João has been covering the tech world for over 7 years, with a heavy focus on laptops and the Windows ecosystem. I also love all things tech and videogames, especially Nintendo, which he's always happy to talk about.
Prior to joining XDA in 2021, he worked at Neowin: https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/jo%C3%A3o-carrasqueira/
There are plenty of ways you can write down notes and documents on your PC, and we tend to be drawn to the ones that offer more features. Fancy formatting, syncing capabilities, and others can make it appealing to opt for a more advanced editor.
But when it comes to longevity and compatibility, plain text is, and likely will always be, the way to go. If I want to make a document I can always access in the future, plain text is what I'm choosing.
It works on everything
If it works in the terminal...
The thing about plain text files is that they've existed almost as long as computers themselves, and they work on basically anything. Windows opens them in Notepad, macOS opens them in TextEdit, and Linux has a wide array of text editors. In fact, you can even edit these files in the terminal using Nano or, on Windows, Edit. If you can edit a file in a terminal window and not lose any information, you know that file will work anywhere.
And it's not just that it works on any device, but you can really use these files on almost any program you want. If you're used to VS Code, you can keep opening them there, or most other IDEs. You can use programs like Notepad++ on Windows if you want a more advanced suite of tools to edit those files than the basic Notepad. Plus, all these tools that edit plain text are lightweight and very fast. In the time it takes to load Word, I can get a decent head start on my writing.
What's more, plain text can also go anywhere and not break things. When I have no internet but still need to get started on writing an article, I go to Notepad and put my words there. When I get a connection, I can just copy that content and paste it into the CMS, and I don't have to worry about formatting. Copying from Word or other text editors can cause a lot of weird issues with different online systems, but plain text always works.
Any single piece of software, be it Windows as a whole, Notepad, or VS Code could disappear, and I would still be able to open and edit these files wherever I want. That's the beauty of it.
We have syncing at home
I don't need a fancy editor for that
One of the many features you might get from more advanced text editors like Obsidian is the ability to keep those files synced across devices, but you don't need a fancy editor for that, either. You can store text files in a cloud storage service and make them accessible everywhere, though you'd still be dependent on having a client that can access that cloud service. On some platforms, like Linux, that can be harder.
Personally, I prefer using Syncthing, since it works on any device relatively easily, and it allows me to sync files without keeping them stored on any third-party server. I can either sync directly between my active devices, or use my NAS as a relay to keep files in sync across different devices. Syncthing keeps files in sync on the folder of my choice and lets it all feel local, so I never even think about it being a sync service. It's just working in the background.
Formatting options are just flourishes
Nice to have, but optional
I understand the appeal of having nice formatting options to make things more easily readable, but frankly, I rarely find it necessary. Any formatting I really need can easily be signaled with plain text, and you can come up with your own methods to do it. Usually, if I need to be able to read a text file relatively easily, just using line breaks around headers is really all I need to be able to skim it. I may need an extra second to see the content of a header, but it works perfectly fine.
The only times where I care to use more advanced text editing programs if I'm working on something to share with others. Again, I understanding wanting something easier to read, so I generally try to create something more visually appealing if someone other than myself needs to look at whatever I'm writing. Plus, these programs let me create things like tables or insert images, which can sometimes be helpful.
Even then, you could argue plain text is still a great fallback, especially when you consider Markdown files, too. The main difference between a plain text file and a Markdown file is that if you open that file in a Markdown viewer, it can render the text with different text sizes based on your syntax.
There's nothing stopping me from creating a plain text file, using Markdown syntax to signify headers or tables, and then saving a copy with the .md extension to load it up with the appropriate formatting. Conversely, I can rename a Markdown file and change it to the .txt extension to see the syntax in plain text form to edit on any device, and it's still perfectly usable.
Plain text is still king on my PCs
It may not be the prettiest, but plain text documents are still how I go about a lot of my work. If I need to write an article but can't access the internet, that's where I go. When I'm taking notes to bring up during a meeting, I take them with Notepad or an equivalent. Plain text files work everywhere, every time, and they may still be around after the heat death of the universe. I can't ask for much better than that.