People at Microsoft doesn’t understand what people use Notepad for.
If they wanted to add AI features, they should have added it to WordPad, and make it more modern.
After 40 years of being free Microsoft has added a paywall to Notepad
Submitted 1 year ago by nahostdeutschland@feddit.org to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
Matriks404@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
They killed wordpad.
Matriks404@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Can’t wait for them to remove Calculator, since you can ask AI to calculate stuff, you know.
forgotaboutlaye@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Add it to OneNote then?
ryper@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Yeah but no one uses wordpad. They put it in notepad for the exact reason you’re saying: because people use it.
Matriks404@lemmy.world 1 year ago
If they made it more useful, people would use it. Making support for modern formats, maybe even Markdown could have been added and it would already be 5x more useful.
RedIce25@lemmy.world 1 year ago
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 1 year ago
All the Linux posts and Linux loving Lemmy users are what keep me away from Linux.
They’re like the Rick and Morty fans of PC software
the_doktor@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
Not our fault you won’t listen to common sense and reason. Enjoy your bloated fascist spyware just because you think Linux users are creepy or whatever the fuck you think.
actaastron@reddthat.com 1 year ago
I usually use my work laptop for personal bits and bobs which is Ubuntu but I turned on my personal Microsoft PC recently to do some stuff and couldn’t believe all the pop-ups and noise! I promptly moved all my data onto a external drive and did a fresh install of Ubuntu.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 year ago
So… who wants to bet that the new version of Notepad is not constantly scraping anything you type into it and feeding it into the AI, regardless of whether you’re paying for this feature or not?
brokenlcd@feddit.it 1 year ago
Tbf, they already control the os itself. They already have access to all of the keystrokes. Implementing it just in notepad feels like a rube goldbergy way of scraping user data.
tfowinder@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
Sublime text ftw
Valmond@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Notepad++ on windows is kind of the GOAT IMO.
Sunshine@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
!linux@programming.dev could use more folks!
felixwhynot@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I use Vim, actually
otacon239@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Just use ‘ed’ of you’re feeling so fancy
HyonoKo@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
Same.
inamorta345@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
There always has to be one…
BigTrout75@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Notepad is not free! Bah ha ha ha. Anyway, tons of options out there for those not to lazy to look.
RejZoR@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
Fuck Ai. I just want Notepad to edit the most basic text. Why the fuck would I need fucking Ai bullshit in it? To rewrite what? INI game files? Hosts file?
empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Notepad++ is my text editor of choice as someone who just edits the occasional file. I’m not a programmer or anything, but it’s nice to have those autocomplete and syntax highlighting features for config files. Helps me keep track of stuff better when editing.
empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Sublime can do all of that as well, but it’s more performant, has better shortcut keys, and IMO it has much nicer navigation for larger files (gives you a sort of eagle-eye’s view of the entire document next to the scrollbar). That’s all very much a personal preference thing of course.
andallthat@lemmy.world 1 year ago
the news is more that they are trying to shoehorn AI in effing Notepad to make sure even those little snippets of text can be used for training
yggdar@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The title is quite sensational compared to the content. They only added an AI Rewrite feature for notepad that requires a Microsoft 365 subscription. Considering the cost of AI, and the fact that it will very probably run in the cloud, it is very reasonable that it isn’t free. Everything else about notepad remains free / included with the price you paid for the OS.
Halliphax@lemmy.world 1 year ago
They give Copilot out for free so it’s weird that they’re charging for the Notepad AI feature.
Hell, just copy and paste the content into Copilot and ask it to rewrite it, I bet it’ll just be doing the same thing but for free.
Noedel@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I agree, but the idea of adding AI to notepad is quite insane in its own right
mr_jaaay@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
Why? I mean, one of the main features of generative AI systems is to generate text (the quality of which I won’t get into), why not add this to something like Notepad. I agree that Notepad should be thought of as a lightweight, well, notepad, but still might be useful as a quicker alternative to Word.
