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Comment by HardwareLust | Hacker News Reader

They should allow us to choose. I'm not jazzed about Notepad++ deciding for me which search engines I'm "allowed" to use.

Maybe it's time to switch to Atom instead. At least there it's my choice.

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It’s free and open. You _are_ allowed to choose, and are in no way obligated to use notepad++. Similarly, it’s author is perfectly in the right by omitting bing as an expression of protest against unethical censorship.

It's also open source so anyone who wants is free to revert the commit and build their own version.

edit: Beaten to the punch: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27428383

I’m not expressing an opinion on the matter myself.

But I would like to say that the project lead and primary developer of Notepad++ has political opinions, and uses his software as a platform to occasionally exercise them.

This appears to be another example of this whether you agree or not with it.

I am surprised that the search engines were hardcoded in the C++ file. Support for OpenSearch would be a better way that allows customisations. So if anyone wants Bing, Baidu or another search engine that is not included by default, they can add it without having to recompile from source.

While you're at it, make it a plugin, like I recall most things being in Notepad++ (even many things that other text editors have by default).

I use Notepad++ for txt files only because it's fast, but I've never had a need to or even knew you could "search the internet" directly from Notepad++. I have a browser for that purpose.

We have all been taught that two wrongs does not make a right. But I was also taught that not standing up to bullies keeps them coming back. More applications should boycott Bing.

If you're that adamant about a specific search engine, then you can fork or patch. Notepad++ is open source, so these are both possible options if you feel that strongly about the issue.

I think you should switch if you think this action of Notepad++ doesn't reflect your values.

Not a Windows user, but I were I'd be using Notepad++.

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