One thing the article doesn't highlight is the new song! https://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#80
I saw an article recently that claimed the economy was headed in this direction: for the people with means and money, there will continue to be human-crafted high-quality software and entertainment options, music and movies that are actually good. As for the poors, low cost and low quality cookie-cutter AI-generated slop will be all that is available to promotes engagement and cognitive decline.
Replacing high priced enterprise tools with vibecoded trash (in rust, ofc!) isn't the win people...
I used to have to copy / paste the entire description of an app before adding my comments to an app when creating a list. Glad to see I can just tag a note to the default description now!
One definite feature I think is lacking is a flag on software telling us if the software is in beta as opposed to production-ready. I've gone through alternatives, sometimes finding something that looks right only to be disappointed that it is either in alpha or beta by checking their repo or website and...
Pretty awful "distribution."
- When I first tried to install 3.0, it nearly bricked my Lenovo MiniPC. And I am no newb, I've been using linux distros regularly since 2012.
- It comes with a wide assortment of unnecessary tools out of the box, some of which are closed source and others are installed either using AUR or dodgy scripts.
- When I finally got it working, I noticed the interface is designed specifically for devs who prefer tiling window managers and keyboard-style navigation. ...
I love how most reviews are about the mastodon.social instance and not really about the actual software! LOL
Overall, this application has the first mover advantage and is pretty robust, but there are better options. First off all, it's incredibly cumbersome, full of crazy dependencies, is a resource hog, and is a pain to update, especially compared to solutions like Pleroma, which is just as good, includes the Mastodon UI, and is a simple Elixir app that is so lightweight that it can...
This is a pretty terrible app. I had to create numerous accounts on this app because after a while, the messages I send get lost, in that they never make it off the client to the server and it doesn't matter which device or even which app I am using, desktop or mobile. They also save your contacts in plain text until you delete your account, so there's that. Also, they decided to move their business to the US without telling any of their users and have recently compromised on their...
Great software, but only if you are using a mac. As noted by other users, the business prioritizes mac users over everyone else, going so far as to port over to ipad while the Windows version hasn't been updated since Version 1 (mac is currently on version 3).
Also, thanks to their last license management company going under, their software now uses a service that will not allow offline activation. That's a big deal breaker for me.
Gram
★★★★★
Gram is to Zed what VSCodium was meant to be for VSCode and what Notepad++ fixes for Notepad in that it removes the obnoxious parts of corporate/PE supported trash and turns it into a barebones useful tool for normal people, not bots!
I also like that Gram has native support for even obscure languages like Gleam and Odin without additional extensions or plugins. Third party VSCode extensions and neovim plugins increase the attack surface of these tools by exposing added supply chain...
xenmaster's linux distro master list
I have noticed in general that the recommendation list for alternatives on this site is broken when it comes to Linux Distros. Often times when looking for a server distro or gaming distros, I will get generic recommendations. This list seeks to provide true alternatives based on use-cases for the most popular Linux distributions out there!
Update: I've updated this list with new entries and categories for 2026 in a brand-new list:
xenmaster's free speech catalog
Either as havens for the deplatformed or as open source self-hosted solutions to those who don't want to put their community in the hands of the google and facebook behemoths, the following solutions are pretty much guaranteed to protect your right to say what you want, as long as you aren't saying/doing anything illegal. Content moderation is pretty lax in many of these apps and unfortunately, many attract refugees with unpopular opinions from the more conventional apps they replace, so proceed at your own risk!
NOTE: Unlike my other lists, I revisit this one to edit on a regular basis to add new better options and to remove those which are either shut down, go dark, or compromise their free-speech principles (in the case of third party services).
Last Update: 9-17-2021
xenmaster's gen-z apps
Although I am a few generations removed from kids these days, this is what I imagine they are into. In no particular order.
AI Slopfree Software Catalog
A more optimistic homage to the slopware catalog https://alternativeto.net/lists/44427/slopware/, this list is designed to showcase projects, both FOSS and proprietary, which reject contributions from Generative AI LLM slop machines. The most pessimistic thing about this list is how short it is and how so many commonly used software solutions and websites are not included.
I have to give it up to the following sites for providing references:
https://codeberg.org/brib/slopfree-software-index
https://github.com/melissawm/open-source-ai-contribution-policies
There are a lot more projects on this list which I didn't include because they aren't on AlternativeTo (yet). I'll be adding more entries to this site (and removing those who fold to the AI overlords) on a regular basis. I'm including references, which are all first-hand declarations from the development teams for each entry to ensure items aren't included based on hearsay or conjecture.
Updated 10-2-2026