AlternativeTo - Blog

It seems like the move went fine. If you were active on the site you probably got an error or two but nothing major.

And it seems like the time on the new server wasn’t the same as on the old one. But that will correct itself in an hour or two.

Please report anything you find via the feedback thingy to the left or send us a mail on hello@alternativeto.net.

We are moving to new servers. It will probably just take a couple of minutes. Hang on!

Btw. While you are waiting. Follow us on Twitter! Or digg us! Or make a cup of coffe and relax a bit.

Sometime during the coming days we will begin moving the site to a new server and you will most likely experience some downtime. We hope to make this as quick as possible and will do what we can to minimize any trouble. When the site is up and running on the new server it will be a better experience for us all so it will be worth the wait.

In the past couple of days there have been many minor bug fixes and improvements to AlternativeTo. Some of them are:

• The page where you enter your Facebook Connect or OpenID to sign in has been improved and is no longer a pop-up.
• A problem with the About/Feedback page has been fixed and it now works better on devices with small screens.
• We added a new share button from Addthis.com on every application page. You can use it to share an application and it’s alternatives with your friends on a lot of different online services.
• It is now possible to post comments on this blog.
• We improved the support for Internet Explorer 6. But if you still use it you should upgrade or find another great browser!

Remember to follow us on Twitter for all the important updates and a great way to talk to us.

AlternativeTo: @Alternativeto

Ola: @olaj

Markus: @raawmarkus

The last week was very hectic but really great for us since a lot of new people found their way to the site. They were introduced to AlternativeTo by the many blogs and other coverage that was posted lately. We would like to thank everyone of you who wrote about us on Twitter, blogs etc! Here are some examples from all over the world:

Lifehacker (blog post)

Download Squad (blog post)

gHacks (blog post)

MakeUseOf (blog post)

Hardware.no (norweigan blog post)

Applesphera (spanish blog post)

Software Player (taiwanese blog post)

Göteborgsposten Teknik & trender (swedish blog post)

TKJ (interview in swedish)

Olhar Digital (brazilian video review)

Ehrensenf (german video review)

MegaByteTV (british video review)

Wow, things ar starting to take off! Both when it comes to features (see below) and also when we look at the traffic statistics. People are writing blog posts, adding to Delicious, posting links on Twitter and doing some Digging. Thank you so much for your support and please keep spreading the word about AlternativeTo.

We just pushed a new version of the site and here are some of the updates:

• New tabs on the startpage where you can check out the applications with most likes, most views and recently added. The mysterious tab called OMG FAIL lists applications with no alternatives added. With your help we should be able to find alternatives to most of them so start suggesting, thanks!
• A list of top contributers have been added to the sidebar. By likes, suggestions, comments and feedback you help making the site better and the alternatives more relevant and this is our way to thanking you all.
• The sidebar also have a brand new box for sharing and following AlternativeTo on social networking sites. The services are Delicious, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Digg and subscribe via RSS. Let’s push things forward!
• A form has been added to the About-page for quick and easy submission of feedback.
• The latest posts from this blog are listed in the sidebar.
• Improvements have been made to search, application listing and many small bugs have been fixed.

There, we said it! We are soon out of beta and would like to let you know what features and fixes we’ve implemented since last time. Let’s get to it:

• Tabs has been added to the application page, see below for more info.
• It’s now possible to list all users who likes an application. Just click the tab on the application page.
• Comments! You can now leave a comment about an application. Maybe you want to let people know how much you like an app, ask a question about it or provide some kind of feedback about the application or its alternatives.
• No comments about the app you’re interested in on AlternativeTo? You can now click the Twitter tab and see what people are saying about the application on Twitter.
• You now have the possibility to filter alternatives by platform! As an example, this makes it possible to find “the best free mac alternatives to windows application Winzip”. Browsing applications cross-platform can be really useful for you switchers out there.
• As usual a couple of smaller tweaks and bugfixes has been made.

Thanks again for spreading the word about AlternativeTo letting us know what you think about the site. Keep the feedback coming. See you!

Since we went semi-public about a week ago we have made a lot of fixes and implemented some new features:

• You can now provide some more details about yourself when you register. These settings can of course be edited at any time later. New details include URL, your Twitter username and a short presentation.
• The new details is showing up on your new and improved profile. On your profile we also list what applications you like and what applications you have added to the system. If you change your mind regarding liking an application you now have the possiblity to “unlike” it.
• The sidebar has got some new lists like “applications in need of alternatives” and “user activity”.
• We show some more info about the user who suggested the application on the application page.
• Added a “share this” button under the “get involved” header on the application page.
• You’re now able to “like” the main application you’re browsing, not just it’s alternatives.
• We also fixed a lot of small bugs.

What is next on the to-do list?

• A system for comments

Help us out!

Please provide us with all the feedback you have. We want to build the ultimate place to find new applications and you guys probably have lots of ideas how to improve the site and it’s functions. Send an e-mail to hello@alternativeto.net with any feedback you have.

Thank you!

A big thanks to all you who have sent us feedback and suggested applications. Keep it up.

Hi there,

You either pulled off a lucky Google search or you are someone that we like! “We” are Ola and Markus from 27 Kilobyte & Ohsohightech and we have been working hard on a brand new website since a while back. Now it’s time to start letting some people try it out and hopefully provide us some much needed feedback.

Let us introduce AlternativeTo - A whole new approach to finding good software. Tell us what application you want to replace and we give you suggestions on great alternatives! Instead of listing thousands of more or less crappy applications in a category, we make each application into a category. Think of it like forever evolving blog posts about good alternatives to the applications that you’re not satisfied with. And the “blog posts” are generated by you through suggestions, comments and votes (or “likes” as we call them).

AlternativeTo is in early beta and we want feedback on everything from content, design, features and text. Send an e-mail to hello@alternativeto.net or use the feedback form on the site if you have anything to tell us.

If you want to stay updated about Alternativeto then subrscribe to this blog in your favorite rss reader or follow us on Twitter:

@AlternativeTo - @raawmarkus - @olaj

Thank you!

Ola & Markus

alternativeto.net