I hope it’s doesn’t offend anyone since I’m loving Glide and find it the most exciting space on the web right now & this community is awesome. In short, I wish we could ditch Google Sheets.
I work at a company that embraces MS and has set up firewalls against Google. But I have a couple of Apps that have been showcased to hundreds of people as a great example of innovation rocking the status quo. This poses a couple of issues. Firstly I can’t easily work on the Apps without switching to another personal device. This becomes tedious and blocks a push for more colleagues to officially try Glide. Secondly and more importantly there is that wonderful reoccurring discussion about whether or not Glide is IT approved…
But beyond that I just don’t see the point in tethering my Apps to a sheet. Once my sheet is created and I start working on an App I rarely go back to the sheet. Perhaps only to set up a list of fixed choice options or to create new blank tabs. I never use scripts. The whole basis of Glide is for novices to create Apps with no coding required and IMHO scripting = coding. I’m a touch concerned about the rise of the new actions feature since it looks a little bit like coding via the back door… although of course I see the immense benefits and have started using them myself (yes I’m a hypocrite).
Google sheets comes with all that extra complexity related to ownership, access and confidentiality. And of course those of us that have grown up with Excel find the switch a significant learning curve, at least initially. We spend the first few Apps yearning for MS to enable Glide compatibility.
I appreciate this would be a seismic shift but I would love for Glide to be standalone. Released from the Google ball and chain. Looks like we are heading in that direction with so many great new features that do not reside within the Sheet… I’m pushing for a complete divorce!
I’m sure glide want to move away from the reliance on google sheets - it causes a dependency on a 3rd party data source, creates a bottle neck and sometimes data refresh delays and of course costs money so the future I’m sure will be a focus on glide tables.
“Glide is taking a giant leap forward, with its own high-performance tables independent of Google Sheets”
But some of us do. Personally, I loathe Excel to the point where I refuse to have anything to do with it. When I see work colleagues playing email ping pong with Excel sheets and wasting time trying to figure out who has the “latest” version, I just want to scream and tear my hair out. I LOVE the fact that Glide integrates seamlessly with my Google Sheets. I’ve understood for a long time the power of Google Sheets, and now Glide has taken that to a whole new level.
Whilst I’m all for the idea of Glide supporting additional data sources, I very much hope they never ditch Google Sheets. If they did, then I’d probably seriously consider ditching Glide.
I touch Excel just hours ago for the first time in years today, while helping a colleague setting up a sheet containing a lot of checkboxes. It does surprise me how difficult it is to insert checkboxes in Excel, which I can do in seconds in Sheets. I even have to get the help of an additional macro to be able to do it the right way
Your point about collaboration is the exact thing why my previous company uses Google Sheets instead of Excel. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to pass a schedule Excel file around for 20 people to check while they can do the same thing at the same time in a Sheet.
That’s not to say Excel doesn’t have its great uses, I have discussed this before on this forum, but same as you, I very much hope we never completely ditch Google Sheets.
I have used a Chromebook since the day they were released in the UK. From a security, collaboration, ease of use, cost, the list goes on the Google Workspace is waaaay better from a business persepctive. This is ever more relevant with the working from home revolution that started earlier than expected this year. I spent the last 10 years moving companies and individuals over to Google, and not one of them has gone back. Best part is you can still tap into the MS cloud products for the few times you need them.
Any company that goes down the route your has, usually has a tech department head that is so entrenched they would be unable/unwilling to make the transition themselves at the detriment to the whole company.
However, your question was not about that, and as @Rosewebstudio has said you should get your wish later this year when the new version of Glide drops.
Congratulations for developing apps that are showing such a benefit to your company, to the point where it makes sense that others get on board. It is just a shame that your IT department is so short sighted that they are making it so hard for you.
/edit If I were your boss, I would be asking for a small firewall exemption for you.
Independence and exclusion are very similar, so I think you should be careful about allegations related to these things.
It’s great for glide to gain independence, but it doesn’t necessarily have to exclude G spreadsheets from glide.
Both those who utilize G spreadsheets and those who utilize Glide tables should be respected.
Of course, having more choices would be a great event for all gliders.
You make good points. But they mainly relate to collaboration benefits. The gaping hole that is Google Docs is the main reason big companies that use MS are going this route.
For what it’s worth, I think MS Teams (video conferencing) is way better than anything offered by Google and is seamless with the rest of MS products. And don’t get me started on Google Gmail… it’s abysmal vs. MS Outlook.
Aha, but the joy of Gmail is that it you can dump it into Outlook if that is what you prefer.
I am sure your IT dept has a very good reason for going solely MS, however you have a use case that shows their banning of Google is a detriment to the company, and that is a shame. I have always believed that IT departments should do everything to support the employees.
If I had been a programmer I could have done something about my idea of a web based version of MS Office/Windows back in the late 90’s and probably make a crap ton of cash in the process as it turns out.
My company looked into using Google for email and other services, but I think google would not guarantee that data would stay on U.S. servers unless we were a government agency. What we do involves a federal program, so we have specific requirements for the data we store. That includes any email that may contain PII.
However, google isn’t blocked from use within the network. Just can’t use it to store PII.
so the future I’m sure will be a focus on glide tables.
