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Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

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Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#91
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are aware. AI at least have the potential to create some value, which can’t be said about crypto currencies that still waste enormous resources.

I don't want to sound skeptical, but this is what Crypto people used to say when it was very new. It was supposedly worth all the power expenditure, because changing the world needed energy. Now we see where we are. I'm inside this "newfangled AI thing". There are groups which create value, but they create value for everybody. The humans and the nature in general, and they use AI for scientific ends. Medical image pr…

I never heard of any reasonable uses for Crypto or Blockchain in general. A lot of people tried to sell us various things at the time but it was very obvious that it had no real value.

AI is already implemented into businesses in various ways. Even if it’s not done so official you still have loads of employees pouring company secrets into chatGPT and Claude because they work.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#92
post #65

When you have a (very very expensive) hammer, everything looks like a nail

It's basically autocomplete, spellcheck and refactoring, just based on a new technical approach. Those are not new or unusual features for a text editor.

You forgot non-deterministic hallucination.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#93
post #71

"Sign in to your Microsoft account" to use... Notepad? This is not the future I wanted.

It's been pretty fascinating to watch what Microsofties have to put up with, having switched to Linux in 2007. Vista's half-assed release, Windows 8's tablet UI disaster, Windows 10's online account requirements, now all the AI crap they're shoving into Windows 11. Meanwhile I'm just over here using basically the same Arch Linux tools & XFCE environment for almost 20 years. Yes, I know, Linux isn't perfect, but it's maybe worth a look if you're fed up with using an OS that wants to exploit you instead of serve you. It's especially easy now that most things are web-based.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#94
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notes is a very different app to Notepad though. Nobody uses the Notes app to edit plain text files, which is the sole use case of Notepad. Notes is for writing, well, notes. Notes also has a lot of other editing modes and features like drawing with the apple pencil, scanning documents, cross device syncing, etc. As far as I’m aware Notepad can only edit plain text files.

It's unfortunate that Apple Notes doesn't handle plain text. I'd use it like this if possible. Anyway, I use TextEdit in plain text and autocomplete, autocorrect and spellcheck all work just fine, as they work in every text box in macOS. That Windows' Notepad got some of that just in 2024[1] is bonkers… [1] https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/8/24194047/microsoft-notepad...

> Notepad got some of that just in 2024

I assume this was the 1:1 correlated w/ the deprecation/removal of wordpad, as both were shipped everywhere prior.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#96
post #69

Why do writing tools have to be a feature of every app instead of an operating-system wide tool like Apple Intelligence? Makes no sense whatsoever to just "sprinkle AI everywhere" except for specialized use cases.

As far as I’m aware, Windows doesn’t have anything quite like services on macOS and probably can’t because Windows apps, even those that are first-party, are built with a menagerie of different UI toolkits which means there are no universal hooks for something like services to use.

The reason macOS can do this is because a large majority of apps are either native AppKit or otherwise hook into the system text facilities (which is why text services work in text fields in Chrome and Firefox for example).

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, the “Notes” app on Mac has at least the autocomplete now and I find it quite useful. I’m very sceptical about all these AI announcements but text editing is case where I think this “AI” stuff can actually be used for good.

Notes is a very different app to Notepad though. Nobody uses the Notes app to edit plain text files, which is the sole use case of Notepad. Notes is for writing, well, notes. Notes also has a lot of other editing modes and features like drawing with the apple pencil, scanning documents, cross device syncing, etc. As far as I’m aware Notepad can only edit plain text files.

I used Notes to edit a text file once and learned a very important lesson; It changes all your double-quotes to fancy Unicode double-quotes. They may look prettier, but they completely break the code you are working on.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#98

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.

Soon: with ads!

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#99

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.

They have already onboarded a scrum team on the code base. They've got to burn those points on something to argue for their payroll and the PO and the lead dev thinks AI is cool.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#100
post #78

I just wish Microsoft had a simpler mindset for their OS. Simple, privacy-first, consumer-first defaults and optional upgrades to more enhanced tools via their App Store. Imagine if instead of Windows Recall being installed and available automatically on machines, they just added Recall as an optional downloadable add-on via the App Store... I don't think it would have received nearly as much backlash.

> 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 valid reasons to use Windows over Ubuntu.

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