Don't forget TextMate, CotEditor, Chocolat. There are so many mac-native text editors that it's a crowded space for a new entrant sporting a distinctively un-mac-like UX.
New switcher on his brand new MacBook Neo who doesn't want to learn Mac apps and conventions? Guaranteed this person uses a Windows "Alt-tab" style switcher app too.
The tab switching is one of the main things that annoy me on a mac, and I'd describe myself as a linux tiling window person first, windows user only second.
Also my mac usage is hopefully only temporary, so why adopt to this - to me - inferior way.
And jftr, I don't plan to use this - I kinda like NPP, but I prefer to use TextAdept on Linux and Mac for notes anyway (and not vim, which is weird, but I guess I am weird with my choices).
Can confirm, friend who moved to Mac after 30+ years on Win ecosystem and all of the discussions we have are basically "but on Windows..." They specifically have lamented the unavailability of Notepad++ because of a specific hanging indent behavior they are used to.
Most people do not have the cognitive flexibility to really adapt to a tool that is more or less domain equivalent but different in any way. These small differences create more friction than learning something that doesn't have any close mapping to what you knew before.
Cuts both ways too. I am finding Windoews harder due to using the mac as daily driver. Haven't got the hang of finder yet. I use CLI as much as possible making use rare enough not to master.
I have the flexibility to adjust to platforms other than macOS but I’d rather not have to. My setup works for me and having to change it is annoying and drags down productivity.
In my case it’s more intense than usual because I’m a visual person and my productivity suffers for things like my desktop environment, theme, etc not looking “right”. When using Linux for anything more “serious” than studying with Anki I get pulled down a bottomless rabbit hole of trying to “fix” everything, which is futile because many of the problems can’t be fixed without a huge number of project forks.
I've never seen the appeal of GNOME 3+, the design seems so user-hostile to anyone who has used computers for a while: hiding menus for no reason, having super limited menu options, etc.
It's great to have the choice but the context was pretty MacOS UIs. There the only competition is Gnome and i was arguing that it's slowly getting nicer than MacOS.
I’ve not been a fan of the Liquid Glass changes, but it’s similar enough that I’ve been able to get used to it.
Fluent on Windows doesn’t look too bad but MS hasn’t made particularly great use of it and parts of the OS still don’t use it.
GNOME/Adwaita get some things right, and other things wrong (the padding everywhere is way too thick, its crusade against menu bars is odd). It’s also so minimal that it makes macOS look maximalist, and as such isn’t my cup of tea.
Gnome is the only linux DE that tries to be consistent (probably due to more centralised decision making). I think that makes it most likely to be most user friendly over time.
The consistency is one of the things it gets right, but it’s undermined by its sheer bare-bonesness, which brings people to try to augment it with extensions, but those constantly break due to functioning by way of monkeypatching GNOME internals.
I think the idea of a “blank slate” DE that you build up with extensions is actually great, but a highly capable stable extension API is non-optional for that to actually work. I can’t have half my customizations vanishing or breaking overnight due to a system update.
I thought that MS had a good thing going on with the refinements in Aero brought by Windows 7. It nicely balanced a modern theme with a traditional desktop model and it still respected the user while bringing some massive QoL improvements.
Had Windows 8 been further refinement into the Fluent design language along with unifying lingering Win9x style panels into the Vista/7 style, it would’ve been massively popular and more beloved by users than XP or 7. Instead, Microsoft decided to forget non-touch devices entirely and saddle the desktop with an ugly theme reminiscent of Windows 1.0/2.0 in a botched attempt to make it fit in with the flat Metro touch UI bits.
They might have. I moved to the Mac during XP. I never used Windows 7.
I have used the server version that’s designed to be a bit like 8. I may have used 8 too, I can’t remember for sure. I’ve definitely used 10+.
I have a PC at work that I use from time to time, plus I remote into various Windows machines. Between those two I’ve gotten a taste of the more modern versions.
Granted I've only been using MacOS for a few years as my work machine, but am I missing something here? Is the Mac CMD+tab already not nearly identical to to windows alt+tab?
Are you just referring to the switcher switching through apps vs windows?
Window previews when switching are also a nice thing when doing heavy multitasking.
