Former Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer apparently shares my obsession with Notepad and the way it’s developed in Home windows 11. However the place I’ve struggled to create clones of Notepad in numerous Microsoft developer frameworks, Plummer has gone in the other way. This sort of nostalgia is attention-grabbing to tech lovers of a sure age, however obsessing over such a small and irrelevant a part of Home windows whereas ignoring the true issues feels pointless and unhelpful. And I’m discovering it tough to not reply in a approach that’s simply as unhelpful.
Nostalgia comes up lots as of late–for instance, in From the Editor’s Desk: Inconvenient ⭐️–however I as soon as outlined a hipster as somebody who’s nostalgic for a previous they by no means skilled. That’s my shortcut for describing a typical thought all through time. It was the theme of the film Midnight Paris, for instance. It’s the supply of essentially the most harmful and silly political motion in U.S. historical past and a subject in Stephen King’s wonderful time journey guide, 11-22-63. And it’s what’s behind the youthful generations of at this time, a few of whom reject fashionable expertise in favor of analog expertise from the previous like vinyl information and iPods that predate their lifetimes.
Anybody could be nostalgic, and even those that did dwell by means of the previous they’re nostalgic for can, as an older individual, fall into the identical entice as these I name hipsters or worse. It’s foolhardy to imagine that some random time interval out of your youth was by some means “higher” than at this time when what was actually higher was normally you being younger and having no tasks. All of us lengthy for less complicated instances and affiliate that with the absence of the stress that accompanies and even defines grownup life.
This additionally comes up lots as of late, however I really feel compelled to remind anybody studying this for the umpteenth time (apologies) that my era was the primary to expertise dwelling videogames and residential computer systems. And that we then went on to expertise the fashionable Web and internet, the cellular revolution, the shift from bodily media to digital after which streaming companies, and, after all, the endgame for all that ahead progress with Huge Tech and enshittification. Between the COVID pandemic of 2020, an occasion nobody alive on the time ever believed was potential, to our damaged politics, the continued element disaster triggered by an AI growth nobody requested for, and no matter else, it’s no shock that we’re all feeling nostalgic for the previous as of late. Who doesn’t wish to wind the clock again?
Nostalgia is one factor. However performing on nostalgia could be problematic. Conversely, precisely remembering what was good about some previous after which looking for that, or a minimum of one thing related, at this time could be helpful. You simply have to have some frequent sense and actually suppose it by means of.
In From the Editor’s Desk: What We’ve Misplaced ⭐, I wrote about how fantastic it was to develop up in a world the place something felt potential. That world, to me, was within the late Seventies and Eighties, once I was, after all, younger, had little to no accountability, and had each choice in life simply ready for me to indicate up. So there’s that. However in line with the primary dwelling videogames and computer systems factor famous above, a part of my enthusiasm and hope for the long run was tied to what we now name private expertise, this sense that it might hold getting higher. I used to be obsessive about what I might make with these early computer systems, and with what would occur subsequent.
That obsession carried me for many of a lifetime. I went by means of numerous dwelling and private computer systems, together with the beloved Amiga that I nonetheless contemplate the apex of those experiences. And it carried me right into a profession that was purported to be about software program growth however became writing about software program and private computing. It received me by means of dangerous instances like U.S. v. Microsoft, when the issues with what we now name Huge Tech have been laid naked, inflicting me to query every little thing. And it carried me by means of good instances, protecting Microsoft and the remainder of the more and more heterogeneous trade that rose following the software program large’s antitrust issues.
Typically you discover real love or some type of ardour. Typically you don’t understand it’s come and gone till it’s too late. A love of non-public expertise isn’t the identical factor as loving a human being or perhaps a pet or no matter different dwelling factor. However it could actually occur, and it may be part of your life and possibly even outline you. Sadly, love may also be undermined by a break in belief. In expertise phrases, this was studying that Microsoft is much more horrible than imagined 35 years in the past. Today, it’s enshittification consuming away at each nook of this world, from Amazon to Apple, Google, Meta, and all the remainder.
I’m a tiny speck in an unlimited ocean, however I attempt to assist folks overcome the issues that inevitably happen when software program, made by imperfect people, doesn’t work correctly or does work correctly however with malicious intent. Within the Nineties and 2000s, this was books after which web sites, blogs, podcasts, and on-line movies. However by the 2010s and past, the emphasis began to shift. At first, it was typically about discovering methods round limitations that will or might not have been purposeful for platform and software program makers. However in time, it grew to become about preventing again towards an more and more emboldened Huge Tech that put its personal pursuits above these of its clients.
