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
www.tweaktown.com
After 40 years of being free Microsoft has added a paywall to Notepad
147 comments
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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.
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Upvoted for visibility.
I recommend Notepad++.
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Having this LLM bullshit in Notepad should be the real news
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Is the Genevieve AI enabled by default?
After opening the notepad app does it ask you for that login?
Is your access to notepad restricted by the login?
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"But it turns out that, while this screenshot is indeed real, those eagle-eyed enough should already be able to tell that something isn't quite lining up here. In fact, nearly any Windows 11 user could open up the fully updated Notepad without getting this pop-up at all, even if they aren't already signed into a Microsoft account. So, what's the deal here?"
"The key is in the exact wording, identifiable within the first sentence: "Sign in with your Microsoft account to use Rewrite and its features in Notepad." This is a prompt that exists, yes, but one that's exclusive to Copilot+ PCs and explicitly requires the user to trigger it by clicking the Rewrite button, as confirmed by our own testing."
Please read the article. No. My access to notepad is not restricted. I also don't run any copilot features of any kind on windows 11. Yes, I believe Generative AI Copilot is enabled by default, but in this case the only time you get prompted to login is when you use a feature in notepad that directly needs copilot in order to work and you the user have to select that feature. Meaning you can use notepad without it entirely and never even see this prompt at all.
Microsoft is a tech giant with all the bad crap that implies. They do enough terrible things that we don't need to lie to make them look bad.
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No, only in so far as the button to use it existing passively
No
And no
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I turned off that AI stuff as soon as I saw it. Click the gear icon in Notepad in the upper right to open settings and turn it off.
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Oh, one of the first things I did was group policy edit anything to do with tracking, ads, or AI.
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Yeah. Like, I get AI can be useful, but it’s fucking everywhere! Even a god damn fridge got AI! And I hate it to be so forced on me, like, I just wanna write text or code without Copilot annoying me all of the time.
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Fine. Notepad++ is better anyway
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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.
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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…
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I prefer Sublime
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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.
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VSCode is better than np++ in every way
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Startup time. RAM consumption. Privacy.
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I heavily use both and this is objectively untrue.
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Those are 2 different use case pieces of software . NP++ is an editor while vscode is an IDE
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Clearly this is a controversial statement. I'm team "use what's available and preference tools that get the job done quickly."
I work in several different languages. VSCode has TreeSitter and a bevy of slick plug-ins. NP++ does not. I can use VSCode on both Windows and Linux. If I've got a desktop environment, I will hands down pick VSCode over NP++ every time.
Otherwise, let's be real, NeoVim is king.
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Install time? Startup time? Useless bloat?
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ed is better
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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.
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This seems like something that should be kept local. What's the point of all these NPUs otherwise
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LLMs in general is a tool no in one asked for
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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?
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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.
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Case in point: Windows 11 "Light" (LTSC) from Microsoft has the classic and advertisement-free version of Notepad.
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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.
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Sounds like they're slipping cloud based AI assistance into the deal, which is the opposite of what Notepad is "good" for.
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Gotta squeeze every single cent from every single opportunity, otherwise line might not go up indefinitely.
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But it is though, it's for a feature that you don't need and can just turn off and never see again...
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I think you got used to used to it, if you would use Linux for 15 years (like me), then going back to Windows really shows all these problems of Microsoft.
The biggest problem here that you get this pop-up in the first place.... And I'm pretty sure it's not only Notepad, all Microsoft products (including Windows) is getting worse and worse due to enshittification.
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Linux
End of conversation.
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I think that's the start of the conversation. Which Desktop Environment?
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I want a clean, advanced, well designed desktop and Im okay with redoing my work flow
Use Gnome
Gnome is cool but can it be slightly more Windows?
Use Cosmic (PopOS)
I want lots of customization, advanced features, and a traditional windows desktop metaphor
Use KDE
I want Windows and don't really care about customization
Use Cinnamon
Dude the Windows 9x look was fucking dope
Use Mate
Im installing this on a potato
Use XFCE
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I really like my KDE plasma
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IMO:
- want to show off? i3wm with gaps and rofi for menu launcher. Add it some transparency effects too.
- want the MacOS style? Gnome. Default on a lot of distros.
- want something stable? XFCE. Install and forget.
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Gnome is an opinionated desktop environment and that turns some people off. But it's bold enough to make some design decisions and have a limited scope. KDE tries to be another Windows alternative.
Of course, you could go with a tiling window manager but my vote goes to Gnome. I've had a very smooth experience on Gnome for the last couple years.
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Well… it just removes so much toxicity from the outset
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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?
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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.
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[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!
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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.
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personally i find kate struggles with large files. KWrite is a better analog to notepad IMO
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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
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Thanks god that I'm not using windows for 4 years now, and at least notepad++ exists.
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Why would a bot be using notepad?
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It's like they want people to use npp instead
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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.
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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.
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That's my understanding, yes
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Eh. They shared those features to Notepad, so I would agree that they're a part of it.
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Notepad++ is way better anyway
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lol fuck that
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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
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Hey, great for you! Which Surface do you have and did you get the camera(s) working properly?
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It's a Surface Go 2, 8GB RAM, I think - maybe 4 - and a couple years old now. Haven't tried, actually, since I rarely if ever need the cameras. However, I read that getting the cameras to work is a bit of a hassle. Not impossible but annoying
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I have a lenovo yoga 14s which is similarly transformable. Are there good resources out there for installing linux on these kinds of laptop, or are they mostly focused on surface laptops?
Honestly Windows on it is just a nightmare and I'd love to ditch it.
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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.
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Crying about it being different isn’t baby duck syndrome; saying it’s better/worse compared to what you’re used to is.
People just don’t want to spend hundreds of hours re-learning things that already work for them.
It is objectively easier to stick with something you know than to learn something new, so that’s what most non-technical users do.Pretty much everyone in IT should learn linux at some point though.
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The year of the Linux desktop has arrived.
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Oh god, how will replace a completely basic word processor? Surely there are not numerous replacements?
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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?
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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...
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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.
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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!
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Likely you'll have to pay for some AI service, because the executives' children cried after watching an old sci-fi, that "we can't have intelligent conversations with out computers in 2016 in the real world, while in 2015 in the movie adaptation of Don't Build The Torment Nexus, there was Torment Nexus the intelligent and smart computer".
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I use Vim, actually
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There always has to be one...
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Same.
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Just use
edif you’re feeling so fancy
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!linux@programming.dev could use more folks!
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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.
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The recent update was the first time in decades they've touched it. How has it 'long been a testbed of new technology' ?
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Time to try my newly-released text editor lol.
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The fact that they choose to mess with Notepad is more telling than the value it has given the alternatives.
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Ragebait. Notepad is still free. If you want to use Rewrite, then you pay for that.
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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.
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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.
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Geany FTW!
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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.
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isn't the paywall for notepad buying windows and a computer?
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They could've added this to wordpad if they didn't kill it.
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I have always been partial to gedit, kate aint bad either.
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(neo)vim for life :)
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I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple does something like this too at some point in the future
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Every PC I've ever owned has had some version of vi installed on it pretty much on day one of my owning it.
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And around 20 years ago I did go all-in Linux.
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Notepad is not free! Bah ha ha ha. Anyway, tons of options out there for those not to lazy to look.
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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?
147 comments
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.
I agree, but the idea of adding AI to notepad is quite insane in its own right
Adding layers to paint was what surprised me
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"
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.
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.