There are a few things MacOS X inherited from classic MacOS that I don't think work that well in the modern world, and application-focused task switching is one of them. It made sense in the classic Mac context where many apps used floating windows for toolboxes and other non-document windows. You wanted to switch the whole application, with all of its windows, as a unit. It was also the right technical decision with classic MacOS's modest multitasking abilities.
But the world has since mostly standardised on SDI app design with tools contained within that window, and multiple windows representing different documents.
In that context, the macOS app-then-window approach is more roundabout than pure window switching. You get used to it, but when you've got a lot of windows open, it's a small but ever-present drag on usability.
Alt-Tab is one of the first things I install on a new Mac. Hopefully one day Apple will give us a built-in option, much like they eventually did with window tiling and full-screen window zooming.
Porting Windows apps that people like, helps MacBook sales, not hurt them. That certain people use their MacBook in a different way should not be a concern of other users, as at least they are using MacBooks.
Notepad++ has incredibly easy to use macros with the record/play buttons in the toolbar. It is my preferred tool for quickly munging text files especially ones where you want to change formatting through the file.
I use both operating systems. I hate using things that don’t follow platform standards. It makes them more confusing and causes extra cognitive load.
I simply see no benefit of a copy of very Windows-y app. It’s pure MDI with buttons in a toolbar. It’s a perfect example of a 3.1/95 style app.
It’s not like it has special features missing from the great many editors on Mac. If you want a “same everywhere” experience I’d think you’d want something that sort of lives in its own world like VSCode. It’s not native style anywhere, exactly. But it’s very powerful and popular.
In many cases I get “I want the app I like over here”. I really do. Especially if there is something really special about its design or feature set. In my experience with Notepad++, I have never wished to have it on my Mac once.
My "Notepad++ for Mac" so far has been NotepadNext (https://github.com/dail8859/NotepadNext). I will give this one a try as well, and wish them best of luck. I hope they release the Linux version as well.
I know that the original Notepad++ is under GPLv2 so creating an open-source port is perfectly acceptable, but the Notepad++ name itself is trademarked by Don Ho, so calling itself "Notepad++" (for Mac) along with using an almost identical icon feels like it's crossing some boundaries.
On closer look, I think you’re right. I also tried searching the USPTO trademark database by author and by product name and couldn’t find anything. I don’t know why I thought he had trademarked it. Maybe it could qualify as a common law trademark, but I’m really not sure as this is well outside my area of expertise.
From a quick glance Don Ho looks to be based in France, and a search of their trademark registry gives a current result for Notepad++: https://data.inpi.fr/marques/FR5133202
I installed it . But for me I’m used to things looking like macOS native so I was very confused about it and eventually uninstalled and returned to coteditor , I know it’s a awesome project and windows users will enjoy it
Oh for sure. Just look at the "Author" page. It says he started in March 2026 on this. Which means last month he pointed Claude to the Notepad++ repo and said "make a native port of this to macOS".
At home I have a MacBook, but everything else I use is Linux. At work, I am stuck on windows 99% of the time for most work. I manage Linux systems, but mostly through the windows desktop. I use notepad++ every single day. I lamented not having it on my Mac, but every replacement is not... right? comfortable? implemented right? I don't know. Still haven't found something that does what little I use in notepad++ and I can tell you now this app's ui is not what I am looking for.
No plugins? Those are what give NP++ its real power and usability - for example I use the XML and JSON pretty print functionality daily (on Windows, on my work machine).
After seeing how quickly those hooligans re-wrote Claude Code in Rust from the leaked sourcemap, I actually made a spec-driven Linux port using Claude Code, Kimi, and Codex just to see if it was possible.
Frankly, I thought I was the only human being on earth who used Arch but missed the comforting embrace of Notepad++, so I'm happy to share the fruits of my ~$200 worth of tokens if there's interest!
I like how it's a native Mac app and looks 0% like a Mac app whatsoever. Also the scaling is off on my Macbook Pro. Everything looks half as big as it should be. Tiny fonts, tiny tiny icon bar.
Well TBF, the original Notepad++ isn't too good in this regard either.
Whenever I opened a N++ window in a remote desktop session and leave it open, and then use the same computer in-person, the whole UI of that window becomes a blurry mess and the boundary of the window is off (as in, if you maximize the window, moving the cursor to the top-right will actually not land on X.), which I assume it because of changing resolution/scaling between remote and in-person use.