That is enshittification, and the rise of Little Tech and Little AI have been, maybe, among the pure outcomes. As was a renewed rise in open supply. A seek for software program and companies that meets our wants, not simply their maker’s wants. A brand new understanding of what it means to personal one thing vs. simply renting it and the professionals and cons of every. A pushback towards ever-rising month-to-month prices, typically belatedly after realizing far too late that the worth we as soon as noticed had lengthy since disappeared.
This isn’t a subject. Today, it’s most subjects. The subject. Right here on Thurrott.com, it comes up within the Little Tech articles, within the On-line Accounts collection, within the current An Inconvenient Reality collection, and much more. In its any try to handle enshittification, from the guide De-Enshittify Home windows 11 to the Switcher 2026 collection. I’m only one individual, I’m not at all times proper, and I don’t have all of the solutions. However I’m a minimum of wanting for solutions, not simply complaining about issues.
This problem can also be nuanced and like most issues, not often black and white. Right this moment, many complain about and even hate AI, however I got here to grasp that it’s that AI is the one fashionable expertise that brings us most carefully to that feeling and phenomenon I skilled as a toddler in its skill to assist us make issues, typically very subtle issues. AI is like every other expertise as there’s good and there’s dangerous. And it’s like every other expertise in that the purpose, ostensibly, is for the nice to outweigh the dangerous. Two steps ahead and one step again remains to be ahead movement.
To convey this again dwelling, so to talk, contemplate some typical overreactions. A expertise fanatic so burned by some insult in Home windows 11 that they’ve had sufficient and simply swap to Linux, ignoring the “grass is at all times greener” actuality of what waits for them on the opposite facet. A music lover so incensed by what appears like bimonthly worth hikes that they drop Spotify and begin shopping for vinyl albums once more. Or a film fan who reads a narrative about Amazon or Sony eradicating some content material they bought previously from their library and decides to embrace Blu-ray and different bodily media once more.
In every of those invented occasions, there’s some component of rational thought. However there’s additionally some impulsive mistake taking place in quite a few cases, an absence of foresight in regards to the penalties of motion. There isn’t a one proper reply right here, I’m not heading there. As an alternative, these and different issues at this time that make us nostalgic for some previous, actual or imagined, are all nuanced and totally different. Completely different circumstances with totally different individuals who have totally different wants, expectations, and wishes. They’re one-offs. However they’re additionally issues that will have to be reconsidered when issues inevitably change but once more.
The An Inconvenient Reality collection is me working my approach by means of a few of these points. Nevertheless it’s not simply that. It’s me dwelling in 2026, when issues are what they’re however will change once more sooner or later. It’s me and never you; lots of you–possibly most of you–will make totally different selections when confronted by the identical points. And it’s not me being proper (or flawed) for me or anybody else, simply me attempting to determine it out.
A number of years in the past, I got down to doc the historical past of Home windows as seen by means of its system and app growth interfaces, issues like languages, developer environments, APIs, SDKs, and frameworks. As is so typically the case, the purpose of this collection developed after which solely grew to become clear as I wrote it. However as I began experimenting once more with programming environments from the previous, issues like Visible Fundamental and Home windows Varieties, I went into it with assumptions that have been later confirmed false. The years and years I’ve spent creating and recreating too many .NETpad and WinUIpad clones of Notepad, tied to that collection, communicate to that.
Was Visible Fundamental “higher” than what we’ve got now, the tangled mess of Home windows App SDK and WinUI? The knee-jerk reply is to say sure. Visible Fundamental was easier and simpler to be taught, and you might throw an app collectively in a short time. Nevertheless it was additionally a less complicated period, earlier than the Web and internet, earlier than high-DPI shows and different modernity, and the apps we created then weren’t subtle or well-designed, even then. Right this moment, WinUI is likewise not “higher.” It’s newer, but it surely’s additionally extra difficult, ridiculously so in some ways, but additionally way more succesful. Understanding that there are execs and cons, good points and losses, is essential. It’s perspective. And nuance.
Which brings me again to Dave Plummer. You realize, the previous Microsoft engineer who’s solely in it for the subs and likes. I subscribe to his YouTube channel, watch each single episode he’s created, typically instantly, and there’s lots to love there. He got here up final December once I was struggling to get WinUIpad to work appropriately. And he got here up final April when he printed a click-bait video about fixing Home windows 11 that disillusioned me.
Each of those subjects are central to every little thing above, this notion that issues have been higher previously, and the way as all of us become older, we’re all shedding persistence with how horrible issues are actually. We’re nostalgic, in different phrases.
