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  3. 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

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  • B [email protected]

    Sounds like everyone is going to have to upgrade to Notepad ++ but honestly why are people even using Windows anymore and who even uses Notepad. I wanna see those numbers, like what... 5000 active users of notepad and they are just grandparents whose grandkids couldn't be bothered to install anything else. Seriously though Android, Mac OS, Steam OS, Android TV, Chrome OS, Debian, hell Ubuntu, Linux Mint so why are people making excuses to use Windows other than because it's on a work computer. Microsoft is lost in the sauce like hey guys let's make the operating system free and people pay for Notepad. You know what that sounds like, a car manufacturer giving away cars and charging to use the radio radio. When Windows became free the quality became identical to the price.

    shortrounddev@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
    shortrounddev@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
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    wrote on last edited by
    #206

    Notepad is useful for saving a simple piece of info to your hard drive somewhere, it's not a daily driver for code editing or anything. If I'm on the phone with some customer service rep and they give me some reference number, I'll pop open notepad to write it down and save it.

    Seriously though, Android, macOS, Steam OS, Android TV, Chrome OS, Debian, heck, Ubuntu, Linux Mint

    Some of those are not competitors to Windows. Android, Android TV, Steam OS are installed on specialty devices.

    macOS is not a good OS. I wouldn't consider it a better alternative to Windows. macOS often lags behind Windows in certain features such as tiling Windows. Apple is more hostile toward developers than Microsoft is and Apple ships their own versions of coreutils which are vastly inferior GNU coreutils and often totally out of date (Apple uses a build of bash from 2007 that was the default shell until the switch to zsh, and they STILL ship this bash binary today).

    For any other Linux variant, the answer is the same as it has been for 20 years: normies don't install their own OS, and also only use their machines to browse the internet, so it makes no difference to them.

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    • shady_shiroe@lemmy.worldS [email protected]

      My understanding of the different operating systems

      MacOS: One time hardware payment for their service (plus for every other device)

      Linux: Free as in price free and freedom

      Windows: 30+ subscriptions to edit 1 file, then cooldown till next day or upgrade subscriptions to enterpise version for a kidney/per user/per month.

      ::: spoiler Title
      ChomeOS: Communism for the children, supported by the Education System
      :::

      shortrounddev@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
      shortrounddev@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
      [email protected]
      wrote on last edited by
      #207

      MacOS

      And you get the privilege of making that one-time $2000 purchase every 2-3 years when Apple eventually nerfs their hardware with bad firmware updates

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      • D [email protected]

        Running LLMs is not a feature that 99% of users need or want. Look at all the AI laptops flopping in sales. People don't care about RAM soldered to the motherboard to squeeze a milisencond on a feature they don't use. It's a money grubbing strategy, plain and simple.

        E This user is from outside of this forum
        E This user is from outside of this forum
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        wrote on last edited by
        #208

        Did you purposely miss the first and last questions: Which laptop is the good value?

        I never said people need to run LLMs. I said Apple dominates high-end laptops and wanted a good high-end to compare to the high-end Macbooks.

        Instead of just complaining about Apple, can do what I asked? Best cheaper laptop alternative that checks the non-LLM boxes I mentioned:

        If you want good cooling, good power (CPU and GPU), good screen, good keyboard, good battery, good WiFi, etc., the options get limited quickly.

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        • T [email protected]

          Oh good, now the angry, immature contrarian is accusing me of being a bot.

          You also accusr me of misunderstanding badic shit like how BSD came from UNIX when I never said differently. If you had any reading comprehension, you'd see I said UNIX was still being used at that time OVER *BSD.

          Similar fallacies and bullshit litter the rest of your immature little shit rant.

          I can guarantee I wrote every word of what I say and despise the rise of GenAI and would never use it.

          Can you say the same?

          R This user is from outside of this forum
          R This user is from outside of this forum
          [email protected]
          wrote on last edited by
          #209

          see I said UNIX was still being used at that time OVER *BSD.

          You seem to think Unix is one system. You also seem to think *BSDs are not a branch of Unix.

          You don't seem to learn.

          How old are you and what's your intention in behaving this way? Just interested.