Not really understanding the negative trend of comments. As someone who accesses multiple Windows machines on a LAN via a MacBook Air, I'm glad to have as many common GUIs as possible. I found it a bit hard to get used to BBEdit when I started using a Mac again, and have been a Notepad++ lover for many years. So, thanks to the dev for this.
<meta>I've noticed this more recently on HN. Either the top comment has to be some negative sentiment even if seemingly good-faith, or a comment on something completely tangential (like the color of the website), or a comment on their own project that's related to the thing posted but it feels more like look-at-me advertising rather than earnestly engaging with the submission. Some of these go against the guidelines, but maybe my own comment here does as well.
As of writing, the top comment is "Why?" like the project has to defend itself, on a website that's notionally about curious, interesting, and insightful discussions.</meta>
I used Notepad++ way back when, sort of before I "graduated" to Emacs and the like. I don't know how it's evolved over the past two decades (I presume, intentionally, not much) or what attracts its fanbase anymore. I know I liked it because it felt like a substantial jump from notepad.exe without feeling bloated and slow. At the time, some of the competition felt sluggish while Notepad++ felt nimble.
What do people love about Notepad++ that still isn't really addressed by the "less humble" editors out there?
It is kind of ironic that the two Windows applications I missed the most in both Linux and Mac are good text editor and terminal emulator: Notepad++ and MobaXTerm
Now that's a throwback and is definitely my goto on macOS. I remember I did a bunch of chores in order to buy a Visa gift card just to purchase it. Was much easier than explaining to my parents what SFTP was and why I needed to borrow their credit card. I just googled it and it's good to see they're still around.
Perhaps it's just nostalgia, but I feel like 2006-12 (before the Mac App Store took off) was the golden age of Mac software. There were those ~$100 'app packs' that bundled a bunch of different software together. You'd buy it for 2 or 3 of them and end up discovering some cool new software in the process.
Why? I get it’s popular on Windows. But it’s so incredibly Windows-y, not Mac like at all. And we already have BBEdit and Nova.
Perhaps the site answers past “you like it here it is”, but at the moment we appear to have slashdotted them.
Don't forget TextMate, CotEditor, Chocolat. There are so many mac-native text editors that it's a crowded space for a new entrant sporting a distinctively un-mac-like UX.
New switcher on his brand new MacBook Neo who doesn't want to learn Mac apps and conventions? Guaranteed this person uses a Windows "Alt-tab" style switcher app too.
It sounds like you think this is a bad thing.
The tab switching is one of the main things that annoy me on a mac, and I'd describe myself as a linux tiling window person first, windows user only second.
Also my mac usage is hopefully only temporary, so why adopt to this - to me - inferior way.
And jftr, I don't plan to use this - I kinda like NPP, but I prefer to use TextAdept on Linux and Mac for notes anyway (and not vim, which is weird, but I guess I am weird with my choices).
Can confirm, friend who moved to Mac after 30+ years on Win ecosystem and all of the discussions we have are basically "but on Windows..." They specifically have lamented the unavailability of Notepad++ because of a specific hanging indent behavior they are used to.
Most people do not have the cognitive flexibility to really adapt to a tool that is more or less domain equivalent but different in any way. These small differences create more friction than learning something that doesn't have any close mapping to what you knew before.
wants to use something familiar => does not have cognitive flexibility
It's amazing how people find ways to flaunt their 'superiority'.
Cuts both ways too. I am finding Windoews harder due to using the mac as daily driver. Haven't got the hang of finder yet. I use CLI as much as possible making use rare enough not to master.
Goes for Linux too.
I have the flexibility to adjust to platforms other than macOS but I’d rather not have to. My setup works for me and having to change it is annoying and drags down productivity.
In my case it’s more intense than usual because I’m a visual person and my productivity suffers for things like my desktop environment, theme, etc not looking “right”. When using Linux for anything more “serious” than studying with Anki I get pulled down a bottomless rabbit hole of trying to “fix” everything, which is futile because many of the problems can’t be fixed without a huge number of project forks.
Recent editions of MacOS look so bad that Windows might actually be better designed (if it weren't for all the windows ads and spam).
Gnome is starting to become the nicest desktop environment lol.
