Superla by the late Karl-Heinz Lange is a fresh and versatile alternative to Futura.

I don't have much to add other than a link to a good older thread: http://typophile.com/node/18710
The best version will likely depend on your needs/plans for future use.

The geometric sans is an historic genre.
If you like retro, you might consider a post-modern take on it, Chalet.

LuzSans is a really great version of Futura H&FJ did for HP that is floating all over the net. It is supposedly free and licensed under the GPL (I say supposedly because neither HP or H&FJ seem to be distributing it, but they don’t seem to be sending takedown noticed, either).

Thanks all.
Atleast for the time being i will go with Futura ND version as it seems to be good and it can be bought individually and not as a package which fits my immediate need. I would like to use Bembo (I love bembo) as my body text font for official use. But does Futura and Bembo go well with each other? Any suggestions. Thanks once again.

But does Futura and Bembo go well with each other?

Not even remotely.

Re: Futura and Bembo

Thanks Sihep :) Will do that. Thanks all others to for their valuable advice.

I downloaded Luz Sans and it does have some interesting details.

Kerning is decent too.

Mike Diaz :-)

Speaking of Luz Sans: my question on Ubuntu's Launchpad (see link above) was never answered. If anyone from HF&J happens to read this, would you mind clarifying?

Sebastian, wrong place to ask. Try there:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel

I was hoping to avoid the mailing lists, but I suppose you convinced me.

Dankesehr :)

I been staring at the Neufville Futura installed on my computer (above) and this Luz Sans (below) that I learned about in this thread.

I think Luz Sans is better balanced in just about every way. (Although, the "@" symbol has been optimized for capital letters, which means plenty of baseline shifting with email addresses.

Perhaps H&FJ can comment on the process, design goals, peculiarities, etc.

Mike Diaz :-)

I think Luz Sans is better balanced in just about every way. (Although, the "@" symbol has been optimized for capital letters, which means plenty of baseline shifting with email addresses.

If it's indeed GPL'ed, you're completely free to play around with it! :)

So if I ask how I can come across this typeface, that is Luz Sans, for no charge, what will the answer be?
@towolf mentioned a site; do I need to subscribe to something to get this .otf?

I really like the way Luz Sans looks in contexts necessary for Futura, it looks totally superior.

If all someone wants to do is check if Futura works in this or that design before buying a licenced type, Casady & Greene's SansSerif might be all that's needed. The Fluent Laser Fonts are currently on the typOasis.

Matt, you should be able to find the files online. It's license is, well, disputed. I discussed this with a bunch of Ubuntu people here, and according to HF&J the files were never released under GPL conditions, but exclusively to HP (maybe HF&J is planning to sell them publicly later? Wouldn't be the first time.)

Paul asked Bdale Garbee at HP about the status of the font, but we haven't received an answer yet. At any rate, unless HP has full rights to the fonts and decides to release them, the files are in a very, very dark-gray zone, legally speaking.