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I think it would be better if they would ask for volunteers.

I would like a UI fix for Metapad text editor.

In return, I could help write the documentation.

I need a text editor that is very quick to load. Metapad is wonderful that way. But when doing search and replace, it brings up a new window that requires a mouse click. It should just show the number of replacements.

Why does anyone care what is the "biggest" or "most important" open-source project ? That's like treating software in the same way as all that "Strictly Pop Idol Celebrity Chef Globes" TV garbage.

It's either *good* software, or it isn't, and that's the only criterion worth talking about.

Some of the best and most useful open-source software is also the smallest. Some of the most important and critical open-source software is also among the smallest and least 'recognised'. And some of the biggest open-source projects are also the biggest causes for concern.

Are we all hoping for prizes or something ?
Oh dear ... how childish.

Here's a personal favorite of mine. Metapad LE as a drop-in notepad.exe replacement. It's basically a more fully featured notepad that loads equally as fast. Differences on LE/full version here if you care.

Here's a personal favorite of mine. Metapad LE as a drop-in notepad.exe replacement. It's basically a more fully featured notepad that loads equally as fast. Differences on LE/full version here if you care.

Metapad editor is now open source. All other quick editors are worse, in my experience.

I prefer Metapad myself. Small,light, runs on a flash, plenty of nice features, and a simple batch file you can make on the FAQ page that will change out Notepad for Metapad on a Win2K or XP machine.

So does anyone know how this will affect someone who has MSWorks installed? I read TFA and they only mentioned Word. While I see very few machines without SOME kind of word processor(I give my customers OO.o if they don't have one) I do see plenty of folks out there who are running some version of MSWorks that came with their PC. So does anyone know if Works opens the .wri file or will it call on Wordpad like MSWord does?

I commend to you "Metapad" by Alexander Davidson : http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/

Not very highly featured, but still streets ahead of Notepad - zipfile < 50Kb, .exe < 100Kb with no installation required ! Outstanding if you just want something more bearable and less brain-dead than Notepad. I install it everywhere I don't need a more fully-fledged programmer's editor.

It hasn't been changed since 2005, but doesn't really need it - not for my purposes anyway. Has little touches like making hyperlinks within the text content hot (clickable).

I love Metapad:

http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/

Can't believe people are still actually using that PoS program that MS calls notepad. Been using Metapad for ages : http://liquidninja.com/metapad/

I've always preferred http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/ myself. As fast and as minimal as notepad, with support for mac and unix line-endings, no size limit, toolbar, etc.

Definately well worth trying.

I can't stand syntax highlighting. Although, I think that is mostly because it looks terrible and is mostly unreadable when you use a dark background. :-)

You might be better served by PSPad editor.
Better than notepad. Has syntax highlighting, supports mulitple code types, lots of funky stuff.

Actually, I have substituted Metapad for notepad for most quick notes and for all HTML editing.

I've been using Metapad for years now. It hasn't been updated, but really doesn't need to. It's as simple as vanilla notepad, but more powerful and with nifty features, all this with little memory footprint (the executable weights on 90Kb). But it's just a notepad - it doesn't have fancy stuff like code colouring, regexp search, etc.

metapad.exe!!!

Metapad is a small, fast (and completely free) text editor for Windows 9x/NT/XP with similar features to Microsoft Notepad but with many extra (and rather useful) features. It was designed to completely replace Notepad since it includes all of Notepad's features and much, much more.

That wasn't my point, the point was the difficulty in manually replacing notepad.exe with something else.

metapad is a single executable that you can rename to notepad.exe and have replace notepad. But WinXP's file protection makes it difficult to do this.

writeable windows\system and other writeable directories. ACLs are nice, but you do have to set sensible defaults.. I disagree. I'm not really sure if this is a fault in the Windows code itself but there are several things in these folders that you may want to edit without rebooting into DOS or whatever. I would suggest that an 'advanced' mode be togglable so that all directories are writable. Same with disabling that 'System File Protection' BS. Ever tried to replace notepad with metapad or something? It's a complete pain in the ass.

Microsoft Windows Services for Unix. It should be named Unix Services for Windows, but whatever. Provides a development environment superior in many ways to Cygwin's.

MetaPad. Great Notepad replacement; no bells and whistles, but a few useful additions.

Ethereal. An Ethernet sniffer, useful for debugging problems and snooping on your neighbors.

WinCVS. GUI front end for CVS client.

No, metapad is the only true replacement for notepad based on principles alone.

Notepad95 (98/NT too?) didn't even understand the Ctrl-S shortcut! I use metapad", it's cool! Replacing notepad.exe with it is quite a hack though, you have to have the speed to outwit the System File Protection. :)

Try Metapad. It has everything you list, and it's incredibly enough even smaller than notepad (41K). Unlike some "notepad replacements" written in VB...