I've never seen the appeal of GNOME 3+, the design seems so user-hostile to anyone who has used computers for a while: hiding menus for no reason, having super limited menu options, etc.
I'd rather use LXDE, XFCE, or KDE.
It's great to have the choice but the context was pretty MacOS UIs. There the only competition is Gnome and i was arguing that it's slowly getting nicer than MacOS.
I’ve not been a fan of the Liquid Glass changes, but it’s similar enough that I’ve been able to get used to it.
Fluent on Windows doesn’t look too bad but MS hasn’t made particularly great use of it and parts of the OS still don’t use it.
GNOME/Adwaita get some things right, and other things wrong (the padding everywhere is way too thick, its crusade against menu bars is odd). It’s also so minimal that it makes macOS look maximalist, and as such isn’t my cup of tea.
Gnome is the only linux DE that tries to be consistent (probably due to more centralised decision making). I think that makes it most likely to be most user friendly over time.
The consistency is one of the things it gets right, but it’s undermined by its sheer bare-bonesness, which brings people to try to augment it with extensions, but those constantly break due to functioning by way of monkeypatching GNOME internals.
I think the idea of a “blank slate” DE that you build up with extensions is actually great, but a highly capable stable extension API is non-optional for that to actually work. I can’t have half my customizations vanishing or breaking overnight due to a system update.
Nope. Not even close.
Yeah the Mac GUI has declined.
But it’s still far better than the incoherent mess of the last 15 ways MS were totally the future mashed together in random places.
Windows has had great points. 95 era was fantastic. 2000 too, and I liked XP though third party apps went nuts.
Modern Windows is none of those. I’ll keep my somewhat messed up Mac.
I thought that MS had a good thing going on with the refinements in Aero brought by Windows 7. It nicely balanced a modern theme with a traditional desktop model and it still respected the user while bringing some massive QoL improvements.
Had Windows 8 been further refinement into the Fluent design language along with unifying lingering Win9x style panels into the Vista/7 style, it would’ve been massively popular and more beloved by users than XP or 7. Instead, Microsoft decided to forget non-touch devices entirely and saddle the desktop with an ugly theme reminiscent of Windows 1.0/2.0 in a botched attempt to make it fit in with the flat Metro touch UI bits.
They might have. I moved to the Mac during XP. I never used Windows 7.
I have used the server version that’s designed to be a bit like 8. I may have used 8 too, I can’t remember for sure. I’ve definitely used 10+.
I have a PC at work that I use from time to time, plus I remote into various Windows machines. Between those two I’ve gotten a taste of the more modern versions.
Granted I've only been using MacOS for a few years as my work machine, but am I missing something here? Is the Mac CMD+tab already not nearly identical to to windows alt+tab? Are you just referring to the switcher switching through apps vs windows?
Window previews when switching are also a nice thing when doing heavy multitasking.
There are a few things MacOS X inherited from classic MacOS that I don't think work that well in the modern world, and application-focused task switching is one of them. It made sense in the classic Mac context where many apps used floating windows for toolboxes and other non-document windows. You wanted to switch the whole application, with all of its windows, as a unit. It was also the right technical decision with classic MacOS's modest multitasking abilities.
But the world has since mostly standardised on SDI app design with tools contained within that window, and multiple windows representing different documents. In that context, the macOS app-then-window approach is more roundabout than pure window switching. You get used to it, but when you've got a lot of windows open, it's a small but ever-present drag on usability.
Alt-Tab is one of the first things I install on a new Mac. Hopefully one day Apple will give us a built-in option, much like they eventually did with window tiling and full-screen window zooming.
On Windows alt-tab moves through windows.
On Mac cmd-tab moves through applications. You need cmd-~ to move through an application’s windows.
It’s a small difference but one that really breaks muscle memory.
Porting Windows apps that people like, helps MacBook sales, not hurt them. That certain people use their MacBook in a different way should not be a concern of other users, as at least they are using MacBooks.
Why switch? Thats a huge part of the Mac. The design, UI, and UX conventions exist for a reason.
If you’re going to spend all your time fighting them you’re in for a rough spell.
Why do anything?
Notepad++ has incredibly easy to use macros with the record/play buttons in the toolbar. It is my preferred tool for quickly munging text files especially ones where you want to change formatting through the file.
Yeah this feels similar to PowerShell on Linux.
