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.
- 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.

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.
- Upvoted for visibility.
  I recommend Notepad++.
  
  I use Kate on the windows work pc
  
  I use Kate on the windows work pc
- Having this LLM bullshit in Notepad should be the real news
  
  They really do seem to be on a mission to cram it into everything
  
  Yeah. This is why I've disabled copilot and Gemini on my devices altogether. It's not worth it to have this nonsense filling up everything you use or rely on on a daily basis.
- 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?
  
  "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."
  https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/no-notepad-for-windows-11-doesnt-require-you-to-use-a-microsoft-account-unless-youre-trying-to-use-ai
  https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/seen-those-complaints-online-about-having-to-sign-in-to-your-microsoft-account-to-use-windows-11s-notepad-app-its-all-a-load-of-hot-air
  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.
  
  No, only in so far as the button to use it existing passively
  No
  And no
- 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.
  
  Oh, one of the first things I did was group policy edit anything to do with tracking, ads, or AI.
  
  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.

Fine. Notepad++ is better anyway
- 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.
  
  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…
- I prefer Sublime
- Is it though? I still always open notepad for random text stuff. What is better in ++?
  
  Keeps your progress if you exit without saving
  Supports tabs so you don't have 5 separate notepad windows open
  syntax highlighting for programming languages and markdown format
  plugin support
  can handle extremely large text files (I've opened 50gb text files and used ctrl+f to find terms and it worked fine)
  superb tools for manipulating text (e.g., use reg expressions). Super easy and flexible in making mass edits.
  dark mode support. That alone makes it superior lol
  If you just need a quick window open to make a note you might actually prefer Sticky Notes over Notepad!
  
  Notepad++ isn't trying to shoehorn in AI for starters. It's clear Microsoft is praying the current gimmicky narrative of AI will let the masses not realize this is a privacy nightmare.
  
  Yes, it objectively is. And so are various other text editor options that are out there.
  But just speaking about Notepad++, you can scale it down to a very simple text editor (like Notepad), it you can easily ramp it up to a much more feature rich one. And for me, the ability to have a vertical list of files is a big plus. As is its ability to optionally show line numbers.
  
  the only thing I need it for is to select text vertically (by holding left alt). there are a few similar ones for linux but some crash and the rest don't have a dark theme, so I still use it with wine.

- 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.
- All the Linux posts and Linux loving Lemmy users are what keep me away from Linux.
  They’re like the Rick and Morty fans of PC software
  
  Not our fault you won't listen to common sense and reason. Enjoy your bloated fascist spyware just because you think Linux users are creepy or whatever the fuck you think.
  
  Guess that's what happens when Windows drives me insane

If you must use windows, Notepad++ is the way to go.
- Vi
  
  GNU Emacs is the same everywhere you go (if you don't mind the TUI)
- ed is better
- VSCode is better than np++ in every way
  
  Startup time. RAM consumption. Privacy.
  
  I heavily use both and this is objectively untrue.
  
  Those are 2 different use case pieces of software . NP++ is an editor while vscode is an IDE
  
  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.
  
  Install time? Startup time? Useless bloat?

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.
- This seems like something that should be kept local. What's the point of all these NPUs otherwise
- LLMs in general is a tool no in one asked for

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.
- Sublime text ftw
  
  Notepad++ on windows is kind of the GOAT IMO.
- Case in point: Windows 11 "Light" (LTSC) from Microsoft has the classic and advertisement-free version of Notepad.

Well it's a good thing there's no shortage of free replacements.

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.
- Apple heavily pushes their users towards iCloud subscriptions. More so on iOS than macOS but still.
  
  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.
- imo macOS is better value than Windows. A Windows PC of similar quality to what Apple offers (built quality and specs) is not that much cheaper and with a Mac you get a ton of actually usable software included.
  Obviously FOSS still wins offering a ton of good software for free, lots of choice and the option to choose from hardware at any price point. But Windows is just bad unless you're an enterprise user or gamer (and the latter is changing fast in Linux favour).
  
  Have you ever built PCs? Macs are significantly more expensive for the same spec
  The rest I agree with, it doesn't help that Windows has been steadily going downhill with each new version...
  
  A Windows PC of similar quality to what Apple offers (built quality and specs) is not that much cheaper
  I don't think that's true, at least if we're talking about hardware. The only thing that I think really makes this argument is the screen, because you need to go really high end to get the same quality screen (if it exists).
  If we mostly stick to CPU, RAM, storage, etc, then you can get a really competitive PC for about half the cost. I bought a decent ThinkPad new about 7 years ago for $500 (E series), which was pretty competitive w/ the Macbook Pro in terms of specs, and I still use it to this day. I didn't go top-of-the-line, so the CPU was a little worse and it had integrated graphics, but I could absolutely find a similar build to the MBP for $1k or so, probably less. The MacBook Air and Mac Mini, however, is a lot harder to find a competitor for and I think their value is quite strong with that form factor.
  If we include software, then yeah, macOS offers a ton of value, since you get a decent office suite and a bunch of other utilities included with it, whereas w/ Windows, you just get trial versions of subscription software. So valuing the included SW in macOS vs Windows really depends on the individual.
  Windows is just bad
  Agreed. I only buy "Windows" laptops to install Linux on, and on my last laptop, I got a $40 discount because I told the sales rep I wasn't interested in Windows and they gave that to me.
  That said, the value that Windows provides that other OSes don't is compatibility. macOS can't play Windows games, and Linux can't play some games that work on Windows. If you need that compatibility, the value assessment is a lot different than if you could switch platforms without giving anything up.
- CheomeOS: Let Google silently start tracking your kids until they are old enough to sell all of that accumulated data.
- 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
  
  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 iPhones have 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).