Using text files is actually not all that bad of an option. A nice alternative to the truly awful Notepad is Metapad which is free and can seemlessly replace Notepad. Among other things it has active hyperlinks, auto indenting and can do a lot of simple reformatting (like caps to lowercase, etc.).

Second, my list. Almost all of my favorite programs are already mentioned in the +5 posts, so I won't list them all (there are a lot). Here's what's left of my top 25 or so programs I definitely install on a fresh Windows reinstall, in no particular order. Everything is free, unless otherwise noted. I don't think any of these are open-sourced, though.

• ObjectDock - OS X's sexy toolbar that expands when you mouseover is now available for windows, too. Tons of useful plugins available, such as a weather tracker and system monitor.
  
• Yz's dock - no link for this one because Apple killed it with a C&D letter. Same basic concept as ObjectDock; marginally better IMHO. If you really want it, google for yz_dck0083.zip.
  
• StyleXP - I can't believe no one's mentioned this one yet. Windows skinning, anyone?
  
• Crimson Editor - yet another lightweight (i.e., fast) file editor with extended functionality such as automatically coloring source code files.
  
• MetaPad - extremely lightweight file editor, a replacement for notepad.exe.
  
• Sothink SWF Decompiler - good for when I want to grab an image or sound out of a flash file.
  
• Google Toolbar - yes, it's created by Google, the next Big Brother, but I like the pop-up blocker, and the privacy issues are moot if you take the time to uncheck one box.
  
• Middle Man - for people like me who still use AOL's bread-and-butter AIM client, this is a great unofficial plug-in. Removes ads and adds a ton of new functionality.
  
• Peer Guardian - another biggie that I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned before. Blocks the RIAA and its ilk from connecting to your machine.
• Total Recorder - (shareware/demo) captures all audio output and logs it to a wav or mp3 file. Good for stream ripping.
  
• NetLimiter - (shareware/demo) limit your maximum upload/download speeds, optionally on a program by program basis. Some firewalls already have this functionality, though... but not all.
  

Whenever a programmer thinks, "Hey, skins, what a cool idea", their computer's speakers should create some sort of cock-shaped soundwave and plunge it repeatedly through their skulls.

An excellent Notepad replacement is metapad. No faster editor has more features, and no editor with more features is faster.

[17] - Windows 2000

Q: How do I replace notepad under Windows 2000?

A: Go to the folder C:\WinNT\System32\DllCache and erase or rename notepad.exe. Now you can erase or rename notepad.exe in the default locations (C:\WinNT & C:\WinNT\System32). Simply cancel any warnings that pop up.

Some people will have to locate the file in the i386 folder that might be on your system. Try doing a search for Notepad.* in your windows folder (this will also locate Notepad.ex_ that might also need to be renamed).

Note: This folder may be called C:\Windows\System32\DllCache or something else depending on where you installed Windows 2000. Also note that this folder is probably hidden so to open it you can paste the above path into the Run dialog (click Start | Run) or in any Explorer Address bar. Typing in %SystemRoot%\System32\DllCache should locate the folder but if not then check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon for a value named SFCDllCacheDir (which doesn't exist by default).

Metapad is an excellent, free, plain text editor for Windows that can seamlessly replace Notepad. Handy for editing html source code ...

Why would you want MS to bundle one, when you can get the fantastic Metapad for free? It does everything Notepad does, plus a few lovely extras, without all the bugs that Notepad has.

I haven't seen a mention of Metapad, my personal favorite editor here, so I'll add it to the list.
Very small, fast as hell, does everything Notepad does and better. I don't use it for the ultra-fancy things like spellchecking and syntax highlighting, so its speed and agility serve me well.
There also exists a small plugin for it that will list all of the text files in a directory in an explorer-style, always-on-top window, and automatically open them in the current instance of the editor. Great for editing HTML files or search-and-replace operations.

And come on... its home page is at liquidninja.com, that name alone has to be worth some bonus points! =)

I haven't seen a mention of Metapad, my personal favorite editor here, so I'll add it to the list.
Very small, fast as hell, does everything Notepad does and better. I don't use it for the ultra-fancy things like spellchecking and syntax highlighting, so its speed and agility serve me well.
There also exists a small plugin for it that will list all of the text files in a directory in an explorer-style, always-on-top window, and automatically open them in the current instance of the editor. Great for editing HTML files or search-and-replace operations.

And come on... its home page is at liquidninja.com, that name alone has to be worth some bonus points! =)

For the bigger project stuff it's either JEdit or XEmacs. Both are stable, cross platform and loaded with features. I'm still trying to decide which one I like best. ;-)

METAPAD is a much more feasable alternative. not only is it a good and stable replacement for notepad, it's also completely free. Not to mention it isn't bloated but just a lovely lightwight text editor just what it's supposed to be.

Funny how these jewels go so unnoticed so often

/me quickly returns to vi

use metapad. it's a smaller, better notepad fFor windows. http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/