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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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
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.
Import note.
Is it? I can't find a trademark registration on the USPTO site.
Perhaps the site answers past “you like it here it is”, but at the moment we appear to have slashdotted them.
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.
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 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.
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!
Wow.