NextCloud/OwnCloud home server?

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wove
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Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:47 pm

NextCloud/OwnCloud home server?

Post by wove »

I was thinking of using my Raspberry Pi 3 to run a NextCloud/OwnCloud instance. Looking to sync my Contacts and Calendars and maybe some limited file sharing to. From my reading both seem very much the same. I would appreciate any comment as to why one is better than the other or why one is preferred over the other. Both can be ran on the Pi and both appear to have clients for most operating systems. The Pi 3B+ uses ~12watts at maximum, so it feels like it might be useful and not too much "ungreen".
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tlmiller
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Re: NextCloud/OwnCloud home server?

Post by tlmiller »

OwnCloud was around quite a long time before NextCloud, and if you're someone who wants it, offers full enterprise supported options. Beyond that, NextCloud literally is just a fork of OwnCloud, so the open source versions of both are more identical than different.
wove
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Re: NextCloud/OwnCloud home server?

Post by wove »

Thanks, that is sort of the way it seemed to me. Have you used either? Is there any discernable difference in the UI? From my reading it appears as a case of just pick one and use it.
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tlmiller
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Re: NextCloud/OwnCloud home server?

Post by tlmiller »

I have used NextCloud, but never OwnCloud, so I can say NextCloud worked fine for what I did (I didn't admin it, just used). But no actual apples to apples to be able to say with any confidence that one is superior.
wove
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Re: NextCloud/OwnCloud home server?

Post by wove »

When I got to checking on what works best for the Pi, most of what I read leaned heavily in favor of NextCloud. The matter became settled when I found that NextCloud make an image specifically for the Pi,

Very simple boot the image on the Pi with it setup to use desktop. Enable networking, setup a password, enable ssh, and read the IP address the Pi is using. Then you can unplug all the desktop components, set is somewhere convenient and access from the browser.

It is about as self configuring as one can get. I am just using it with the Pinebook until I see how well it runs over a few days and perhaps get a better handle on all it can do and what it is that I want it to do. If that goes well, I will probably install it from scratch again and enable across other devices.
wove
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Re: NextCloud/OwnCloud home server?

Post by wove »

Just to follow up and close this topic, I have had NextCloud running on the Raspberry Pi 3B+ for 10 days. It has been up and running since I first started it and it is running reliably. Since I am the only one using it, I can not say it is being stressed to hard, but any time I wish to access NextCloud it has been there on my network ready to go. I just love things you can turn on have them do their job and just forget they are there.

I have an m.2 SSD setup as a data drive. NextCloud allows for encrypted traffic to and from the server and allows for the data drive to be encrypted, which is very good. The NextCloud client runs on all my machines. My data is now synced locally across my machines. If all continues to go flawless, I should be able drop syncing of notes, calendars, address books, from online accounts and have a much easier time moving files from computer to computer/
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