Is it possible? Sure.
Does it make sense? Not really.
script for ci pipelines beg to differ
What are the advantages of pwsh for this use case?
It doesn’t have to be for everyone.
Lots of people use both operating systems, or stretched from one to the other.
Socrates is about choice, just because I might not see the understanding in something doesn’t mean there isn’t any understanding in it.
I use both operating systems. I hate using things that don’t follow platform standards. It makes them more confusing and causes extra cognitive load.
I simply see no benefit of a copy of very Windows-y app. It’s pure MDI with buttons in a toolbar. It’s a perfect example of a 3.1/95 style app.
It’s not like it has special features missing from the great many editors on Mac. If you want a “same everywhere” experience I’d think you’d want something that sort of lives in its own world like VSCode. It’s not native style anywhere, exactly. But it’s very powerful and popular.
In many cases I get “I want the app I like over here”. I really do. Especially if there is something really special about its design or feature set. In my experience with Notepad++, I have never wished to have it on my Mac once.
>I simply see no benefit of a copy of very Windows-y app.
That's cool, sounds like it's not for you then.
There are plenty of people who would appreciate it though.
I've been using N++ for a long time. I have tried just about every editor out there and I always end up back in N++.
It's old. It is missing a lot of the bells and whistles of newer editors, but I'm still most productive in old faithful :)
Do you see that other people might no share your view and instead find this useful?
Note how noone clones bbedit for other oses.
Can't escape the macOS event horizon.
First I've heard of Nova. I have used Transmit--also made by Panic--and was impressed with the UX there. I'll have to give Nova a spin.
It's FREEEEEE!
> This project is an independent open-source community port of Notepad++ to macOS
Import note.
My "Notepad++ for Mac" so far has been NotepadNext (https://github.com/dail8859/NotepadNext). I will give this one a try as well, and wish them best of luck. I hope they release the Linux version as well.
I know that the original Notepad++ is under GPLv2 so creating an open-source port is perfectly acceptable, but the Notepad++ name itself is trademarked by Don Ho, so calling itself "Notepad++" (for Mac) along with using an almost identical icon feels like it's crossing some boundaries.
>Notepad++ name itself is trademarked by Don Ho
Is it? I can't find a trademark registration on the USPTO site.
On closer look, I think you’re right. I also tried searching the USPTO trademark database by author and by product name and couldn’t find anything. I don’t know why I thought he had trademarked it. Maybe it could qualify as a common law trademark, but I’m really not sure as this is well outside my area of expertise.
https://digital.gov/resources/u-s-trademark-law
From a quick glance Don Ho looks to be based in France, and a search of their trademark registry gives a current result for Notepad++: https://data.inpi.fr/marques/FR5133202
There is a crippling lack of note on the fact this is unofficial
Same logo too is misleading.
I installed it . But for me I’m used to things looking like macOS native so I was very confused about it and eventually uninstalled and returned to coteditor , I know it’s a awesome project and windows users will enjoy it
I’ve been using Notepad Next on Mac: https://github.com/dail8859/NotepadNext
That's the "true"/original version; for Notepad++-like experience on macOS.
This was definitely vibe coded, even the landing page.
Oh for sure. Just look at the "Author" page. It says he started in March 2026 on this. Which means last month he pointed Claude to the Notepad++ repo and said "make a native port of this to macOS".
You can simply look at the GitHub repo where most of the commits say $Name and Claude
that's lazy commentary. prove it. and prove why that matters in this specific context. If you're going to shit on someone's work, have a good reason.
Proof: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus-mac/notepad-plus-plus-m...
Every single commit says ‘and claude’
That is not necessarily proof.
Sometimes I am too lazy to think of a good commit message, so I have a custom command that tells the assistant to do this:
Commit umstaged changes with a nice clean message summary and no full message.
By default, Claude Code co-signs those commits (which I do not like at all as a default).
At home I have a MacBook, but everything else I use is Linux. At work, I am stuck on windows 99% of the time for most work. I manage Linux systems, but mostly through the windows desktop. I use notepad++ every single day. I lamented not having it on my Mac, but every replacement is not... right? comfortable? implemented right? I don't know. Still haven't found something that does what little I use in notepad++ and I can tell you now this app's ui is not what I am looking for.
