Notepad Ultra™ — A Subscription to Type

The Last Notebook You'll Ever Rent.

A parody text editor that satirizes aggressive subscription models by gating basic features like backspace, spell-check, and auto-save behind paywalls.

🎯 Features

• Classic Windows 95 UI: Pixel-perfect retro aesthetics
• 50 Character Free Tier: Because typing should be limited
• Premium Backspace: Only €2.99/month to delete your mistakes
• Ads Every 3 Words: Or subscribe to remove them
• Spell Check Nags: Random typo warnings (premium feature)
• Auto-Save Anxiety: Reminders every 15 seconds
• Rickroll Ads: Watch an ad instead of subscribing
• Fake Payment Processing: Complete with credit card form and rejection

🚀 Quick Start

Web Version (Recommended)

1. Install dependencies:

   npm install

2. Start the dev server:

   npm run dev

3. Open in browser:

   • Landing page: http://localhost:5173/
   • Direct demo: http://localhost:5173/#/demo

Desktop App (Mac)

Download Pre-built App

The built DMG file is located at:

dist/Notepad Ultra-0.0.0-arm64.dmg

Double-click to install, then drag to Applications folder.

Build from Source

1. Build the Vite app:

   npm run build

2. Build the Electron app:

   npx electron-builder --mac dmg

3. Find your app:

   dist/Notepad Ultra-0.0.0-arm64.dmg
   

Run in Development Mode

# Terminal 1: Start Vite dev server
npm run dev

# Terminal 2: Start Electron
npm run electron

📁 Project Structure

notepad-ultra/
├── src/
│   ├── App.jsx              # Router setup
│   ├── Website.jsx          # Marketing landing page
│   ├── NotepadApp.jsx       # Main notepad application
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── Popup.jsx        # Windows 95 style popups
│   │   ├── PaymentForm.jsx  # Fake credit card form
│   │   └── LandingPage.jsx  # Subscription pricing page
│   └── index.css            # Windows 95 theme
├── electron-main.js         # Electron main process
├── public/                  # Static assets (DMG file)
└── dist/                    # Build output

🎨 Tech Stack

• Frontend: React 19 + Vite
• Routing: React Router DOM (Hash Router for Electron)
• Desktop: Electron + electron-builder
• Styling: Vanilla CSS (Windows 95 theme)

🌐 Deployment

Web Hosting

Build and deploy the web version:

npm run build
# Upload dist/ folder to any static host (Vercel, Netlify, etc.)

Mac App Distribution

The DMG file can be distributed directly. For production:

1. Add proper app icons
2. Configure code signing (requires Apple Developer account)
3. Notarize the app for Gatekeeper

🤝 Contributing

This is a parody project. Feel free to add more ridiculous subscription tiers!

📄 License

MIT (Ironically free and open source)

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Disclaimer: This is a parody. Please don't actually charge people to use backspace.