          T 1 Reply Last reply
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          • B [email protected]

            Sounds like everyone is going to have to upgrade to Notepad ++ but honestly why are people even using Windows anymore and who even uses Notepad. I wanna see those numbers, like what... 5000 active users of notepad and they are just grandparents whose grandkids couldn't be bothered to install anything else. Seriously though Android, Mac OS, Steam OS, Android TV, Chrome OS, Debian, hell Ubuntu, Linux Mint so why are people making excuses to use Windows other than because it's on a work computer. Microsoft is lost in the sauce like hey guys let's make the operating system free and people pay for Notepad. You know what that sounds like, a car manufacturer giving away cars and charging to use the radio radio. When Windows became free the quality became identical to the price.

            C This user is from outside of this forum
            C This user is from outside of this forum
            [email protected]
            wrote on last edited by
            #210

            I use Notepad on my work computer daily. I never save any documents, but it is handy for a quick copy/paste of info I need for a short period of time. We aren't allowed to install anything on the computers, so it's what is available.

            I could live without it, but I do find it marginally useful, basically as digital "scrap paper".

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            • M [email protected]

              Have you ever built PCs? Macs are significantly more expensive for the same spec

              T This user is from outside of this forum
              T This user is from outside of this forum
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              wrote on last edited by
              #211

              I think macs are more comparable when you compare OEM PC to OEM PC. I've specced out a few optiplexes for clients and all have been over a grand each. I wouldnt spend that much on my own computer but I know how to pick a good used computer or build my own if I so desire. The clients just want a computer they can forget about for a decade and yell at Dell when it breaks so Optiplex it is.

              How much does a Mac Mini cost? $800 for a variant with 512GB of storage. Literally cheaper than a similar Dell Opitplex

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              • T [email protected]

                They really do seem to be on a mission to cram it into everything

                T This user is from outside of this forum
                T This user is from outside of this forum
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                wrote on last edited by
                #212

                Can't wait to see in 5 years while all of the LLM nonsense quietly gets shuffled further and further to the back until it's gone like Cortana or Paint3D

                Meanwhile has anyone noticed Microsoft has unhidden some genuinely useful older menus like Control Panel? Earlier in the windows 10 lifespan you couldn't search for control panel and had to instead use constantly changing shortcuts and tooltips to gain access to it, but now you can just search for Control Panel and pull it right up. I'm not thrilled that I have to dig for the network adapter properties still but I'll take the improvements I get

                T 1 Reply Last reply
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                • spacecowboy@lemmy.caS [email protected]

                  It's so stupid that they're making these additions to notepad. There is a need to have a basic text editor on an OS that isn't going to try to "help" by giving recommendations, automatically backs up files or whatever other shit they're trying to jam into it.

                  They had wordpad and if they wanted to add additional features into that, that's completely fine. There are use cases for something that does a bit more than a simple text editor like notepad can do.

                  My guess is that they tracked that people used notepad more often than wordpad so they removed wordpad. Then started making notepad more like wordpad without considering why people used notepad more frequently.

                  A This user is from outside of this forum
                  A This user is from outside of this forum
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                  wrote on last edited by
                  #213

                  Telemetry was a mistake

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                  • ironsightos@lemmy.worldI [email protected]

                    A This user is from outside of this forum
                    A This user is from outside of this forum
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                    wrote on last edited by
                    #214

                    GNU Emacs is the same everywhere you go (if you don't mind the TUI)

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                    • B [email protected]

                      Sounds like everyone is going to have to upgrade to Notepad ++ but honestly why are people even using Windows anymore and who even uses Notepad. I wanna see those numbers, like what... 5000 active users of notepad and they are just grandparents whose grandkids couldn't be bothered to install anything else. Seriously though Android, Mac OS, Steam OS, Android TV, Chrome OS, Debian, hell Ubuntu, Linux Mint so why are people making excuses to use Windows other than because it's on a work computer. Microsoft is lost in the sauce like hey guys let's make the operating system free and people pay for Notepad. You know what that sounds like, a car manufacturer giving away cars and charging to use the radio radio. When Windows became free the quality became identical to the price.

                      C This user is from outside of this forum
                      C This user is from outside of this forum
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                      wrote on last edited by
                      #215

                      I use notepad alongside notepad++ it is fine.

