Free alternatives to MS Paint and WMP

[JanusChrist]

Continuing to de-Gates my computer, I just started using Open Office and foobar2000 music player. Anyone have any suggestions for alternative to MS Paint and something that isn't bloated and prone to rape by black hats like WMP for playing video?

[mobrien_12]

Hmm... well the GIMP can handle windows bitmaps pretty well, but it's a really big, powerful program (more like PhotoShop), not a tiny little graphics editor.  

Comparing the GIMP to Paint is like comparing OpenOffice to MS WordPad.

[bedouin]

An alternative to WMP might be VLC.

[Orethrius]

In answer to the second half of that question, I strongly recommend VideoLAN.  If that doesn't work, try MPlayer for your video playing needs.  It's essentially WMP sans ads/spyware/bloat.

[skyman8081]

Media Player Classic is just what you need.

and try Photoshop as an alterative to paint.

[Calum]

using an ancient version of mediocre player's hardly helping, since it won't play the more recent types of wmv files, and you will have to hunt down codecs for a lot of things yourself, and photoshop is hardly a paint replacement, as it is firstly huge, and secondly, expensive. if huge is not a problem, gimp should more than suit your needs as a paint replacement. it's also more paint-like than photoshop.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Well I still have MS media player and I've not bothered upgrading to anything because I don't use it much anyway.

As far as the gimp is concerned I've tried it and I didn't like it. For one I've never got it to install properly under Windows and I've used it under Linux and it's not very user friendly it's seems to have lots of advance features but I couldn't even figure out how to draw a line or circle - It takes ages to load too.

I think I'm just going to stick with MS Paint here (unless anyone suggests differant) as I don't need all those features and it's easier to use to. I used to have Paint shop pro (3.0 I think) I tried a new version and I hated it, it had more features but the interface was more cluttered and harder to use. MS Paint is hardly critical to MS' monopoly so I don't care anyway.

[Calum]

i was going to suggest kpaint and some other linux drawing programs, which are probably a  lot more like what you are after, but since you don't care, you're probably just going to keep using windows rather than linux.

and try as you might, you'll never convince me that mswindows is not a cornerstone of microsoft's empire...

[Aloone_Jonez]

i was going to suggest kpaint and some other linux drawing programs, which are probably a  lot more like what you are after, but since you don't care, you're probably just going to keep using windows rather than linux.

Well I would really like to use Linux but I'll probably never use it full time, there again we've already had this discussion: http://www.microsuck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8833

and try as you might, you'll never convince me that mswindows is not a cornerstone of microsoft's empire...

I didn't say that, I said:

MS Paint is hardly critical to MS' monopoly so I don't care anyway.

[skyman8081]

Jasc is turning into Adobe anyway.

and Calum, did you actualy LOOK at the link I provided, even mouserover it.  Media Player Classic is a completely different application than Windows Media Player.

Media Player Classic is an OPEN SOURCE app, that merely LOOKS like Media Player 6.4.  It will play anything you throw at it, there are sites that offer standalone versions of JUST the codecs for a particular format (realmedia in particular).  If you already have quicktime or MP9 installed, it will use their codecs, without actually running the apps themselves.

Very handy app.

[MrX]

as a matter of fact, i just finished building a system for my uncle, with Mdia Player Classic , or called 'Quick Time Alternative'
and with the ffshow codecs, it chopped up and ate everything i threw at it no problem. very customiseable also.

so this is the specs:
Software

win98 lite (micro installation)
open office
gaim
Quick Time Alternative (media pleayer classic)
Firefox
zone alarm pro
Anti-Vir

Hardware

AsRock K7S51 GX
OCZ 512MB PC3200 2.5
Duron Spitfire 950 @ 1040Mhz (used from his old computer, which got zapped)
Maxtor 80GB 8MB cache 7200rpm 8.5ms
Smoky Silver Case
extremely overly lowd 500watt PSU (like a cheap 35$ one he got, which was a bad choice)
Creative 52x cdrom (u know that extremely popular one)

Mr X

[Calum]

ok guys, i stand chastised...

[JanusChrist]

Well right now I'm trying out Paint.net and VLC media player and I'll be sure to give MPC a try also.

Paint.net is wonderful, the only downside is that the head of its developement team works for Microsoft. Paint.net is being built with Windows in mind and doesn't seem to be availible for Linux or Mac (i could be wrong though). Still, it's a better product than MS Paint which hasn't been upgraded since Windows 95 (and Windows 3.1 paint actually had some good qualities that MS trimmed out).

VLC seems decent but I'm thinking I could do better.

Basically, what I want is something that plays JUST VIDEOS because I already use foobar2000 for my music files.

[JanusChrist]

i was going to suggest kpaint and some other linux drawing programs, which are probably a  lot more like what you are after, but since you don't care, you're probably just going to keep using windows rather than linux.

and try as you might, you'll never convince me that mswindows is not a cornerstone of microsoft's empire...

Hey its not like I have a choice. This is my girlfriend's laptop, I'm still about 200 dollars away from completing my own computer. Once I do that, I'll probably partition it as a dual boot with WinXP and Mandrake Linux.

[MrX]

Hey its not like I have a choice. This is my girlfriend's laptop, I'm still about 200 dollars away from completing my own computer. Once I do that, I'll probably partition it as a dual boot with WinXP and Mandrake Linux.

you should read this page here
http://www.microsuck.com/forums/showthread.php?p=91695#post91695
about mandrake.

Mr X