't a vector editor, but there might be some casual
sketchers who'd be interested to know what their options are :)
As an Artist, the tools that we use are an important way of working. They inform the art we make, provide the feel and texture that's created from the limitations of the medium.
In software, we have a curious contemptible situation. One where your art tools can be taken away from you by a software corporation. That you were using the tool to make art is not a consideration to them, only that the costs to them of maintaining them have gotten high enough for them to cut the chord.
Recently Microsoft have decided to decommission MS Paint. It's a simple tool which has a history going back to 1985, and while it's no Gimp or Photoshop, it does have it's own style which many artists still use to great effect. But now it's being discontinued.
Inkscape had a similar problem back in it's history. Back before it was called Inkscape. Development of a vector art tool had become too difficult for one developer, and setting up a project to collaborate is a lot of work. But there was a need from artists to continue the project and not let it die. From Artists came the continuation of the software, many many years after the original developer had stopped working on it.
It was only possible to do this because Inkscape is Free Software. Meaning it gives you, the artist, the user, the unequivocal right to own in a fundamental fashion the software tool that you use.
If you want to take Inkscape's code, and move it in a different direction, you can. Ponyscape did. If you want to continue the project on past the life of the developers currently working on it, you have that freedom. Either through developing your own code, or by hiring people to work on it for you.
The big point here is that Inkscape will never die. So long as there is an Artist that wants to draw or an engineer that wants to cut designs. There will be an Inkscape project. It can not be killed by a corporation, it can't be killed by the copyright holders, you and your friends can continue the project no matter what authority says.
It would be best if Microsoft granted the same Freedoms to their users, that we do to ours. The Free Software ideal is that users should always have these Freedoms, but for now we will have to recreate and reinvent proprietary software each time it's discontinued and encourage users to ALWAYS demand that the software they use grant freedom to them. Even if they get that software from Microsoft, Adobe or anyone else.
(For MSPaint alternatives, see http://alternativeto.net/software/microsoft-paint/?license=opensource)
Thoughts?
Best Regards, Martin Owens