Submitted 10 months ago by boem@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/11/microsoft_notepad_ai/
I know it’s dumb but I was always a bit disappointed that Microsoft overhauled Paint in Windows 11 with layers and polish. To me, paint is always that terrible pre-packaged program that makes bad art. There was a community around making things in paint, which was noticeably impressive because making decent art in paint is a nightmare.
Now that it’s actually fairly good… I don’t know, it’s lost its charm.
Its not actually good, and many actually good art programs far outshine it.
So its lost what made it unique, by being comedically bad, and become the death knell of most things in a capital focused system; mundane.
My primary use case for MS Paint is its almost non-existent system usage, to quickly crop screenshots or strip metadata from files. Paint.net handles almost every other use. Same rationale for Notepad and stripping formatting from copied text. Bloat the program with ‘value added USP features’ to compete with actual image editing software, and I’m out.
Microsoft saw how the Apple ecosystem lock-in has benefited them long term, and made big pushes to ‘improve’ their first party software and close the ecosystem to the Microsoft store. Vanilla Windows fresh off an install throws all kind of “You sure? Like for real sure?” UAC warnings popups at any executable, while seamlessly processing their App Store use. Zero-low literacy users want that kind of UI/UX and Microsoft sees money to be made funneling them towards first-party and ‘partner’ software
honestly it’s not even that bad, it’s notepad picture edition - I sometimes use it when I want to draw something fast to get my point across, small graphs that are easier to show than explain in text, objects I’m trying to describe but failing etc.
Together with notepad, paint gives you the “pen and a napkin” experience of the digital world.
I can understand and get behind this sentiment. At an old job we had iMacs and I would use Apple’s numbers program to make pixel art in the tables by coloring each cell.
I think it tries to be https://getpaint.net to some extent, I am absolutely fine with that, although it will never its clean, simple design.
Watch them adding AI to paint at some point.
They already have…
I love Paint because when shit started hitting the fan in windows, Microsoft’s neglect actually elevated Paint to the best stock program on there. It’s the only image viewer I use on windows because it opens instantly and takes practically zero resources. Even large images can be opened faster than the crappy calculator, which is still the same calculator from Windows 8 by the way. I hope they never touch paint again.
Notepad++, GET YOUR FOSS ON PEOPLE!
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.
neovim.io 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
VIM is for people who need crutches - Vi is where it’s at. Or maybe LaTex I don’t know.
But I do heartily endorse Notepad++.
I liked the tab support being added and use notepad for a bunch of basic bitch shiz, but notepad++ is going full time if they start bogging it down with crap.
SublimeText is a much superior alternative. Notepad++ is like being stuck in the 2000s
Sublime is not FOSS
Paying for a text editor, who doesn’t like that?
It’s free and is functional. What more could you want
There’s KDE Kate as well, but I only use that for scripting purpose.
I always though that my local use of a plain text editor should use a lot of CPU power (and electricity) in a huge data center.
Your owners gotta know what you’re doing at all times eh. Can’t leave notepad out of the tracking eco system
Does anyone use notepad for anything other than looking at config files? I mean, does anyone write documents with notepad?
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
Ctrl+Shift+V pastes without formatting.
I use it for writing quick temporary notes for work when I don’t have a pen and paper handy.
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.
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 out of the box with windows 10
I only use it to strip HTML text down to plain text. As long as it can do that, I’ll probably keep using it unless something better comes around.
It has such a distinct lack of any features whatsoever, that it makes it a perfect tool for practicing written assignments for language exams.
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 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 indenting or whatever the hell. That said, I’ll still use a “fancy” text editor like Notepad++ or Sublime Text.
I use it as a cache for chunks of text I want to move around
Fuck Notepad. All my homies use Kate.
Kate is freaking awesome. So many nice features for coding short of using a full IDE.
Is it as fast ro start up as N++?
What are the advantages over notepad++?
Native to Linux I’d say. Probably a few more but I’m more of a mousepad guy myself.
Personally, I’m boycotting Microsoft until they bring back Clippy.
Bring back clippy. “I see you want a barebones, simple text editor. Let me ruin that for you.”
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.
Notepad is the Internet Explorer of text editors. People use it because it comes with your computer, it’s the default, and sometimes it’s all you need for a task.
LEAVE NOTEPAD ALONE!
seriously though. I can’t imagine anything I’d rather have be more basic than notepad. It’s entire literal existence is to open, edit and save basic text files. There’s zero need for additional features or updates.
