My next toot will be drafted on a blank Libre page with no AI checking anything.
I have bad news for you. It's in your OS, there is no space safe from surveillance in Windows. That said, LibreOffice is a pretty heavy and complex application compared to notepad. I'm sure they can find a much lighter and simpler text editor to use as a replacement.
I liked notepad for it's simplicity.
Even notepad++ was way more complex than notepad ever was.
It literally just used ASCII (or similar) characters to a file. You can't open anything other than text on it, it won't allow you to attach pictures, graphs, videos or even links. You need to type out the damned URL in its entirety.
N++ is great for what it is, but notepad, aside from it's simplicity, was also great because it was everywhere.
Windows 11 started the down fall of my favorite simple text editor when they introduced..... tabs.
I hate that. I close notepad, and then open it again and.... Why is all this shit still here?!?!
Get fucked Microsoft.
This is a pretty random Notepad story, but: in 1999 I was doing web development for Internet Explorer 6 (yes, I know) using Classic ASP and Visual Basic (5 or 6? I can't be bothered to look shit like that up). Probably my most important debugging tool was the "View Source" menu option in IE6, which would bring up the raw HTML of whatever page I was working on in Notepad. One day the "View Source" option just stopped working, completely. Clicking that menu wouldn't do anything at all; I tried everything I could think of but just couldn't fix the problem. For six months I was basically coding blind - I had no way of directly seeing the HTML my code was producing.
Somehow I managed to still get my work done. Then one day I stumbled across an obscure forum post that said "View Source" in IE6 would not work if you had a shortcut to Notepad on your Desktop. I of course had a shortcut to Notepad on my Desktop since I kept everything on my desktop (yes, I know). I renamed my shortcut to "NotepadX" and suddenly "View Source" in IE6 started working again. Possibly the happiest day of my programming life. I played around with it and found that it didn't have to actually be a shortcut to Notepad - it could be a shortcut to any program or file, but if it happened to be named "Notepad" it would block View Source from working.
I would give anything to find out where this particular bug came from. It's really bothered the shit out of me for the past 26 years. I don't see how it could ever happen accidentally, so I have to assume that some MS programmer somewhere really hated people with shortcuts to commonly-used programs on their Desktop and decided to punish them.
I prefer Kate. (Da best)
(It's also Windows supported.)
Notepad had one job. Operate on a damn text file. Operate on the damn text files I choose.
I knew it was going down the drain when I reopened Notepad and it opened the files that were previously open. No. Don't do that. That's overly helpful. You were only supposed to operate on the damn files I chose. These files I'm about to work with aren't necessarily the files I previously worked on. If I want this functionality I might as well open it in vscode.
I'm, like, screw it, might as well keep Emacs running if I need random temporary text editing.
I never really thought about just how personal Notepad is for me. Even the Notes app on my phone. I wouldn't want anyone to look through any of it. I write some embarrassing shit. Pointless backstories for my video game protagonists when they don't already have one. Drafts for important upcoming conversations. You name it. Get the fuck out of my space. Fortunately I'm still using Notepad++, but I'm sure Microsoft will slide its dick into that too, eventually.
Good luck. As of this writing, I have UNINSTALLED copilot from Windows 11 Pro FOURTEEN TIMES in the past 3 weeks. I continually turn off its access to running in the background and terminate and its services in task manager multiple times a day. I've blocked the app in my non-MS antimalware suite. I have uac enabled to block unauthorized apps. I have disabled it in my startup apps repeatedly, to no avail .
I have disabled Edge browser everywhere possible, but Edge still manages to open itself up and REOPEN COPILOT even though I've disabled Edge multiple times and it is literally not the default app for even a single file type.
It's no longer POSSIBLE to install a single Office app, or uninstall single office apps. I do not need and do not want to bloat a ton of my SSD boot drive with Access and Designer and Publisher. The windows store standalone version of Outlook cannot load or save .pst backups.
MS has returned to even worse than its evil Borg ways. But now it's one of several threats to the continued existence of privacy anywhere for anyone.
Down with #enshittification #deshittify the #internet. Up with #CryptPad #Nextcloud #OnlyOffice (and to a lesser extent the commercial version #CollaberaOffice). Up with #StandardNotes and #ProtonMail, #ProtonCalendar, #ProtonDrive, #ProtonVPN, and #ProtonPass. Sad RIP to any and all security patches for #RIPLibreOffice (libre users - switch to security-patch-maintained software asap!)
Up with companies based in countries with strong privacy protections, that provide zero-knowledge services, and that do zero or minimal logging and discard logs swiftly (yay for thegood.cloud)!
Feeling the same, and currently in process of dumbing down my tech and decoupling from major tech platforms. They really got us by the balls.
Long live open source!
For folks who cannot do this due to it being a work-controlled machine or otherwise, you can use notepad++. (Obviously id rather this be a tipping point to ditch all the junk at once, but sometimes that isnt feasible)
That said, i find i still need a throwaway notepad for fast trashy notes. In that case ive just uninstalled the new notepad and re-downloaded the legacy notepad then re-aimed "notepad.exe" to the legacy one.
There are a few guides out there, just search your standard "how to get legacy notepad"
Use Copilot to write your own Notepad. With Blackjack. And hookers.
Installing cross-platform programs like that is a great way to prepare for a move over to penguin town, and check for any blockers keeping you from making the leap.
I'm glad I left Windows again when I did (about 2 years ago). There's no AI bullshit in vim or mousepad. That said, vim is available on windows, so a full switch isn't necessary if you're not all about that Linux life.
Cantankerously and all at once.
Now that's the way to do it!
A more notepad similar program instead of Libre stuff (for windows folk) https://www.editpadlite.com/en.html
If you can find the original editpad floating out on the net, it's notepad without the file size limit, ancient shareware. The pro version is pretty sweet too, one of very few pieces of software I've paid for out of pocket.
Notepad is their digital safe space? Come on.
