Notepad++ for Mac is a Scam: The Developer is Ready for Legal Battle
Recently, a version of Notepad++ for macOS appeared, the historic text editor that has been a cornerstone of the Windows ecosystem for twenty-two years. However, what seemed to be the end of a long wait turned out to be a deep violation of intellectual property rights.
Don Ho, the historic creator of the project, intervened with extreme firmness to denounce the illegitimacy of the site notepad-plus-plus-mac.org, calling it an attempt at impersonation and phishing aimed at deceiving users and specialized media.
The project, developed by an independent programmer identified as Andrey Letov, was presented as a native Universal Binary port capable of running on both Intel and Apple Silicon architectures without the support of compatibility layers like Wine or CrossOver. Although Notepad++ is distributed under the open-source license GNU GPLv3, which explicitly allows forking of the code, the issue raised by Don Ho concerns the improper use of the registered trademark and logo (the famous chameleon, now transformed into a frog). The infringing site has indeed constructed an entire communicative framework aimed at making it seem like an official release, even going so far as to include Don Ho's name and biography among the authors of the Mac version.
The False Porting of Notepad++ on macOS: Don Ho's Reaction
From a technical standpoint, the realization of an official port of Notepad++ on Apple systems is an endeavor that borders on impossibility without a total rewrite of the source code. The original software is entirely built on Win32 APIs, used to manage every aspect of the interface, from menus to dialogues to file management systems. macOS does not possess such libraries, and translating the code would require monumental effort to rewrite the interface-related parts. Additionally, Notepad++'s huge ecosystem of plugins is based on .dll files compiled for Windows, rendering them effectively unusable on any platform other than Microsoft’s.
Don Ho emphasized how the unauthorized port used this technical gap to gain visibility, misleading even international media outlets. The situation escalated when the porting developer, despite formal requests to remove the trademark and domain, attempted to negotiate an official endorsement to “expand the brand together.” In the face of this insistence, the original creator reported the domain to Cloudflare, requesting its takedown for deceptive activities.
An additional point of friction is represented by NppAIAssistant, a plugin integrated into the Mac port that enables a sidebar to interact with AI models such as OpenAI and Google. Again, Letov allegedly falsely indicated Don Ho as the author of the component, aggravating the identity infringement issue. Despite Letov recently announcing a promise for future rebranding with the release of version 1.0.6, which is expected to include a new logo and domain, the position of the official community currently appears to be one of total closure.