Gliffy vs. Visio
Gliffy is web service where you can create various types of diagrams. No muss, no fuss, no user manual and no paying Microsoft a gazillion dollars for each Visio license.
After reading a Gliffy review by Sarah Allen of Laszlo Systems, I clicked on the Gliffy link and proceeded to make a few diagrams. It’s drop dead (or should I say “drag and drop”) easy.
[tease] Sarah says:
… It’s awesome to be able to create a quick network diagram, and then publish it to get a easily accessible jpeg image. I’ve never loved Visio, and now I don’t need it anymore! Working on a team with that uses both Mac and Windows there just hasn’t been a good way to create a diagram that can be easily edited by anyone on the team before Gliffy.
They’ve got some other neat features that make it feel like a mature product that can easily fit into your workflow:
- collaborative tools
- version control
- SVG export
Gliffy was developed on the OpenLaszlo platform I’ve been telling Cloudy Thinking readers about for months.
Wake up people. OpenLaslzo is a powerful tool for building rich Internet applications. And remember, they’ve AJAX-ified it, so you are no longer obliged to use Flash as the target runtime (although there are good reasons to do so in some applications).
Am I going to have to start giving a weekly quiz to see if anybody is paying attention in here? Sheesh!
May 31st, 2006 at 3:24 pm
[...] Cloudy Thinking » Blog Archive » Gliffy vs. Visio Gliffy is an online collaborative diagram creation app built with OpenLaszlo. With OpenLaszlo, you can generate dynamic web apps that run either as Ajax or Flash. (tags: web ajax graphics flash) [...]
May 31st, 2006 at 6:17 pm
Why does everything have to be a [something] killer? Why do you care? Why not simply “it’s a free Visio”? Or “it’s free and does the 20% of Visio you’re most likely to need”?
The FOSS folk *really* need to drop their hatred and focus on the positive. Identify the gaps and fill them (including the usual suspect of “I’m too cheap to pay for software”)
Gliffy can be great, Gliffy can be web-based, Gliffy can do everything you need.
And Gliffy will do it all whether Visio lives or dies; whether nobody is paying for it or everybody else does.
May 31st, 2006 at 7:21 pm
Confession:
Gliffy being a Visio killer made a good headline.
Your point is well taken. Thanks.
May 31st, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Gliffy does not, nor will it ever, work offline. Just as crusty old folk used to bitch in vain about the transience of digital storage versus paper, plaintext versus signed & encrypted messages, and so on and so on and so forth, reliability goes out the f’ing window. Now you are dependent on the electric grid, the internet grid, the server admins, your bank balance and your browser (a horrible platform that grew out of, let’s remember, a DEMO for formatting dissertations).
GFL.
I feel like Henry Pertoski 25 years ago decrying the pocket calculator and all the engineering kids who lost their ‘feel’ for the strengths of materials. Or maybe an old mainframe hacker. Ach. After the glow fades you will see the utility of some ‘old’ ideas.
May 31st, 2006 at 11:19 pm
FYI, it is possible to make Gliffy work offline. You can currently work on a diagram offline, you just can’t save it offline… yet.