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Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

theverge.com

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Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#321

Post by wruza »

dmurray wrote: post #258
JohnFen wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for people that aren't already familiar with navigating things like GIMP, KDE, Open/LibreOffice, it's not especially welcoming. This is true for all complex software, though. People who have never used Apple's software also struggle with it until they become more familiar.

Is VLC really "complex software" if you just want to use it as a media player? Double click your media file, it plays. Play, pause, volume controls are where you'd guess they are. There's plenty of complexity underneath, but the happy path is simple. By contrast, "open this image and draw a single red circle in it" in GIMP is as challenging to a newbie as quitting vi. Even for an intermediate user - I use GIMP a hand…

It feels like GIMP was designed with user-hostility in mind. There’s no Paint.net for Linux, so I have to use GIMP from time to time for my gui server job needs. And gosh, I hate the damn thing. Every simple step in it is as hard as you can’t bear.

(No I can’t use Krita for specific reasons and it isn’t much easier anyway)

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#322

Post by nuancebydefault »

vundercind wrote: post #107
alsetmusic wrote: post #73

So, they went from not updating in forever, to finally updating it in some meaningful ways a couple years ago, to adding crap that no one wants pretty much right away. Too much, MS. Shoulda quit while you were ahead with tabs.

All it needed was a way to work with other newline formats cleanly. Adding much more than that (even tabs) makes it into a different thing that leaves a gap in the niche it used to fill.

That, and finally getting rid of keeping a lock on the file handle of the opened files. Sooo many times I needed explain someone that their directory could not get deleted or their apps failed to uninstall simply because they were still reading its readme.txt

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#323

Post by croisillon »

chongli wrote: post #147
userbinator wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hated the tabs already. When I open Notepad I expect a clean slate.

I thought the whole point of the Windows taskbar was to give you tabs for all your windows? Why did they feel the need to add tabs again!

if we were still allowed to have a vertical taksbar we could have enough tabs indeed

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#324

Post by evilduck »

McNutty wrote: post #310
bruce511 wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hang on - notepad is the perfect place for a "rewrite my text" feature. And clearly its a useful too in a writing app that users would like. I get your complaint in general, but it does not seem like this is a good example of throwing random unrelated stuff in.

Couldn't disagree more. Notepad is a place to dump snippets of unformatted text, for a temporary duration unless I explicity save the file. I already didn't like that they added the tabs feature and autosave recently. If I want to do writing I'll use one of the 6 tools on my PC more suited to that task.

As a counterpoint, I'm on macOS where their latest AI writing tools are now implemented system wide. I also use TextEdit (approximately equivalent to Windows Notepad) and the Stickies app for similar text dumping ground behavior and yet, having the AI writing tools available on those two apps is incredibly useful. I often don't use it at all, but there are things I want to run through it and not having to move the text yet again to another app is nice.

It's _also_ useful in my apps dedicated to writing and even the text areas of browsers. I think it's all about implementation though, Apple's writing tools are quietly buried in the context menu for most text inputs. Microsoft has a tendency to be pushy and in your face about their latest AI offerings like shoving it into the Start Menu, or making it a prominent and visible element of their UI (Copilot in VSCode, even when you're not a subscriber) and the Verge's screenshot isn't enough for me to judge this by.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#325

Post by nuancebydefault »

jcotton42 wrote: post #280
vundercind wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All it needed was a way to work with other newline formats cleanly. Adding much more than that (even tabs) makes it into a different thing that leaves a gap in the niche it used to fill.

Personally, I think tabs, spellcheck, universal line ending support was well within the scope of notepad. This AI thing is dumb for it though, should've kept Wordpad for that.

I believe they finally abandoned that 'pretends to understand doc' wordpad some time ago.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#326

Post by mikercampbell »

rqtwteye wrote: post #236

This seems to be a common trend everywhere. Instead of improving core functionality they add the latest buzzword tech, no matter it make sense or not. I am user of GaiaGPS to plan outdoors trips. Same there: the app is good but has some problems. Instead of fixing the problems they added social functionality which nobody really wants.

I’ve loved/hated it taking over IDEs. The refactor lightbulb icon popover slowly losing features to “fix with copilot” has been draining

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#327

Post by evilduck »

threetonesun wrote: post #316
bruce511 wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hang on - notepad is the perfect place for a "rewrite my text" feature. And clearly its a useful too in a writing app that users would like. I get your complaint in general, but it does not seem like this is a good example of throwing random unrelated stuff in.

Word is the perfect place for it? Or OneNote. This would be like if Apple added AI rewrite to TextEdit instead of Apple Notes. Notepad's only job is to open text files as fast as possible.

Apple's AI Writing Tools is available in TextEdit.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#328

Post by gradientsrneat »

dotty- wrote: post #100
PittleyDunkin wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Simple, privacy-first, consumer-first defaults and optional upgrades to more enhanced tools via their App Store. Why would anyone use this over Ubuntu? They need something to differentiate themselves from the inexorable creep of free software.

I don't think creating a separate tier of enhanced OS upgrades would benefit Ubuntu. Ubuntu isn't connected to a multi-billion dollar corporation. Canonical has no resources to offer a free AI-powered Notepad editor. Microsoft is connected to OpenAI, Microsoft has AI-hardware partners, and Microsoft has the in-house resources to create new drivers for new hardware/software compatibility issues. There will always be v…

> Ubuntu isn't connected to a multi-billion dollar corporation

Technically correct but misleading. It's connected to Canonical, a multi-billion dollar private company limited by shares.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#330

Post by evilduck »

mikercampbell wrote: post #326
rqtwteye wrote: post #236

This seems to be a common trend everywhere. Instead of improving core functionality they add the latest buzzword tech, no matter it make sense or not. I am user of GaiaGPS to plan outdoors trips. Same there: the app is good but has some problems. Instead of fixing the problems they added social functionality which nobody really wants.

I’ve loved/hated it taking over IDEs. The refactor lightbulb icon popover slowly losing features to “fix with copilot” has been draining

Why not just spend the one time cost of the approximately four seconds it takes to remove Copilot and save yourself from feeling drained if it's that upsetting? This is right below the level of effort involved in changing the theme and setting the font in your IDE.
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