Wish there was a Linux port too
Look at https://github.com/dail8859/NotepadNext
No plugins? Those are what give NP++ its real power and usability - for example I use the XML and JSON pretty print functionality daily (on Windows, on my work machine).
Otherwise Kate or Gedit are just fine for Linux.
Yes. My comment above.
After seeing how quickly those hooligans re-wrote Claude Code in Rust from the leaked sourcemap, I actually made a spec-driven Linux port using Claude Code, Kimi, and Codex just to see if it was possible.
Frankly, I thought I was the only human being on earth who used Arch but missed the comforting embrace of Notepad++, so I'm happy to share the fruits of my ~$200 worth of tokens if there's interest!
I thought it runs well in WINE? Not that a native port wouldn't be better, but that's pretty good.
I used to use something called “notepadqq”. Not sure if it’s still around but it was a Linux port.
There's an official Notepad next, as others noted
I like how it's a native Mac app and looks 0% like a Mac app whatsoever. Also the scaling is off on my Macbook Pro. Everything looks half as big as it should be. Tiny fonts, tiny tiny icon bar.
Wow.
Well TBF, the original Notepad++ isn't too good in this regard either.
Whenever I opened a N++ window in a remote desktop session and leave it open, and then use the same computer in-person, the whole UI of that window becomes a blurry mess and the boundary of the window is off (as in, if you maximize the window, moving the cursor to the top-right will actually not land on X.), which I assume it because of changing resolution/scaling between remote and in-person use.
We can ask the guy to fix the toolbar icons which I'm sure he can easily do but then it may loose the authentic look. Need to vote.
I think there are like 4 or 5 apps like this but only 2 or 3 are using a fork
Not really understanding the negative trend of comments. As someone who accesses multiple Windows machines on a LAN via a MacBook Air, I'm glad to have as many common GUIs as possible. I found it a bit hard to get used to BBEdit when I started using a Mac again, and have been a Notepad++ lover for many years. So, thanks to the dev for this.
<meta>I've noticed this more recently on HN. Either the top comment has to be some negative sentiment even if seemingly good-faith, or a comment on something completely tangential (like the color of the website), or a comment on their own project that's related to the thing posted but it feels more like look-at-me advertising rather than earnestly engaging with the submission. Some of these go against the guidelines, but maybe my own comment here does as well.
As of writing, the top comment is "Why?" like the project has to defend itself, on a website that's notionally about curious, interesting, and insightful discussions.</meta>
I used Notepad++ way back when, sort of before I "graduated" to Emacs and the like. I don't know how it's evolved over the past two decades (I presume, intentionally, not much) or what attracts its fanbase anymore. I know I liked it because it felt like a substantial jump from notepad.exe without feeling bloated and slow. At the time, some of the competition felt sluggish while Notepad++ felt nimble.
What do people love about Notepad++ that still isn't really addressed by the "less humble" editors out there?
it reliably keeps buffers between restarts, including for unsaved files. It's kinda amazing at that.
Not so for this port, which, besides not remembering sessions, crashed very early, and made me return to BBEdit.
It is kind of ironic that the two Windows applications I missed the most in both Linux and Mac are good text editor and terminal emulator: Notepad++ and MobaXTerm
Love me some WinSCP too.
Panic Transmit no good?
Now that's a throwback and is definitely my goto on macOS. I remember I did a bunch of chores in order to buy a Visa gift card just to purchase it. Was much easier than explaining to my parents what SFTP was and why I needed to borrow their credit card. I just googled it and it's good to see they're still around.
Perhaps it's just nostalgia, but I feel like 2006-12 (before the Mac App Store took off) was the golden age of Mac software. There were those ~$100 'app packs' that bundled a bunch of different software together. You'd buy it for 2 or 3 of them and end up discovering some cool new software in the process.
Agreed and it's probably not only the App Store but also the fact that iOS took away the spotlight from macOS.
Back then, the iPhone was still the companion to the Mac, not the other way round.
have you heard of TextEdit
great! now do paint dot net (i know, i know)
the ui is fugly
Thaks I am glad you agree. I guess the port is done then. Is there anything else I can help you with? Marketing?
I guess it's a successful port then.
that's the point, people like it this way. Unless you're saying it looked better on the Windows version.
Those icons… I just, I can’t