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.
- Sounds like they're slipping cloud based AI assistance into the deal, which is the opposite of what Notepad is "good" for.
- Gotta squeeze every single cent from every single opportunity, otherwise line might not go up indefinitely.
- But it is though, it's for a feature that you don't need and can just turn off and never see again...
  
  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.

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.

People at Microsoft doesn't understand what people use Notepad for.
If they wanted to add AI features, they should have added it to WordPad, and make it more modern / add some useful functions.
- They killed wordpad.
  
  Can't wait for them to remove Calculator, since you can ask AI to calculate stuff, you know.
  
  Add it to OneNote then?
- Microsoft killed Wordpad
- Yeah but no one uses wordpad. They put it in notepad for the exact reason you're saying: because people use it.
  
  If they made it more useful, people would use it. Making support for modern formats, maybe even Markdown could have been added and it would already be 5x more useful. Also add another set of basic features like tables, some advanced formatting to the mix as well.

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?
- The click bait will never die my friend.
  
  We should never tire of pointing it out though.

Linux
End of conversation.
- I think that's the start of the conversation. Which Desktop Environment?
  
  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
  
  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.
  
  I really like my KDE plasma
  
  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.
  
  Well… it just removes so much toxicity from the outset

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

[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!
- 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.
- personally i find kate struggles with large files. KWrite is a better analog to notepad IMO
- I love Kate.
  
  thanks!
  
  Me too! So much so that I have sworn to name my first secretary Kate.
- I like Kate as a program but man KDE need to change how some of their app names appear in Plasma.
  A new user looking through their start menu and seeing "Kate" will have no idea it's a text editor/notepad. The same is true for multiple other programs.
  Okular, Dolphin, Cantata... ask someone who's never tried Plasma before what those programs do and I'd wager you'd get an incorrect answer for each one.
  
  There is actually an option to do that iirc. You can have it show entry descriptions.
  
  What does "Excel" do? What does "Steam" do? What does "Balena" do? What does "Conky" do?

Notepad++ FTW
- Sublime Text for me. It has some nifty features that NP++ doesn't, and looks better out of the box.

Notepad++ is way better anyway

Thanks god that I'm not using windows for 4 years now, and at least notepad++ exists.
- Why would a bot be using notepad?
- It's like they want people to use npp instead

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.
- It is batshit crazy. Notepad was never meant to be what they are making it into. Not even WordPad should have AI nonsense. It's just not for that. It would be like adding advanced spreadsheet functionality to Microsoft Word. It's not what that's for, you have Excel for that.
  
  Sure but with Wordpad I wouldn't much care if they spam it up with this kind of crap. It's something that doesn't have much use now, because there's notepad for basic text files and Word or Libre Office for actual word processing. So if someone wanted something to type up some notes that get automatic backups, and have AI recommendations (not that it would be me, but who knows?) just put it on there so we still have a simple text editor that's installed by default.
  If they're going to enshittify something at least don't enshittify the basic tools of the OS.
- Telemetry was a mistake

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
  
  Eh. They shared those features to Notepad, so I would agree that they're a part of it.

lol fuck that

Microsoft what the fuck are you doing.
You fucking idiot's.
- Exactly. Instead of doubling down on trying to extract profit from everything, they should go back to their old motto of "it's the operating system, stupid" or "developers developers developers..."
  Microsoft should be trying to make their OS more attractive by providing more value, and then pushing for developers to release through their Microsoft Store so they get some profit after sale. Basically the iPhone strategy of making a solid base product, and charging for every additional app that gets installed.
  But no, they're making the default experience suck more, which makes alternatives a lot more attractive. That's... not how you maintain market share.

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
- Hey, great for you! Which Surface do you have and did you get the camera(s) working properly?
  
  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
- 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.
  
  Nothing I could find immediately. I found an Arch Wiki entry which shows that most features work out of the box. Not sure if that's your exact model and can't comment on how reliable the information presented is too.
  https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lenovo_Yoga_14s_2021

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?
- Exactly. The issue is that it's a freemium model, where they advertise a product with additional features in Notepad. But Notepad itself is still free.
  That's still bad, but so is the title.
- 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 not been constantly proven as a rule on the tech sector? And an article is... outrage?
  
  Not the article, I meant the comment section

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?

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.
- 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.
  
