

Ask HN: alternatives to EtherPad? - jeff18

EtherPad was probably the most useful web app I have ever used.  The main use case of EtherPad for me was that I embedded it into my startup's blog, so that we could seamlessly collaborate on blog posts together and it would auto-save, etc.<p>Now that EtherPad has been killed, what are some alternatives?  Is there any other embeddable, collaborative text editor out there?<p>It looks like old EtherPads are still active for the next couple months, so until March, I will probably be abusing the crap out of a poor, used EtherPad.  It would be great to migrate onto a more permanent solution though.
======
Alex3917
SubEthaEdit: <http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/>

This is what EtherPad was based on. The only problem is that it only works on
OS X. I remember using it to take notes with a bunch of other people at the
first couple Startup School events. I haven't really ever used it since, but I
can say that it held up extremely well even with a dozen people typing as fast
as they could all at once.

~~~
jeff18
SubEthaEdit is awesome, and I bought a copy for ~$45 back in the day. However,
because it is expensive and a Mac OS X only desktop application, I have only
had opportunity to use it maybe once or twice. :(

~~~
mahmud
$45 is not expensive for anyone in a developed country, specially as a
business expense. That's how much you would pay for a decent dinner for one
and 2 drinks by the glass.

~~~
jeff18
Given that most text editors are free, $45 is relatively expensive. Especially
when, until this afternoon, an arguably superior product was available at no
cost in your web browser.

------
johnnyg
My preferred alternative to Etherpad, is etherpad.

Etherpad is more popular than email in my office. I etherpad stuff, tag it
with firefox bookmark tags and share it around. When this was announced, there
was a literal, biblical gnashing of teeth.

Etherpad guys, I'm happy you're exiting with style but I will miss you badly.
And if I could pay you instead of missing you, that'd be peachy.

------
spolsky
<http://squadedit.com> is a pretty similar service. The free version has too
many flashing ads for my taste... hopefully they'll fix that!

~~~
jeff18
This is pretty epic -- the only problems are that it doesn't have an API to
retrieve text from it or create a new pad. Also, it is not suitable for
embedding. However, as a standalone editor this is the best alternative I've
seen.

UPDATE: I take it all back. This product is junk. Only one person can edit the
entire document at once. If someone is typing, it literally locks the entire
screen. This is worse than Google Docs.

~~~
futurephonic
I wouldn't want multiple collaborators editing my code all at once - I
wouldn't know what they are doing. If I invite someone to collaborate I need
to know what they changed before I redeploy the code.

~~~
rufo
EtherPad had colored background for each collaborator, as well as a timeline
slider and saved revisions so you could see who did what at each point.

------
aditya
If you're looking for collaborative code editors, Mozilla's bespin is (going
to be) epic: <https://bespin.mozilla.com/>

~~~
jeff18
This looks like the most promising successor. Unfortunately it does not look
like you can embed a collaborative pad or share it via a link. You need to
register an account, go through Mozilla's website, and actually use the
command line to join up. Why a website has a command line is a little beyond
me!

~~~
dangoor
Bespin definitely does not have the same sort of "just start editing a shared
document" user interface that etherpad does. That isn't really our primary
goal.

As for the command line: I really wish TextMate had a command line. I truly
think the command line is going to be one of Bespin's fantastic features
(though I'll agree with anyone that it is not a replacement for other nice
bits of UI).

(ObDisclaimer: I'm on the Bespin team.)

~~~
jeff18
"I truly think the command line is going to be one of Bespin's fantastic
features"

No offense, but this is why EtherPad just got acquired for 8 figures and
BeSpin is on track for obscurity.

~~~
grayrest
I'll point out that I doubt that amount EtherPad's purchase matters to a
MOZILLA editor team and that the project being from Mozilla provides at least
some guard against obscurity...

------
vsiva68
Sorry for this OT question, but does anyone know of a replacement for Omnisio
(<http://www.omnisio.com/>)? They had great integration of slides and video
and how you could browse to a particular slide.

Another Google acquisition that hasn't seen the light yet.

------
Spreadsheet
<http://gobby.0x539.de/trac/> Gobby.

~~~
jeff18
Looks kind of neat, but it's a desktop app. :(

------
blasdel
The best alternative to hosted Etherpad is "EtherPad Private Network Edition":
<http://etherpad.com/ep/blog/posts/pne-pricing-store>

Hopefully one of their former customers will leak it to the world.

------
gfodor
I wouldn't be surprised if re-building etherpad would be a weekend project for
a talented hacker, now that Wave is open source. The Wave protocol would allow
you to replicate EtherPad pretty easily, you'd just need to build the
appropriate UI on top.

