After 40 years of being free Microsoft has added a paywall to Notepad
After 40 years of being free Microsoft has added a paywall to Notepad
If you want full access to Notepad, Microsoft now requires users to pay, with the new changes to 40-year-old software adopting the 'freemium' model.
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.
Ragebait. Notepad is still free. If you want to use Rewrite, then you pay for that.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Fine. Notepad++ is better anyway
I prefer Sublime
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.
[obligatory linux boast] I really prefer Kate to Notepad because KDE makes superior, non AI encrusted software that actually works for it's users. And it's FREE!
personally i find kate struggles with large files. KWrite is a better analog to notepad IMO
Even though it's typically associated with KDE and Linux, it's also available on Windows. Good for people who haven't made up their mind yet. It's a great text editor with a feature-set similar to other advanced notepads.
I'll be real though, if I hadn't jumped ship 3 years ago, I'd be cutting my losses with Windows here.
I love Kate.
!linux@programming.dev could use more folks!
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
I use Vim, actually
There always has to be one...
Same.
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.
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.
That's my understanding, yes
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?
Could MS suck any worse? It’s like they want people to not use their products. Capitalism is the ouroboros.
The fact that they choose to mess with Notepad is more telling than the value it has given the alternatives.
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.
Notepad is not free! Bah ha ha ha. Anyway, tons of options out there for those not to lazy to look.