Plumber’s “resolution” to the insult of a small Copilot icon in Notepad was to vibe-code a clone of traditional Notepad, whereas I argued that anybody might simply flip off all of the badness (or fashionable modifications) in Notepad and simply get on with their lives. His resolution to the enshittification of Home windows 11 was, effectively, not an answer. It was only a criticism, an eloquent rant, and a solution to align with different lovers railing towards Home windows 11. I wrote a guide.
Since these movies, lots has modified. Key amongst them, Microsoft has lastly woken as much as the complaints and is addressing numerous the customized factors this 12 months. Together with, go determine, eradicating that tiny Copilot icon from Notepad.
However now Plummer is back with a new video about Notepad, for some purpose. On this video, he discusses–however doesn’t reveal–how he created a tiny clone of the Notepad I assume we’re all nostalgic for, the factor that’s by some means ruining Home windows 11 at this time. His app appears to be like like a Home windows 3.1 app from 35 years in the past, but it surely’s full-featured sufficient should you can put up with how ugly it’s in Home windows 11. The promoting level? As a result of it was written in meeting language and optimized with a compressing linker, it takes up simply 2.5 KB on disk. Or, 4 KB due to disk cluster sizing. That’s KB, not MB.
That’s attention-grabbing on some degree, even enjoyable. It’s not all that totally different from my .NETpad efforts, although I used C# and no matter Microsoft frameworks for many of these and wasn’t targeted on app dimension. His app is actually native code at a time when Microsoft is feigning curiosity in native code for causes that also elude me. That it really works in any respect is its personal type of miracle, however that assumes you don’t understand how software program works on the whole and the way Home windows works particularly. In fact it really works. It’s a misplaced artwork, but it surely’s not magic.
Extra to the purpose, I don’t perceive why he printed this now. What I do know is that the fashionable Notepad takes up simply 332 KB on disk in Home windows 11. And that this disk utilization is smaller, by proportion–a lot smaller–than the house that Notepad took up on a Home windows 3.1 set up 35 years in the past. I additionally know that the fashionable Notepad takes benefit of all the identical Home windows companies as Plummer’ app, and extra, and it’s subjectively prettier. It is usually objectively higher for anybody who makes use of Home windows at this time. Anybody, that’s, besides for individuals who have very particular wants or are so nostalgic for this previous that they’re not seeing clearly.
Put a special approach, what he’s created is very like .NETpad and WinUIpad. This stuff will not be options to issues. They’re mental workout routines. However the way in which that is introduced bothers me. Not as a result of every little thing must be an answer, however as a result of it’s promoted like one and is gasoline for complainers who already get an excessive amount of air time. Individuals who appear to exist simply to complain, both as a result of they can’t remedy issues or as a result of they’re caught in their very own clickbait enshittified influencer existence and need to drive hits by some means.
As a result of somebody will inevitably elevate this problem, sure, we’re within the midst of a historic element disaster that’s triggering huge {hardware} worth hikes and forcing platform makers like Apple and Microsoft to higher optimize their programs to run higher on older or lower-end {hardware}. I’ve made the purpose earlier than that this example, whereas not very best, has a silver lining as a result of when builders can now not assume infinite sources, innovation happens. A MacBook Neo with simply 8 GB of RAM begins to make a bit extra sense after Apple backtracks and makes the fashionable macOS really work effectively in that configuration.
I do know all that. However the quantity of labor that goes into simply utilizing the tiny Notepad clone Plummer created isn’t justified by some profit. He titled this Bored with Bloated Home windows? I Fastened Notepad. However he didn’t repair Notepad, he created yet one more clone. And this doesn’t remedy any of the perceived bloatness points in Home windows. Which, by the way in which, lovers have been complaining about for many years.
A key facet of nostalgia is forgetting and even ignoring the dangerous and specializing in the nice reminiscences. That’s how our brains work. Butwe nonetheless have to dwell in the true world within the current. There are compromises to nearly something, sure. However the issue with Home windows 11 is not Notepad. It’s barely a symptom of the issue, and even then, it’s a minor one. The issue with Home windows 11, like so many issues, is broad and deep. It’s subjective, and a few points will hassle some greater than others. It’s nuanced.
Why does this hassle me a lot? I believe it’s as a result of I put within the work. Plummer is sensible, skilled, and effectively -poken, and this video is enjoyable for builders and lovers. Nevertheless it doesn’t repair or change something and simply contributes to the noise, the distraction. It’s getting in the way in which. It’s just like the Titanic is sinking round you and also you’re distracting these attempting to get on the lifeboats by telling them that you simply fastened one of many handrails on the boat. See how significantly better that is now?
Possibly my expectations are too excessive.