Last week we made some big changes to our login system. First we added the option to use your Twitter account as method when logging in. We also made it possible to change which external service to use and you can even use multiple login methods for the same user account. This is really useful when one of the external services is down or is being discontinued for some reason. If you value your AlternativeTo account then we really recommend using at least two different login methods.
To use multiple services you just sign in with the method you use today, go to your profile and then choose to edit your profile from the link in the sidebar. At the top of the edit page you see what method you use today and right below that info you see a link to “Add / Change Your Login Method”. This link leads you to a page similar to the login page where you can just click on one of the other services and it will be connected to your account.
If you want to change your Twitter, Facebook or OpenID account then, on the same page, just click on the service you want to change, log in with your new account on that service and we will automatically connect this to your user account on AlternativeTo instead of the one your where using before.
Why can’t I just login with a username & password?
We want to make everything as simple as possible, both for our users and for ourselves. Even if you use a great password manager it can still be a mess to keep track of usernames and passwords for the hundreds of different websites you use. It’s also a great responsibility for us to keep your username and password safe. We think it’s a good thing to store your valuable data on as few places as possible, especially since most users use the same password on multiple services. We hope you agree with us and if you do not want to use any external service then it’s even possible to setup your own OpenID provider.