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Notepad++ for Mac – Independent community port
- manbart 6mo agoWish there was a Linux port too
- yjftsjthsd-h 6mo agoI thought it runs well in WINE? Not that a native port wouldn't be better, but that's pretty good.
- jeffnash 6mo agoAfter 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!
- idonotknowwhy 6mo agoI used to use something called “notepadqq”. Not sure if it’s still around but it was a Linux port.
- qalmakka 6mo agoLook at https://github.com/dail8859/NotepadNext https://github.com/dail8859/NotepadNext
- cromka 6mo agoThere's an official Notepad next, as others noted
- p_ing 6mo ago> This project is an independent open-source community port of Notepad++ to macOS Import note.
- MBCook 6mo agoWhy? 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.
- j45 6mo agoIt 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.
- MBCook 6mo agoI 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.
- slidehero 6mo ago>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 :)
- tuwtuwtuwtuw 6mo agoDo you see that other people might no share your view and instead find this useful?
- ulfw 6mo agoI 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.
- thrdbndndn 6mo agoWell 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.
- b3ing 6mo agoI think there are like 4 or 5 apps like this but only 2 or 3 are using a fork
- r00t- 6mo agoThis was definitely vibe coded, even the landing page.
- ziml77 6mo agoOh 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".
- Tomte 6mo agoYou can simply look at the GitHub repo where most of the commits say $Name and Claude
- notepad0x90 6mo agothat'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.
- macki0 6mo agoProof: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus-mac/notepad-plus-plus-macos/commits/main/ https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus-mac/notepad-plus-plus-m... Every single commit says ‘and claude’
- demetris 6mo agoThat 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).
- 4nonverbal-alit 5mo agoThe proof is good enough though. Even if the code was written by author, not bothering to remove co-signed-by part from the commit message (assuming author did indeed wrote it by himself) let alone not writing their own commit message is an indication of negligence to me
- NOTpadpp 6mo agoThere is a crippling lack of note on the fact this is unofficial
- dnnddidiej 6mo agoSame logo too is misleading.
- veverkap 5mo agohttps://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/npp-trademark-infringement/ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/npp-trademark-infringemen... Don Ho (original author of Notepad++) is not happy.
- phpdave11 6mo agoI’ve been using Notepad Next on Mac: https://github.com/dail8859/NotepadNext https://github.com/dail8859/NotepadNext
- bsdooby 6mo agoThat's the "true"/original version; for Notepad++-like experience on macOS.
- luckydata 6mo agothe ui is fugly
- notepad0x90 6mo agothat's the point, people like it this way. Unless you're saying it looked better on the Windows version.
- zaps 6mo agoThose icons… I just, I can’t
- steve1977 6mo agoI guess it's a successful port then.
- dnnddidiej 6mo agoThaks I am glad you agree. I guess the port is done then. Is there anything else I can help you with? Marketing?
- vunderba 6mo agoI 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.
- eurleif 6mo ago>Notepad++ name itself is trademarked by Don Ho Is it? I can't find a trademark registration on the USPTO site.
- vunderba 6mo agoOn 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 https://digital.gov/resources/u-s-trademark-law
- alduino 6mo agoFrom 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 https://data.inpi.fr/marques/FR5133202
- veverkap 5mo agohttps://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/npp-trademark-infringement/ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/npp-trademark-infringemen... Don Ho (original author of Notepad++) is not happy.
- Detrytus 6mo agoIt 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
- jeffnash 6mo agoLove me some WinSCP too.
- steve1977 6mo agoPanic Transmit no good?
- jeffnash 6mo agoNow 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.
- steve1977 6mo agoAgreed 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.
- semiinfinitely 6mo agohave you heard of TextEdit
- Hard_Space 6mo agoNot 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.
- reikonomusha 6mo ago<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?
- akho 6mo agoit reliably keeps buffers between restarts, including for unsaved files. It's kinda amazing at that.
- Hard_Space 6mo agoNot so for this port, which, besides not remembering sessions, crashed very early, and made me return to BBEdit.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- theanonymousone 6mo agoMy "Notepad++ for Mac" so far has been NotepadNext (https://github.com/dail8859/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.
- johnturk 6mo agoWe 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.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- pulimento 6mo agogreat! now do paint dot net (i know, i know)
- elheffe80 6mo agoAt 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.
- randomeel 6mo agoI 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
- jethronethro 5mo agoThis is not an official Notepad++ release. It’s an unauthorized project misusing the Notepad++ trademark