I mean, I don’t even see their precious AI in office yet, and they’re getting hard over adding it to fucking notepad? I expected an AI powered clippy to return to office before this shit.
Throws table
Imma keep using Wordpad
I don’t use Windows since 2018 but…
Now do paint. Or even more useless: calculator.
No need to “fix” notepad. It does what it has to. If you’re a power user, you can download something else. But I’ll bet it won’t have Ai in it.
(Psst: get as far away from microsoft as you can, and don’t look back!)
Not seeing anyone recommend Sublime Text here. It’s free for non commercial use and is fucking kickass and doesn’t look like it came out of the 80’s like NP++
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The feature is not immediately accessible in any current Windows Insider build, however, enterprising users have ways and means to delve into the operating system and haul out experiments that are not yet ready to see the light of day.
A pop-up menu titled “Cowriter” is visible, with options to tweak the format and content of the text.
Microsoft has been hard at work ruining updating Notepad in recent years.
Its GUI was updated with the introduction of Dark Mode, and tab support turned up in 2023.
Something else could have been added to Notepad instead of AI but hey gotta ride the hype train."
AI in Notepad, as shown in the screenshots, does not seem to make much sense – we’re sure the wise Register readership could think of something more appropriate for the editor.
The original article contains 364 words, the summary contains 136 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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 don't understand all the negativity. An integrated AI assistant in a text editor sounds like it could be amazing.
Notepads gang, rise up!
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?
DocMcStuffin@lemmy.world 10 months ago
You know what’s free (as in beer and speech) and not being enshittified? Notepad++
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 10 months ago
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.
morrowind@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
Hardly “stolen”. Suff like tabs is very basic that n++ didn’t invent.
AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
More likely they are direct ports of things from the highly popular Visual Studio Code as a lot of people used to bound out RAW HTML and other code in notepad for YEARS before Notepad++ was a thing.
FaceDeer@kbin.social 10 months ago
This is not enshittification. Here's where the term came from:
In what way is adding an AI assistant to Notepad either "abusing their users" or "abusing their business customers?" It seems like it's just a useful new feature to me.
kogasa@programming.dev 10 months ago
They’re sacrificing the utility of the tool to make it part of their new AI-driven operating system as a service platform. The only thing notepad had going for it was its completely simplicity, reliability, and speed. Nobody wants notepad to try to rope you into this ecosystem.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
But… MUH BUZZWORDS!
(I really hate the Reddit-style overuse of that word.)
DocMcStuffin@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I like Cory Doctorow. I think his theory of enshittification is useful, but I find his definition flawed.
I still give credit to Cory for being an acute observer and coming up with a useful theory.
ThanksForAllTheFish@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
AI assistants usually need to upload the data to process it. So it’s potential enshitification via adding data upload/harvesting features to a trusted offline text editor. Usually companies have ways to generate revenue streams based on the data from these “free and useful features”. Adverts based on what text files you open might be the long term end goal.
Rentlar@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
Adding an AI seems OK but per the article it will do it similar to Paint Co-creator. I can already see those types of “features” will get promoted more and more in updates and take more part of the screen.
Microsoft will want revenue trickling in from Notepad of all places…
MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 10 months ago
Leaks of company secrets will increase.
unrelatedkeg@lemmy.sdf.org 10 months ago
What about privacy and bloat? Do you really need an integrated big-brother Clippy again? There’s a reason they got rid of that annoying little bugger 20-ish years ago. Even killed Cortana. How many failed experiments more do we need?
If you need AI writing, you have it in Edge or on the ChatGPT site. Will they add AI to settings to help you turn on all the bloat and tracking for you?
Like just give me my damn control panel which has a working search feature (unlike, say, Settings)
PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
Unfff pump my veins full of Notepad++. I wanna feel the autosaving tabs course through me. I need that tabbed indenting experience. AAAAAAAAAAA
AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
It does contain random political statements however which is sometimes concerning.
Atropos@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I haven’t noticed any of this. Where are you seeing them?
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 months ago
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.
jflorez@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
SublimeText is a much better alternative
Goodtoknow@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
Not open source
MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 10 months ago
DocMcStuffin@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Neat, TIL of another app. Unfortunately, it looks like development has been abandoned. The last update was from 13 years ago.
gunpachi@lemmings.world 10 months ago
LiteXL is also pretty good.