This thread is useless because people root for the coin they hold ... objectively though you should look at coins that do something new or fix something in Bitcoin that the Bitcoin devs can't.
In this sense even Litecoin's future is very dubious, let alone "Franko" & such.
I don't know a lot but from what I can see, Peercoin & Primecoin both do something new. The coming eMunie seems to as well, but I'm still studying it.
I agree with this.
It doesn't make sense to select an alternative based on current adoption because bitcoin's advantage along this dimension is so overwhelming.
The point of investing in an altcoin is to jump in before other adopters. If you want high returns, you need to anticipate adoption, not just jump on the bandwagon.
If you invest simply because others have already invested, it defeats the whole point (i.e. you should just invest in bitcoin).
Consider instead 1) differentiation 2) track record of developer 3) economic usefulness of the differentiating property
1) Peercoin (and its clones) & Primecoin have significant unique properties (not just parameter tweaks or new hashing algorithms).
2) Sunny King develops and maintains both Peercoin & Primecoin (he is the only developer (so far) who has released coins with significant innovative properties.)
3) Peercoin (and its clones) do not require expenditures on mining equipment and electricity; ultimately this means lower txn fees which is a major economic benefit.
The only coin that satisfies all of the three criteria listed above is Peercoin.