  If you are in IT I'd hope you know some version of Unix. Consumers I wouldn't expect them to know, they just want it to work and don't care about configurations and how it works.
- Linux is as messy and more as the apartment where I live (really bad).
  If you want the operating system to make sense, use OpenBSD (no Wine, no Linux emulation, thus only native games) or NetBSD (there is Wine and Linux emulation, but limited) or FreeBSD (generally can do the same as Linux), but all three port graphics drivers from Linux with significant lag, and hardware support is worse in general.
  And Microsoft facilitates fascism
  There's a lot of Linux in systems that governments and militaries use.
  Throw away your phone,
  Yes, right. Also change job so that an Android device for 2FA weren't a requirement. And get used that I can't communicate with someone over TG/WA/VK in transport.
  And still be surveilled, because the information you give about yourself without an Android phone is sufficient, carrying one is a symbolic decapitation of your privacy and dignity, "symbolic" is the word.
  
  What a sycophantic shitlord.

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

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...

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

!linux@programming.dev could use more folks!

I use Vim, actually
- There always has to be one...
- Same.
- Just use ed if you’re feeling so fancy

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.

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!
- 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".

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

https://www.sublimetext.com/
- 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.
  
  Sublime can do all of that as well, but it's more performant, has better shortcut keys, and IMO it has much nicer navigation for larger files (gives you a sort of eagle-eye's view of the entire document next to the scrollbar). That's all very much a personal preference thing of course.

Time to try my newly-released text editor lol.

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

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.
- Geany FTW!

Sounds like everyone is going to have to upgrade to Notepad++, but honestly, why are people even using Windows anymore? Who even uses Notepad? I want to see those numbers—like, what... 5,000 active users of Notepad, and they're probably just grandparents whose grandkids couldn't be bothered to install anything else.
Seriously though, Android, macOS, Steam OS, Android TV, Chrome OS, Debian, heck, 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 have people pay for Notepad." You know what that sounds like? A car manufacturer giving away cars and charging to use the radio. When Windows became free, the quality became identical to the price.
- 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.
- 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".
- I use notepad alongside notepad++ it is fine.
- 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!
  
  Yeah, but have you seen the performance difference between Windows and Linux machines? SteamOS is absolutely crushing it when it comes to improving Linux, making it much more user-friendly. They’re even opening it up to other platforms, which is a huge win for everyone.
  
  I game a ton and the only missing games these days are malware. I simply don't play those games.
  https://areweanticheatyet.com/
  Daily use, however? Really? I have a completely ad-free easy to use experience, I actually give KDE to the elderly because it's significantly easier to use for daily use outside of gaming.
  Most peoples usecases are limited and linux is legitimately just better for that, having ads in your start menu and file manager are terrible for people who don't know what they're doing.
  
  Yes, if your only or at least primary reason for using your PC is to play games, you'll have an easier time on Windows. That's an undeniable fact.
  However, that doesn't mean you need Windows to play games. There is a huge amount of games that work on Linux, and outside of competitive MP games w/ invasive anti-cheat, VR, and maybe a couple other niches, pretty much everything works on Linux, though some games will need a few tweaks (ProtonDB for details).
  The more people that switch to Linux, the more attractive the platform is for game devs, meaning the more likely we'll get official support for more games. Look at what has happened since the Steam Deck's launch, we've gone from devs completely ignoring Linux to some games spending actual resources to support it. That's phenomenal!
  If you want an alternative to Windows without all the crap Microsoft is shoving into it, Linux is your best bet. Consider trying it out, you may be pleasantly surprised.
  That said, if you're uninterested, that's totally cool too.

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.
- I'm not even willing to use Windows for free. I have it installed w/o a license, and I haven't booted into it in... 2 years? 3? I honestly don't remember, but I haven't used Windows in any meaningful sense for >10 years, other than to test Windows-specific things.
  Reject this nonsense. There are alternatives that could probably work for you, depending on your requirements.
  
  Crys in simulator gamer. But agreed, hopefully this trend will be good for Linux use.

I have always been partial to gedit, kate aint bad either.
- (neo)vim for life :)

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

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

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.
- The recent update was the first time in decades they've touched it. How has it 'long been a testbed of new technology' ?

Ragebait. Notepad is still free. If you want to use Rewrite, then you pay for that.
- Freemium dark patterns are also enshittification. It's slight clickbait/ragebait, but not far off.
- 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.

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

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

Full access to notepad? So what, I need to pay to be able to toggle text wrapping or look at the about menu? It's fucking notepad.
EDIT: I didnt expect so many downvotes taking sides with MS
- It’s for the “AI” no one was asking for in the first place
- You obviously didn't read the article, but that's OK it's a trash article anyway. Which is already indicated by the headline, since Notepad was never free, it's just included with Windows.
  But your comment is disconnected from what this is really about, which essentially boils down to nothing.
  Since what you are supposed to pay for is new AI features. Otherwise you can use Notepad as usual.
- hahahahahaha, they're gonna charge admission to a dead end next. ta-da!!!!

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