So I was setting up this new laptop, and after security updates I went on cleaning the trash through Powershell, and after removing all unwanted packages I was going to let a note on the desktop and there was no Notepad in the context menu… oops, I messed up I thought, I must have removed stuff I shouldn’t, so just to be safe I did a factory reset and this time read very carefully every package before removing, and again no Notepad! And I notice there was no Paint nor Calculator either… so turn out new Win11 is shipped with Outlook, Maps, Solitaire Collection, People (whatever the hell that is), and even some IE, Zune and Skype legacy packages, but not with Notepad?! You actually have to download it from Microsoft Store… and now they all come with Copilot lol
Anyway, this sounds like a great opportunity to look for some FOSS alternatives!
What do you guys use and recommend?
I know you are asking for FOSS alternatives, but for those who are looking to just restore the old programs:
It even has a Textpad
There is also an satire version, Windows 93, but Windows 96 is a functional online version from the descarted M$ Nashville project before they released Windows 98. Anyway good for pranking your friends, putting it fullscreen.
Notepad++ or Notepad3, Paint.NET (not OSS), SpeedCrunch
The best alternative to Paint for me is Online
https://viliusle.github.io/miniPaint/
I don’t know why it is called Mini, it’s a very powerfull and complete editor. I use it as PWA, also selfhostable
Instead of Notepad
https://www.giuspen.net/cherrytree/
Calculator, curious, and complete this one
https://preccalc.sourceforge.net/
- arbitrary precision (up to 100,000,000 significant digits !!!)
- complex numbers
- fractions
- lists, vectors, matrices
- history (shortcuts ctrl+up, ctrl+down)
- calculator can write all results to a log file
- commands if, goto, print, return
- unlimited number of variables
- frequently used formulas can be saved as macros
- calculator can be translated to other languages
Kate and/or Notepad ++ for your text editing needs and maybe Krita for a Paint alternative.
I saw that Notepad and Paint have integrated AI now. I didn’t check if the same applies to Calculator, but I’m terribly afraid they might collect my Calculator history… far more shameful than any late‑night browsing history.
Yeah, putting AI in Notepad is so stupid. The entire point of notepad is how lightweight it is.
Kate is your friend for text editing. Probably other KDE apps too if they are also available on Windows.
On the Windows 11 install I was forced to use, I installed vim and helix. And python/julia works for calculator.
