Alternative To

This site was intended to help you find an alternative to (1) expensive mainstream software, or (2) software piracy (theft, copyright infringement, hacking, etc.).
If you find this post in your feed, you'll notice the additions of new software have been absent for quite a while. I've been busy with other things and pretty much lost interest in the site.

Good news though!

AlternativeTo.net is better.
Alternative To is a "high-end" version of what this site was attempting to be. You'll find much more software options in a easier to navigate function.
It keeps software titles organized by operating system, and you search by type or find alternatives to a specific software title.

Go check it out and even submit new applications to the site.

ThreatFire - Malware Protection

ThreatFire is designed to find malware, spyware, etc. by "bad behavior". It looks for abnormal steps in software installation and various other places to discover malware instead of updating constantly with lists of new names to look for.
It also prevents installation and stops destructive tasks before harm is done.

SoftPerfect Personal Firewall

The SoftPerfect Personal Firewall is a free network firewall designed to protect your PC against attacks from the Internet or via a local area network. SoftPerfect Personal Firewall offers customizable security using user-defined rules for packet filtering.
To put it simply, like other firewalls, it blocks malicious intruders and software from attacking your computer or sending out data without your permission. Compare to Zone Alarm, Norton, or McAfee.

Jpeg Enhancer - Clean Up Old Jpegs

Jpeg Enhanser is an easy way to take the grain and rough edges out of your older jpegs. It also works well after resizing disrupts the smooth lines of your images. Sure you can do this with Photoshop or Gimp, but do you really know how? I prefer the easy way.

TeamViewer - Simple Desktop Sharing

TeamViewer is the simplest desktop sharing program yet! It easily allows you to take over someone's computer for assisting with tech issues or demonstrating software on your computer while they watch. It goes right through firewalls and routers without any complicated setup. Compare this to Go To My PC, Meet Me Now or PCNow.

SaferSpace - Keeps Kids Off Myspace

"SaferSpace is a very simple program that will keep your children from accessing the popular MySpace website. SaferSpace keeps a close eye on your computer and whenever a user tries to access the MySpace website SaferSpace will immediately deny access to the MySpace website."

Dia - Simple Diagrams

Dia is inspired by the commercial Windows program 'Visio', though more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use. It can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and many other diagrams.

Mindomo - Web-based mind mapping software

"Mindomo is a versatile Web-based mind mapping tool. Mindomo brings clarity to your ideas by taking advantage of the right side of your brain, which is specialized in activities that are visual, creative, and intuitive."

The Rasterbator - Makes Photos Into Posters

"Rasterbator creates huge, rasterized images from any picture. Upload an image, print the resulting multi-page pdf file and assemble the pages into extremely cool looking poster up to 20 meters in size."

iDump - Recover Songs From Your iPod

iDump will allow you transfer your songs off your iPod to a PC. If your computer dies or you lose your music files, this is the only way to recover the songs stored on your iPod. Many people have found out the hard way that if you lose your mp3 collection (except what is on the iPod) and you reinstall iTunes, you will lose everything from your iPod when you connect it.

POV-Ray - The Persistence of Vision Raytracer

POV-Ray - "The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics."

Open Workbench - Open Source Project Management and Project Scheduling for Windows

"Open Workbench is an open source desktop application that provides robust project scheduling and management functionality. Already the scheduling standard for more than 100,000 project managers worldwide, Open Workbench is a free and powerful alternative to Microsoft Project."

CamStudio - Free Screen Recording Software

CamStudio is "able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos." To put it simply, this tool is perfect for screencasts. Set it to record and it makes a video of everything on your screen, great if you want to demonstrate software or get help with a error.

BRL-CAD - Military Developed CAD

BRL-CAD is "a powerful Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) solid modeling system with over 20 years development and production use by the U.S. military. BRL-CAD includes an interactive geometry editor, parallel ray-tracing support for rendering and geometric analysis, path-tracing for realistic image synthesis, network distributed framebuffer support, image-processing and signal-processing tools." What they said.

ScrubIT - Block Adult Content

ScrubIT is a DNS server that regulates what comes to your computer. To put it simply, once you are set up with ScrubIT, no one can access pornography or malicious content from your home computer(s). This is NOT a browser replacement or utility that your kids will turn off or go around when you aren't watching. It truly gives you peace of mind that your kids wont have access to adult sites. ScrubIT is a service that disallows mature content at the server level before it can even be sent to your computer. The website explains how to easily set it up whether you have a router or direct connection. ScrubIT even automatically corrects most domain misspellings.
[via Lifehacker] porno, explicit content, children, child, safety, safe

DeepRipper - Complete Music CD Backup

DeepRipper is a utility that is capable of converting audio CD tracks to a first-grade MP3, OGG or WAV files. It features a number of presets for less experienced users and full set of manual settings for experts. Take a full control over CD ripping with DeepRipper- do it quickly, easily and in a very flexible way. Backing up digital music files from CDs becomes simple, quick, and painless.
blaze, soundforge, itunes, ipod, musicmatch, cd backup, rip, lame, audio copy.

DeepBurner - Powerful CD and DVD Burning

DeepBurner is an advanced and extremely powerful CD and DVD burning package. It even removes the hassle of making autoruns, creating and printing your own labels and booklets. Burn any data, copy any disc, make backups, create astonishing photo albums, make ISO images and Video DVDs with this very easy to handle professional software! Compare it to Nero and Roxio. Easy CD creator, burning rom, burn, CD Architect, free, pinnacle dvd maker plus, encore, nti.

Nvu - Complete Web Authoring System

Nvu is a web authoring program that rivals programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Nvu (which stands for "new view") makes managing a web site a snap. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML. Its WYSIWYG editor makes web creation as easy as typing a letter with your word processor. It integrates file management via FTP. Simply login to your web site and navigate through your files, editing web pages on the fly, directly from your site.