Microsoft announced today that it will deprecate WordPad with a future Windows update as it's no longer under active development, though the company did not specify the precise timing of this change.
It’s the free (as in beer) program that comes with windows to open doc and rtf files and put together fine enough documents. Dropping it is Microsoft telling users unwilling to pay for word without the technical knowhow to get LibreOffice or Abiword going to get fucked. Its anti consumer no matter which way you slice it.
My in laws are very technologically illiterate. I bet they have never opened word pad except accidentally… but I guarantee they know what “Word” is and think “word pad” is just some nerdy tech person word for the software they know.
I bet the number of people who both rely on word pad and who don’t know about any other free alternatives is so very low.
It’s have to actually launch it to be sure, but I’m pretty sure you can open them in Edge these days, along with all the other office documents.
As for creating documents, your average social media comment editor has more features than Wordpad. Given that Chrome is still the most popular browser on Windows by some way, I think the average Windows user can download programs just fine. OpenOffice is even on the MS Store for those stuck on Windows S edition.
It’s the free (as in beer) program that comes with windows to open doc and rtf files and put together fine enough documents. Dropping it is Microsoft telling users unwilling to pay for word without the technical knowhow to get LibreOffice or Abiword going to get fucked. Its anti consumer no matter which way you slice it.
I don’t think so.
My in laws are very technologically illiterate. I bet they have never opened word pad except accidentally… but I guarantee they know what “Word” is and think “word pad” is just some nerdy tech person word for the software they know.
I bet the number of people who both rely on word pad and who don’t know about any other free alternatives is so very low.
It’s have to actually launch it to be sure, but I’m pretty sure you can open them in Edge these days, along with all the other office documents.
As for creating documents, your average social media comment editor has more features than Wordpad. Given that Chrome is still the most popular browser on Windows by some way, I think the average Windows user can download programs just fine. OpenOffice is even on the MS Store for those stuck on Windows S edition.