~~~
jeff18
I'd pay $350 for the privilege of using it.

~~~
gfodor
Well, it is Friday... :)

------
bprater
Looks like a great opportunity for someone here!

~~~
skywalker
..until a big company acquires this new startup and kills their product again.

This is one more problem with the cloud computing era.

In the 90's, you could continue to use a product even after it was
discontinued. I remember reading that Steve Wozniack is still an Eudora mail
user. The last time I heard about Eudora was maybe 15 years ago. You can't say
the same about the last startup product.

~~~
notauser
If you cut me a large enough check I'll install my cloud app in your data
center, or sell you an off line version.

/notajoke

------
byrneseyeview
<http://www.yourworldoftext.com/>

Try, e.g.,

<http://www.yourworldoftext.com/byebyeetherpad>

~~~
jeff18
This is sort of a neat tech-demo, but it is unusable for serious editing for
obvious reasons.

~~~
mamasha
<http://i47.tinypic.com/ncjwup.jpg> (Just Letters)

------
norova
I have not had a chance to play around with it much and I'm not sure about
embedding (it's late, I must be off to bed!), but take a look at Amy Editor:
<http://www.amyeditor.com/>

Edit: Here is a screencast of it in action:
<http://www.amyeditor.com/screencasts/collaboration1.mov>

------
thesethings
I sincerely dig the word processor in Google Docs. It's quite good at handling
multiple concurrent editors, and you can post to other platforms like
WordPress from there.

The recently added Folders feature is killer, and my Google Docs "list view"
has started to become like an Inbox for me in the beginning of my day, as it
neatly displays newly edited, and newly added docs.

~~~
jeff18
Google Docs was awesome at the time, however, it is not really a real-time
collaborative text editor. You have to coordinate your edits so that you are
not working on the same thing, otherwise you create conflicts which are a pain
in the ass.

Once you use a real-time collaborative editor like EtherPad, you can never go
back to something like Docs, it's too primitive.

~~~
thesethings
I've never had to coordinate when I'm in the same doc as somebody at the exact
same time. But I don't dispute your account. It's actually a quite interesting
observation of how differently we all work.

In any case, I'll be following this thread. Tools aside, i think the topic is
one of the most transformative things going on.

------
bnoland
<http://collabedit.com>

------
DanBlake
While its not text based, check out <http://flockdraw.com> which is a
multiplayer paint I made with @lunixbochs

------
myprasanna
I am an early user of etherpad & loved it. I'm hosting and maintaining it
here: www.ietherpad.com

Cheers.

------
chris123
I guess EtherPad-like features are coming to Google Docs. Now that will be
sweet!

------
RedKnight
beWeeVee Notepad is a techdemo but it works. It does more or less the same as
Etherpad. It also have an SDK to develop applications on top of the
Operational Transformation Technology.

The Url is: www.beweevee.com

~~~
jeff18
This one is so close it hurts!

It is almost a perfect clone of EtherPad, but it's written in Silverlight.
Therefore, it's painfully slow, takes forever to load, and doesn't act like a
standard Mac OS X text editor (ctrl-t to twiddle characters, for example, or
ctrl-d for fwd delete.)

I am so desperate, I may have to bite the bullet and use this in the meantime
though.

------
swombat
<http://wave.google.com>

~~~
jeff18
Wave is slightly similar in the technology depeartment but fundamentally
different from EtherPad. :(

~~~
swombat
Wave offers a text editor that's embeddable and allows multiple concurrent
edits (which is what the OP requested). Having used both Etherpad and Wave, I
don't really see how they're that different. Wave has more features, that's
all. If you don't want to use the other features of Wave, well, just don't use
them.

~~~
jeff18
Well, I am the op, so let me elaborate.

By default, Wave creates new "boxes" for everything, or lets you reply to
other boxes. These boxes cannot be rearranged, only deleted, or have the
contents changed.

I don't give a crap about these boxes, I just want to edit a single document
like EtherPad. To achieve this in Wave, have to arbitrarily agree on which box
you want to make the "main" box. You then need to click the little tab on this
box and choose "edit box" every single time you want to make a change to it.

You also can't track who has made what change in the same box. Also, your
cursor turns into a long string (your name) that shifts everything around in
an annoying manner.

It is sort of a cross between EtherPad, a chat client, and a wiki. I just want
a text editor.

For reference: here is what an embedded Wave looks like:
<http://smarterware.org/my-favorite-google-wave-bots>

~~~
durin42
Thank you, you just described what's bugged me about wave for a long time, I
never really could put it into words _why_ I liked EtherPad more, I just knew
that I did.

