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> EDIT.COM becoming the new Notepad.

edit.exe[1,2] actually. And it runs on Linux too! Linux had a real lack of good text editors.

[2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/edit/

So I was about ready to rant about bloat in modern software, but I checked first: the new edit.exe for Windows is 260kB. The old editor for DOS 6.22 was actually provided by qbasic.exe, which had the editor and a full BASIC interpreter packed in 250kB. Edit.com was just a tiny wrapper.

This isn't bad at all given how most other software evolved in thr the intervening 30 years.

I remember first finding out about Edlin in 2003 while reading DOS for Dummies by Dan Gookin. Experienced a lot of anemoia that day. That short section about Edlin was the most touching part of the entire book (probably because it took place before the DOS 5-6 / Win 3.x era which already felt old).

https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/ed.htm

Oldie bit goodie: https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.en.html