Someone Rebuilt Notepad++ in Qt So You Can Finally Use It on Linux

If you've ever spent years muscle-memory-trained on Notepad++ and then switched to Linux or macOS, you know the pain. There's no official port, and most alternatives feel just different enough to be annoying. Notepad Next is a cross-platform reimplementation of Notepad++ built with Qt, and it's aiming to fill that gap.

What It Does

Notepad Next is, as the name suggests, a reimplementation of Notepad++ built on the Qt framework. It's cross-platform, meaning it runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS. The project is written in C++ using Qt 6.5, and development is done primarily in QtCreator with the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler, though the application is known to build successfully on various Linux distributions and macOS as well.

The README is refreshingly honest about the state of things: the application is described as "stable and usable" but explicitly "should not be considered safe for critically important work." There are, in the author's own words, "numerous bugs and half working implementations." This isn't a polished commercial product—it's an open-source project that's actively being worked on, with pull requests welcomed.

Why It's Cool

The honest framing is actually one of the best things about this project. Plenty of open-source projects oversell themselves, but Notepad Next tells you exactly what you're getting. That kind of transparency is rare and worth appreciating.

• It fills a real gap. Notepad++ has been Windows-only for its entire existence. If you've moved to Linux or macOS but still miss that particular text editor experience, this is the closest thing to a native port you're going to get without running Wine.

• Packaging is taken seriously. The project offers installers and stand-alone builds for all three major platforms. On Windows, there's an installer with auto-updater and context menu integration, plus a winget package. On Linux, you get an AppImage, a Flatpak on Flathub, and even a PPA for Ubuntu 22.04 and newer (maintained by a community contributor). On macOS, there's a disk image and a Homebrew tap. That's a lot of distribution channels for a project that openly admits it has bugs.

• The MacOS notes are delightfully blunt. The README includes a section explaining that if macOS tells you the app is "damaged," it's just "Apple complaining that I have not paid them money to 'trust' me." It then gives you the xattr command to bypass the quarantine flag. There's also a tip about disabling font smoothing system-wide if you want text to render more like the Windows version. These are the kinds of practical details that make a project feel like it was built by someone who actually uses it.

• Translations are community-driven. Localization is handled through Crowdin, and the README invites anyone to start a discussion if their language is missing. It's a small thing, but it signals that the project is thinking beyond English-speaking users.

• The build process is approachable. If you're already comfortable with Qt Creator and CMake, you can just open CMakeLists and hit build. If you're not, there's a detailed guide linked in the repo. That lowers the barrier for contributors who might want to help fix some of those "half working implementations."

How to Try It

Getting started depends on your platform:

Windows:

1. Grab the installer or stand-alone zip from the releases page.
2. Or just use winget:

   winget install dail8859.NotepadNext
   

Linux:

1. Download the AppImage from the releases page, or
2. Install the Flatpak:

   flatpak install flathub com.github.dail8859.NotepadNext
   

3. Ubuntu users can add the PPA (maintained by Quentin Lienhardt) for an up-to-date deb:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:quentiumyt/notepadnext
   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install notepadnext
   

macOS:

1. Download the disk image from the releases page, or
2. Use Homebrew:

   brew tap dail8859/notepadnext
   brew install notepadnext
   

3. If you get the "damaged" warning, run:

   xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/NotepadNext.app
   

The repository is at github.com/dail8859/NotepadNext. It's licensed under GPLv3.

Final Thoughts

Notepad Next isn't trying to be more than it is. It's a reimplementation of a beloved Windows text editor, built with Qt, and it's honest about its rough edges. If you need something for critical work right now, you might want to wait or stick with whatever you're currently using. But if you're a developer who misses Notepad++ on non-Windows platforms—or you just want to contribute to a project that's clearly being built with care—this is worth checking out. The author is upfront about wanting help, and the codebase is approachable if you know Qt. Sometimes the best projects are the ones that admit they're not finished yet.

Follow @githubprojects for more developer tools and open source projects.