MS Paint was there in the beginning, but probably will be replaced with something more apt to today technologies.

The first version of MS Paint appear with Windows 1.0. So is easy to see how much time has come trough. But besides the new formats supported by this software not much has changed. In the Windows Vista just an increased number of undo levels (just 10), a zoom slider, and a crop function were added. Theres not have been a really big change from the oldest versions of this software. In Windows 7 it received a better treatment with "artistic" brushes and anti-aliased shapes, but still is a primitive software.

In spite of that, MS Paint have find its place; works of art and bizarre drawings have born in this program as well as clones and contests. The success of this piece of software its mostly because is the only graphic editor that comes with Windows.

But now Microsoft want to start developing in a field that never had much voice: the graphic editing software field. This is a hard place with high end competitors like Photoshop and free and advanced options like GIMP. Microsoft is much more intelligent than to try to play in the same field of this software, so it is developing something complete new taking into account today's technologies and the future's developments in sight.

Project Gustav

Microsoft never wanted an advanced and complicated graphic editor. MS Paint was simple and that showed to be something important for most of their audience. If people want advanced editors they have multiple options, for a quick editing, MS Paint was always there.

Project Gustav, is more than name and some explanation in the Microsoft Research Labs. It heads to be a new experience to digital painting.

"Project Gustav is a realistic painting-system prototype that enables artists to become immersed in the digital painting experience. It achieves interactivity and realism by leveraging the computing power of modern GPUs, taking full advantage of multitouch and tablet input technology and our novel natural media-modeling and brush-simulation algorithms." (source)

Gustav, or the name they decide to put it, will try to get closer to real paint in a way that MS Paint never even try, and neither the big names in graphic editing managed to do it. The application as we can read in the specs will use the modern technologies of multitouch technologies and tablet input devices to mimic what a paintbrush and paint can do. The colors will mix creating new colors and the angle and speed of brush strokes will create effects closer to the real ones.

If they can accomplish what they promise and the power of the computer can work to replicate the effect of what real paint looks and feels it probably will be competing, in a complete different field, with other graphic editing tools. If besides that, they decide to put this new software in all the pre-installed Windows we going to have to say goodbye to MS Paint, although some people will let a tear drop.