Hi All,
I am currently using Visio to draw the layout of our server systems for future developers to grok. We program on Open Source tools like ruby and Ubuntu, and using Visio is rubbing me the wrong way. Are there any good open source alternatives for making pretty charts to explain hwow are servers are laid out?
The FOSS equivalent of Visio is Dia. It works nicely enough on Linux, so it should be fine for you, but I have found it truculent on Windows. Especially compared to Visio, which I think is a pretty good tool.
Try yEd Graph Editor to draw or automatically layout your server system. This diagramming tool is NOT open source, but at least freeware. Also, it is available for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows.
Try graphviz, which has a collection of tools for doing automatic layout of graphs and diagrams. It can be extremely quick, because you don't have to worry about placing nodes yourself.
You can use ms visio templates for this purpose. Visio 2010 offers wide range of templates suitable for different business requirements like IT architecture, network planning, business analysis, project management etc. You can download visio templates and free trial or buy visio 2010 online at visiotoolbox.