Paint.NET is coming to the Windows Store
Recently, the developer of Paint.NET mentioned that the app would be making its way to the Windows Store. He went as far as saying, "it's at the top of my list" of things to do.
Rick Brewster has now followed up on his "innocent little comment," confirming that the free image editor -- it was originally developed as simple replacement for Windows Paint, but has grown into something much bigger -- will indeed appear in the Windows Store as of version 4.0.17.
Brewster says to Paint.NET fans: "You can all stop e-mailing me asking about this all the time," and says that once the desktop version of build 4.0.17 is complete, it will be ported to the Store. There's no word on timescale at the moment, but builds of the editor do get pushed out with pleasing frequency, so hopefully the wait won’t be too long.
In a blog post, Brewster says:
4.0.17 will also bring "native" portable-ness to the app, by way of a .exe.config setting to redirect the app’s settings into a local JSON file (instead of going to the registry). Should be a neat feature for some people.
Some people have asked, "but how will you make money with the Store version?" (I'm still planning on a price of "free") Answer: not sure. But if I wait to figure out both of these things (money + Store logistics), I'll procrastinate forever and neither will ever happen. It’s just something I’ve learned about my own psychology: don't let X delay Y, just do Y and X will sort itself out later.
We'll just have to wait and see exactly when the app appears, but it's now on the not-too-distant horizon.