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                      • T [email protected]

                        Can't wait to see in 5 years while all of the LLM nonsense quietly gets shuffled further and further to the back until it's gone like Cortana or Paint3D

                        Meanwhile has anyone noticed Microsoft has unhidden some genuinely useful older menus like Control Panel? Earlier in the windows 10 lifespan you couldn't search for control panel and had to instead use constantly changing shortcuts and tooltips to gain access to it, but now you can just search for Control Panel and pull it right up. I'm not thrilled that I have to dig for the network adapter properties still but I'll take the improvements I get

                        T This user is from outside of this forum
                        T This user is from outside of this forum
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                        wrote on last edited by
                        #216

                        I hate the information superhighway the world wide web the blogosphere social media web2.0 mobile the cloud IOT blockchain ar/vr generative AI

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                        • A [email protected]

                          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.

                          G This user is from outside of this forum
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                          wrote on last edited by
                          #217

                          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.

                          B A 2 Replies Last reply
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                          • N [email protected]
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                            wrote on last edited by
                            #218

                            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?

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                            • N [email protected]
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                              wrote on last edited by
                              #219

                              So, let me ask you a question: How long do you think Microsoft will wait before they start charging for essential services? Would you be willing to pay for something like Notepad? Or, for example, pay to connect to the internet through their wireless interface? This seems like just the beginning, with more features eventually locked behind paywalls. They're testing the waters to see how much they can charge. Think about it—Microsoft gave you the house, but now they want to charge you for the doors. Meanwhile, Google is watching, waiting to see what they can charge for. And like you said, Mac will surely follow suit. I was simply listing operating systems across different ecosystems, because Windows hasn’t successfully broken out of the Personal Computer space.

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                              • shortrounddev@lemmy.worldS [email protected]

                                MacOS

                                And you get the privilege of making that one-time $2000 purchase every 2-3 years when Apple eventually nerfs their hardware with bad firmware updates

                                R This user is from outside of this forum
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                                wrote on last edited by
                                #220

                                Examples? Not at all my experience. I love my Linux boxes but every MacBook I’ve owned has lasted 10 years and generally is quick until near the end of that period. My iPhone shave also all lasted longer than my Android phones with considerably more updates and security patches (supposedly this will be more on par now if Google doesn’t cancel yet another program).

                                O 1 Reply Last reply
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                                • Z [email protected]

                                  Apple heavily pushes their users towards iCloud subscriptions. More so on iOS than macOS but still.

                                  R This user is from outside of this forum
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                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #221

                                  Easy to avoid on Macs. Harder on phones for non-technical types. The bigger issue with Apple is I think getting data out of iCloud should you want to do something else. Their proprietary formats and databases (especially for photos) is kind of a nightmare.

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                                  • M [email protected]

                                    Have you ever built PCs? Macs are significantly more expensive for the same spec

                                    R This user is from outside of this forum
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                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #222

                                    Not really if you actually try to match the screen too. Good colour accuracy is expensive. It’s the best part of their products. If someone doesn’t need that then yeah, definitely better options.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • B [email protected]

                                      Sounds like everyone is going to have to upgrade to Notepad ++ but honestly why are people even using Windows anymore and who even uses Notepad. I wanna see those numbers, like what... 5000 active users of notepad and they are just grandparents whose grandkids couldn't be bothered to install anything else. Seriously though Android, Mac OS, Steam OS, Android TV, Chrome OS, Debian, hell Ubuntu, Linux Mint so why are people making excuses to use Windows other than because it's on a work computer. Microsoft is lost in the sauce like hey guys let's make the operating system free and people pay for Notepad. You know what that sounds like, a car manufacturer giving away cars and charging to use the radio radio. When Windows became free the quality became identical to the price.

                                      I This user is from outside of this forum
                                      I This user is from outside of this forum
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                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #223

                                      Do you game? Cuz that alone is a solid reason to use windows. I know Linux is getting usable for it, but let's be honest there is no more convenient OS when it comes to gaming and daily use than windows and you can't tell me otherwise. I have tried to switch to Ubuntu or mint many times but it's just not idiot proof enough for ur average how yet and I constantly found myself trying to troubleshoot issues I never ran into with windows. Yea I know Microsoft is the devil and all that, but they still provide the easiest to use OS out there!

                                      communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyzC S B 3 Replies Last reply
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                                      • N [email protected]
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                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #224

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

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                                        • S [email protected]

                                          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?

                                          N This user is from outside of this forum
                                          N This user is from outside of this forum
                                          [email protected]
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #225

                                          Don't take this the wrong way, but it's hard for me to contain my incredulity: have you been asleep for the last decade? Has a very obvious pattern of enshitification has not been constantly proven as a rule on the tech sector? And an article is... outrage?

                                          S 1 Reply Last reply
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