The fact that Microsoft is trying to shove Copilot down our throats at every possible step is idiotic, I agree, but having an AI as part of a notes app doesn’t seem too weird.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Adding layers to MS paint was what surprised me
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
I think the idea is that you can use it for reformatting small sets of data I guess.
“make all the dates in this CSV iso-8601”
MichaelScotch@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Fine. Notepad++ is better anyway
tfowinder@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
I prefer Sublime
pycorax@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s a lot more feature filled and frankly not very nice looking if all you want is a simple replacement for Notepad. Notepads (with an s) is much better imo.
mr_jaaay@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
Thanks for mentioning Notepads, never heard of it but it looks interesting. I already use quite a few different note taking apps, but still often start with Notepad when I don’t know where the info will eventually end up…
Eheran@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Is it though? I still always open notepad for random text stuff. What is better in ++?
kusivittula@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
the only thing I need it for is to select text vertically (by holding left alt). there are a few similar ones for linux but some crash and the rest don’t have a dark theme, so I still use it with wine.
towelie@lemm.ee 1 year ago
- Keeps your progress if you exit without saving
- Supports tabs so you don’t have 5 separate notepad windows open
- syntax highlighting for programming languages and markdown format
- plugin support
- can handle extremely large text files (I’ve opened 50gb text files and used ctrl+f to find terms and it worked fine)
- superb tools for manipulating text (e.g., use reg expressions). Super easy to make mass edits.
- dark mode support. That should be enough on its own lol
ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yes, it objectively is. And so are various other text editor options that are out there.
But just speaking about Notepad++, you can scale it down to a very simple text editor (like Notepad), it you can easily ramp it up to a much more feature rich one. And for me, the ability to have a vertical list of files is a big plus. As is its ability to optionally show line numbers.
RustyShackleford@literature.cafe 1 year ago
Notepad++ isn’t trying to shoehorn in AI for starters. It’s clear Microsoft is praying the current gimmicky narrative of AI will let the masses not realize this is a privacy nightmare.
illi@lemm.ee 1 year ago
The age of Notepad having a paywall has arrived, with the simple writing software now prompting users to sign into a Microsoft account to access new tools such as Rewrite, a new feature that uses artificial intelligence to rewrite highlighted text.
It should be noted that you can still use Notepad without a Microsoft account, and users can go as far as removing the Rewrite icon completely from Notepad.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 year ago
So notepad isn’t behind a paywall, AI features nobody was asking for is behind a paywall, and this headline is bullshit.
That’s my takeaway.
Empricorn@feddit.nl 1 year ago
Eh. They shared those features to Notepad, so I would agree that they’re a part of it.
illi@lemm.ee 1 year ago
That’s my understanding, yes
wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 1 year ago
Full access to notepad? So what, I need to pay to toggle text wrapping and the about menu? It’s fucking notepad.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 year ago
You obviously didn’t read the article, but that’s OK it’s a trash article anyway. Which is already indicated by the headline, since Notepad was never free, it’s just included with Windows.
But your comment is disconnected from what this is really about, which essentially boils down to nothing.
Since what you are supposed to pay for is new AI features. Otherwise you can use Notepad as usual.jqubed@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s for the “AI” no one was asking for in the first place
ToadOfHypnosis@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Could MS suck any worse? It’s like they want people to not use their products. Capitalism is the ouroboros.
nadram@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Clickbait. Notepad is still free. If you want to use Rewrite, then you pay for that.
ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 1 year ago
Freemium dark patterns are also enshittification. It’s slight clickbait/ragebait, but not far off.
tabular@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I can understand separating a new paid-only feature, especially if you don’t much need that part. The new features are reportedly accessible from the GUI of Notepad so I wouldn’t blame anyone else who thought “NOTEPAD” asked them to sign up and pay a subscription to use “NOTEPAD” features.
I used to rage when reading bad changes to Windows, even after I’d stopped using it. Now I just feel bad that my friends are still in that a bad relationship with their computer.