Full-screen distraction free writing environments for Windows and Linux

I love the idea of WriteRoom for the Mac, but it's a Mac only application. If you're on Windows or on Linux you'll probably have to use these free alternatives (the non-free alternative being “buy a Mac”). All of them perform the same tasks and have similar interfaces.

Unlike WriteRoom, however, these applications do not have a scrollbar for spell check. They're all black windows with green text and that's pretty much it. Of course, you can change the colour of the background and the text

JDarkroom for Windows and Linux

A simple full-screen text editor

You can download it here.

Darkroom for Windows

From the website:

Dark Room is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, Dark Room is just about you and your text.

Basically, Dark Room is a clone of the original WriteRoom that is an OS X (tiger) exclusive application. It is a child of necessity, as there were no viable alternatives in Windows to produce the same behaviour. Sure, you can kind of emulate the behaviour by jumping through a bunch of hoops in Word/Writer, but it isn’t the same. Also, you can do something similar in emacs, but who wants to learn a bunch of obscure keyboard shortcuts?

The goal of the project is to capture the essence of WriteRoom, while keeping it simple and just as free.

You can download it here.

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