晓雨杂记

Declaration#

First of all, I firmly support "one country, two systems" and firmly oppose any act of splitting the country and undermining unity. Any evil will eventually be brought to justice!

Preface#

This article was completed on a Windows 11 + Ubuntu dual system, and I may write an article on installing a dual system in the future.

These days, I can see the ridiculous remarks of Notepad++'s author in QQ every day. Today, I personally went to see the latest tweets, and I was really disgusted.

The author of Notepad++ posted a tweet claiming, "If you disagree with his political views, Notepad++ will add random characters to the source code."

Although it is known that this detection mechanism cannot be implemented, I believe that everyone present, regardless of whether they have encountered programming or not, can realize the harm caused by such behavior.

However, a few days after he posted this tweet, he posted another tweet, saying, "This is just a joke" "Although today is not April Fool's Day, every day can be April Fool's Day" "Not everyone is smart enough."

Image source: Zhihu, delete if infringing

I vaguely remember that this is not the first time Notepad++ has done this.

Origin#

In 2008, the Notepad++ website's news page was updated. In the latest article, the author used the Beijing Olympics as a topic to smear China and spread rumors about China.

The content of this article is expressed in Traditional Chinese, English, and French, targeting the "human rights in Tibet," which is an unfounded accusation.

Due to the need for harmony, no original content is provided. You can find the original article for reading on your own.

Development#

• In 2014, Notepad++ v6.6.4 was released, named "Tiananmen Incident";
• In 2015, Notepad++ v6.7.4 was released, named "Je suis Charlie";
• In 2019, Notepad++ v7.8.1 was released;
  • This is one of the most notorious and well-known versions. The author promotes Xinjiang human rights and other content in the update log, seemingly completely politicizing Notepad++.
  • However, in fact, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (or any ethnic autonomous region) enjoys the autonomy rights stipulated by the constitution and laws, and the problems mentioned in the above article do not exist.
  • Even until version v7.8.3, it was still released under the name of version v7.8.1.
• In 2020, Notepad++ 7.8.6 was released, named "Thank You, Medical Workers".
  • It happened to coincide with the epidemic.
• In July 2020, Notepad++ v7.8.9 was released;
  • This is also a notorious version, spreading his political views through the June 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill incident, distorting the "National Security Law," believing that doing so deprives personal freedom and freedom of speech.
  • However, he had never been to Hong Kong at that time, nor had he witnessed the riots firsthand, so who was right and who was wrong, I believe you already know. Unfortunately, he was still kept in the dark.
  • Similarly, v7.9.2 also used the same version name.
• In 2022, Notepad++ v8.3 was released;
  • He started playing the old tricks from 2008 again, no comment.
  • v8.3.1, as usual, reused the version name.
• From v8.3.2 to v8.3.4, he kept expressing his political views on the Ukraine conflict.
  • Ironically, he himself wrote in the update log, "Stop writing political content in the update log," but he didn't change.
• In v8.4.3, the functional example image in the update log was surrounded by twelve "fart" characters.

There is not much to say about the subsequent versions. They all seem relatively normal. But the above update logs make me fearful of his political views and future actions.

He even expressed his actions as "accurate descriptions." How accurate is this accuracy, it is up to you to verify.

Reasons#

From the perspective of national unity#

The author smears and spreads rumors about China, attempting to split Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Xinjiang. The constitution stipulates that citizens have the obligation to safeguard national unity and the unity of all ethnic groups in the country.

Article 52 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China: Chinese citizens have the obligation to safeguard national unity and the unity of all ethnic groups in the country.

From the perspective of the open-source spirit#

The author adds political language to the update log, bringing political colors into the work and promoting his political views through the open-source community.

Saying this does not mean that the author is not allowed to have different political positions, but I do not support the author's behavior of integrating political positions into open-source works and promoting political positions through the open-source community. Of course, it is the author's freedom to incorporate political positions, and it is also my freedom to resist. If you support promoting political positions in open-source works, you can support Notepad++.
Source: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/464565089

Then there is the issue of contributors. Indeed, not everyone who has submitted code to Notepad++ is anti-China, but people don't look at who made the remarks, they only look at which group it is.

It's like you are a student, wearing a school uniform when going out, but using foul language and having low quality. Then the impression people get is that all students in this school have low quality.

Difference#

Compared to boycotting Intel#

1. Intel is a larger-sized American company and is inevitably subject to control by the US government; Notepad++ is an open-source project, and the author's actions have complete freedom and are not subject to any government organization's restrictions and control.

2. It is more difficult to boycott Intel because there are almost no large-scale alternatives; it is easier to boycott Notepad++, such as finding alternatives (Sublime, VS Code), forking the author's code to remove political content and compiling it yourself.

Source: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/464565089

Compared to boycotting physical goods#

Here, let's take Nissan cars as an example.

First of all, boycotting Nissan cars and boycotting Notepad++ are actually forms of moral blackmail.

However:

1. Nissan cars are the legal private property of citizens, and smashing Nissan cars violates the owner's property rights; uninstalling Notepad++, if it does not cause the system to fail to start, generally does not constitute a crime.

2. After a Nissan car is smashed, a large amount of money and time are needed to repair or purchase a new one, which may cause economic losses; after uninstalling Notepad++, there is no need for money or a lot of time to reinstall it.

Alternatives#

As I mentioned before, this is not the first time he has done this, so alternatives will definitely appear.

Notepad--#

Open-source, aiming to compete with Notepad++, the original intention is to eliminate Notepad++.

Download: https://gitee.com/cxasm/notepad--

VSCode#

Produced by Microsoft, free and open-source, powerful. However, it may be a bit difficult for unfamiliar users to get started.

Download: https://code.visualstudio.com

The first startup will ask if you want to install the Chinese localization language pack, click "Install and Restart" to proceed.

NotepadFree#

A downstream branch of Notepad++, removing all politically related content and Notepad++ official website links, with version numbers basically synchronized with the upstream.

Download: https://github.com/NotepadFree/NotepadFree

Sublime Text#

It is also a well-known editor that many people use.

Download: https://www.sublimetext.com

You may need to set up Chinese localization yourself.

There are many more, and I won't list them one by one. You can choose a suitable editor according to your preferences. Software like Notepad++, which carries strong political colors, should be uninstalled in the end.