After 40 years of being free Microsoft has added a paywall to Notepad

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.

This is misinformation. They added the login requirement for their Generative AI and the actual notepad doesn't require a login. But I guess we're ragebaiting today.

Fine. Notepad++ is better anyway

If you must use windows, Notepad++ is the way to go.

Fucking click bait garbage article, but thankfully the article has a tldr at the top that basically contradicts the headline and saves you minutes of time to realize you've been baited;

TL;DR: Microsoft has introduced a paywall for Notepad, requiring a Microsoft 365 subscription to access new features like the AI-powered Rewrite tool.

Better headline: Microsoft forces you to pay to suffer through using their AI tool that no one asked for, application otherwise unchanged.

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?

I don't think it's ragebait/clickbait. I think it's really problematic that just a simple text editor get this bad by enshittification.

Linux

End of conversation.

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. Despite the ability to still use the software without an account, Microsoft has received some criticism for implementing what is most definitely a paywall/advertisement for a built-in piece of Windows software.

Are people just going to keep reposting this misleading shit headline of a post until no one reads the article and just goes along with it?

Are the people constantly reposting this even reading the article and realizing how illiterate they look?

[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!

Thanks god that I'm not using windows for 4 years now, and at least notepad++ exists.

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

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.

Notepad++ is way better anyway

lol fuck that

Finally, I can proudly proclaim that I'm no longer bound Microsoft's bullshit. Been a rocky start, but I've been happily using Kubuntu on my Surface for a while now, and it's going awesome

How much shit are people going to endure before realizing Windows isn't for them any more?

Dump the damn thing and use Linux. Yes, Linux is friendly, easy to use, you can play most games, you don't need your proprietary programs because there are Free alternatives that are just as good that might take you a moment to adjust to (don't cry about how it's different, that's Baby Duck Syndrome), and so on.

And Microsoft facilitates fascism and government spyware and all sorts of evil crap. So does Apple. And Google. Throw away your phone, use Linux on your PCs, free yourself.

The year of the Linux desktop has arrived.

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?

Oh god, how will replace a completely basic word processor? Surely there are not numerous replacements?

Could MS suck any worse? It’s like they want people to not use their products. Capitalism is the ouroboros.

Used only in cases where everything else is not readily available... Pencil, pen, blood, boogers etc. But the most easily replaceable piece of software. Literally you could just paste into a browser's URL box to do the same job. Lol. There must be some dumb fuck heading Microsoft right now.

So, turns out that they final push that convinced me to start learning Linux is the ol' Text Document.txt of all things. Swear to God, I thought that it would be the automatic updates nuking my unsaved work (again), but here we are...

Notepad has long been a testbed for new technology in Windows. This isn't just a sign of enshittification, it's a warning that they want to do more.

!linux@programming.dev could use more folks!

I use Vim, actually

After taking a look at the pictures of the article, I noticed “requires AI credits”. Credits?! What is this now? Some shitty mobile game? Really, Microsoft isn’t ashamed of anything anymore…

I mean, I don’t know about Microsoft and windows, so maybe this is different, but the name sounds crazy!

Ragebait. Notepad is still free. If you want to use Rewrite, then you pay for that.

The fact that they choose to mess with Notepad is more telling than the value it has given the alternatives.

Time to try my newly-released text editor lol.

https://www.sublimetext.com/

Good thing whenever I set up Windows, Notepad is one of the things I nuke, using Geany to replace it.

This is a bad sign if MS gets emboldened and starts paywalling basic OS functionality at some point in the future, though.

They could've added this to wordpad if they didn't kill it.

isn't the paywall for notepad buying windows and a computer?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple does something like this too at some point in the future

I have always been partial to gedit, kate aint bad either.

Every PC I've ever owned has had some version of vi installed on it pretty much on day one of my owning it.

And around 20 years ago I did go all-in Linux.

Notepad is not free! Bah ha ha ha. Anyway, tons of options out there for those not to lazy to look.

It should be noted that you can still use Notepad without a Microsoft account

Despite the ability to still use the software without an account

Are we not doing context anymore?

What is this? Just outrage for the sake of outrage?