You know what’s free (as in beer and speech) and not being enshittified? Notepad++
Fun fact: Most of the features that people liked about the “new” Windows notepad were just stolen from Notepad++ anyway.
So you may as well just use Notepad++ and enjoy a better experience, plus about a zillion other things like numerous plugins, syntax highlighting for just about every programming language under the sun, immensely configurable color schemes, etc., etc., etc.
Hardly “stolen”. Suff like tabs is very basic that n++ didn’t invent.
And it’s great that it exists, but the average Windows user has no idea that exists and probably no idea how to download and install it because the average Windows user, like the average computer user, is only nominally computer literate.
Those are the people Microsoft constantly fucks over, not people here who tend to know what they’re doing. A large percentage of people here don’t even use Windows except maybe through an emulator.
Notepad++, GET YOUR FOSS ON PEOPLE!
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
If you’re not using it, then you’re going to be extremely happy when you switch!
People should use Vim. It’s tons better and very user friendly.
https://github.com/jdhao/nvim-config#features
Highly recommend this.
A modern Neovim configuration with full battery for Python, Lua, C++, Markdown, LaTeX, and more…
This is enough to get the intellisense and linters up and running. Only takes ~5 minutes to configure by installing prerequisites, it’s worth it though.
No one getting this joke is hilarious to me
Its not that people have missed the joke, it’s that the joke is poorly formed and not hyperbolic enough to be funny, instead it’s rather a half joke and brings up a larger issue (intentional or not), that undermines the attempt at absurdist humor.
I find Dunning-Kruger to be funny.
Nah, it’s just going over most peoples heads.
Does anyone use notepad for anything other than looking at config files? I mean, does anyone write documents with notepad?
Edit: Thanks for all the comments. I have used notepad similarly, but doesn’t sound like anything that needs AI.
I paste blocks of text or data into it, then copy it out again so I dont infect document B with document A’s weird formatting
I use it for writing quick temporary notes for work when I don’t have a pen and paper handy.
Funny enough, I use it like a notepad. Oh s***, I need to write this down real quick. I need to grab an exerpt off a website, our store serial number or make a quick list. It’s literally scrap paper in digital form for me.
i use it constantly because it’s the only text editor that comes with windows 10
I used to use it for taking quick notes when I had a slow computer. I didn’t want to wait for Word to load, so I’d just use Notepad. Now I use Post Its or just don’t write stuff down as much.
I prefer having a bare-bones text editor over anything with formatting. Most of the time, I don’t want the formatting to carry over, I want it stripped down to just the content, just the text. Word can get annoying sometimes when you’re trying to copy and paste and it does something stupid like carrying over weird frames or tables or whatever the hell. That said, I’ll still use a “fancy” text editor like Notepad++ or Sublime Text.
I use it all the time for quick notes at work, with its very simple interface, and the tabs feature was a game changer. Especially useful for phone calls in my case, although my typing speed far exceeds my writing speed so maybe I’m the exception because of that.
I don’t use it to program though, usually that’s delegated to Visual Studio.
I use it as a cache for chunks of text I want to move around. I use Textpad a lot for code and config files where I don’t need all the lookup and predictive stuff.
Been a Windows user for a really long time. A few times I tried to switch over to Linux, but it just wasn’t doable for a myriad of reasons. Windows 11, I have words with it. Many bad ones, but thankfully there are many users like me that for one reason or another did not switch and put time in to beat the badness out of it via mods.
Windows 12… I’m not so sure if I’ll even “upgrade” to it. It really depends on how much Microsoft decides to wire up the OS to their servers. Look, I wouldn’t mind at all if I could have “smart” tools with AI assistance, but the problem for me is the lack of choice. Currently, if you don’t use their crap software, what mostly travels over the wire is telemetry, and if you go offline no harm done. But make no mistake, useful AI models are too fat to run on most computers. Heck I built mine with AI in mind, but will Microsoft even give me the choice of using my own AIs? (Here’s a hint, it starts with N, has a V and ends with an R)
But what if the OS starts requiring it to be online only because of their AI features? Maybe we’ll have to start paying for Windows again in subscriptions to pay for the obligatory AI? Or what about scrubbing options away from the settings so you can’t “misuse” your own device and have to ask nicely to their AI to do it for you?
There is a road here, and I do not like it. Thank goodness Linux is better than it has ever been.
PS: As for the notepad thing, I’m completely in agreement that it should remain without AI. Such a simple tool for scribbling down notes should be kept lean, simple and fast. Things that Microsoft and their engineers have long forgotten how to do.
Personally, I’m boycotting Microsoft until they bring back Clippy.
I saw clippy the first time when I was a kid. To be honest I remember my interactions with it quite fondly.
I’m afraid adults weren’t as fond.
I have to use Teams for work and there are Clippy stickers!
Bring back clippy. “I see you want a barebones, simple text editor. Let me ruin that for you.”
Microsoft is not a creative company!
(Psst: get as far away from microsoft as you can, and don’t look back!)
Is there a LibreOffice alternative?
God damn. Fuck these guys. My bread and butter has been programming in the Microsoft ecosystem for 15 years. Now I’m running Linux on two different PCs and working on learning non-MS development stacks.
I want my notepad to open in split second so I can jot down my thoughts when I’m in a rush so I don’t forget things. or so I can copy multiple things, edit them slightly and paste them where I want them to be. or so I can pre-write a paragraph to send shortly without appearing as “this user is typing” to everyone as I rewrite a sentence for the 5th time, and to not fear accidentally hitting enter mid said paragraph.
I do not need my notepad to have AI. It’s not broken, stop trying to fix things that aren’t broken
Why not?
