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.
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.
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.
> And clearly its a useful too in a writing app that users would like
I don't believe it's useful. I don't think Notepad is a "writing app." And I'm fairly certain not a single user in the history of ever has asked for this.
Nobody got promoted for improving core functionality.
It depends on the company.
If you work for a hyper-scale tech company that only cares about money money money, then yeah -- nobody's getting promoted for improving core functionality.
But I've worked at several companies where that sort of thing is not only rewarded, but celebrated. One was a factory. Another was healthcare. Tech is the aberation, but on HN we pretend that it's normal and good.
People get promoted for improving key metrics. Like Revenue or Retention or Installs or whatever. Metrics can be abused and gamed ... but you can do a better job aligning them to improvement than the de-facto metrics of "number buzzwords in a new shiny toy"
This is your tried and true. C level read a magazine, mandatory implementation order, engineer ticks the checkbox and waits for hype to pass so they can remove it.
A scary version of this is driven home to me when I go to Washington DC and see all of the very expensive billboards at commuter stations near the Pentagon advertising fighter jets and other military equipment.
It scares me every time because they wouldn't be splashing out the big bucks for those billboards if they weren't effective, and I absolutely don't want the military (or any other entity engaging in major expenditures) to be making those decisions based on billboards.
Maybe taking a step back here, what core functionality is missing from notepad? I see this as a fairly feature complete tool for a core set of behaviors already.
I guess it's a good signal for when a niche is opening for someone to develop a better product. That's probably a reason why competitors like onX have sprung up recently. (Although I haven't used onX so I don't know if it's actually better or not.)
Also with Gaia it feels like very single year they just have to tweak and change the interface to the point where nothing is easy or intuitive anymore. It's like designers need to justify their jobs so they just keep making change on top of change and departing from what made sense, just to make changes, just to be doing something.
I have tried OnX and Caltopo and I think for Gaia is still the best. If they just fixed their folder management. It makes me angry every time I have to use it.
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.
The chips are improving. They are adding dedicated AI co-processors/cores. Every major chip developer is moving towards providing functionality that supports running AI models locally on chip. Eventually all of these use cases will be run locally, fast, and power efficiently w/o network hops. Waiting until that happens to develop these features puts you ages behind everyone else. It's just another iteration of the thin-client to fat client product cycle, and for AI, it's very early.
