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Selfhosted @lemmy.world
Tiritibambix @lemmy.ml

I've tried ownCloud.

Hey there!

I just wanted to share a bit about my experience as a hobbyist and self-hosting enthusiast. While I may not be the most educated on the topic, I've been able to self-host my favorite services to avoid relying on big companies like Google and Amazon.

A few years ago, I started my self-hosting journey with Nextcloud, and it completely blew my mind. Finally, I didn't have to rely on Google Drive anymore!

However, I quickly realized that using a Raspberry Pi made things a bit sluggish. I tried upgrading to a more powerful machine. Still slow. I then tried with an i5-4460, but it was still slow and buggy. I even tried an i3-10100, and it was still a bit of a pain to use. It seems like many others feel the same frustration, so I know I'm not alone. I often wonder how some other people claim they have no issues with Nextcloud, but hey, good for them!

Because of the tinkering it seems to need, I feel like I don't have enough time and knowledge to make Nextcloud work as smoothly as I'd like, which defeats the purpose of self-hosting it.

That's why I've been exploring other options. I gave Seafile a shot, but couldn't figure out how to solve a "CSRF verification failed" error. Projectsend and Xbackbone are great, but they don't quite match what I'm looking for. I also tried Cloudreve, but I wasn't a fan of its sorting philosophy. I did find Picoshare, which I stuck with, but for a totally different purpose.

Then, I tried ownCloud for the first time. Wow, it was fast! Uploading an 8GB folder took just 3 minutes compared to the 25 minutes it took with Nextcloud. Plus, everything was lightning quick on the same machine. I really loved using it. Unfortunately, there's currently a vulnerability affecting it, which led me to uninstall it.

I also gave OCIS a try, and it felt even faster. The interface was smooth and fluid, it was truly impressive. However, with the recent news of it becoming part of Kiteworks, I'm a bit unsure about its future.

I can't help but wonder why so many people have been raving about Nextcloud all these years when ownCloud performs so well right out of the box. I'd love to hear about your experience and the services you use. Share your thoughts!

58 comments

  • Syncthing. Once you set it up, there is almost no going back. It doesn't pass through servers though so your backup machine also needs to be on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncthing

    • You actually forget it's even running. Example: Me. I forgot i had this installed.

      • Yup. I can’t live without it now. The only thing I had to change is to remember to open my work laptop before I leave for the day so that it syncs. About one a week I do a backup with my NAS at home

    • Of course, Syncthing is a fantastic tool, but it's important to note that it serves a different purpose compared to platforms like NC or OC. What I'm really in need of is a collaborative cloud system that allows me to easily work together with other people :)

  • I've been using Nextcloud for years and it has never performed well but I always put that down to my disks being slow.

    It has gotten quicker over time, but not hugely.

    I rarely use the web interface, I just use the mobile app to sync photos from my phone then everything on my network runs over NFS. It even that was a pain to get working with permissions with NC.

    Now I want to try OC. I think the reason I went with NC was because it was meant to be the new and better developed OC after a bunch of OC devs left to form NC.

    • If you try oc out, please, report back. I'm interested in reading your opinion.

  • and it was still a bit of a pain to use. It seems like many others feel the same frustration, so I know I’m not alone. I often wonder how some other people claim they have no issues with Nextcloud, but hey, good for them!

    That has been my experience, even on high end hardware. It just doesn't get better, NextCloud is a joke full of bugs and issues and it won't get anywhere unless the people running the project decide to actually do thing properly instead of going with the "next cool thing" at every opportunity.

    Here is a test I did with a AMD Ryzen 7 5700X + 32 GB of RAM: https://lemmy.world/comment/346174

    I spent weeks researching and trying to tweak things and at the end of the day NC always performs poorly. Most of the issues seem to be related to the poorly implemente WebUI but the desktop app also has issues with large folders. Also tried the docker version, the “all in one” similar results it simply doesn’t cut it.

    My experience with NC's Webmail: https://lemmy.world/comment/5490189

    I can’t help but wonder why so many people have been raving about Nextcloud all these years when ownCloud performs so well right out of the box. I’d love to hear about your experience and the services you use. Share your thoughts!

    I believe the people who say they don't have issues with it aren't just using it, after all you can't refute screenshots like the ones on the last link. This kinda looks a lot like the Linux Desktop Delusion, people say it can be everything to everyone and that things are just great while it fails at the most basic tasks a regular user might attempt. Since we're on the delusional land let me link to this about LibreOffice with pictures being considered "good enough for most paperwork with good MS-Office compatibility".

    • NC webmail is unusable. We have to pretend it doesn't exist. Even with a completely empty IMAP server it takes 30 seconds to load. I don't know how it can be slow like that, they cache every single message in the database. Roundcube is 1000x faster and has no cache at all. Can't they just peek the source code?

      I don't know how they even have it as a feature. Right now NC webmail it's not a beta, it's not alpha, , it's a proof of concept.

      Like nextcloud maps. In their blog they wrote a post over one year ago describing it as the next big thing after sliced bread. You install it and that's it, you see a map of the world with no feature. Every single thing described in that post is something that could potentially do if some developer does some integration. Why writing the post then? Wait three, four, five years and post it when it's ready.

      Look https://nextcloud.com/it/blog/plan-your-next-trip-with-nextcloud-maps-new-features/

      • NC webmail is unusable. We have to pretend it doesn’t exist. Even with a completely empty IMAP server it takes 30 seconds to load

        Did you ever try the single sign-on option that allows users to login to NextCloud using their IMAP credentials? After spending some time with it you'll find it to be yet another half broken feature: https://github.com/nextcloud/mail/issues/2698 (see my reply bellow).

        Roundcube is 1000x faster and has no cache at all. Can’t they just peek the source code?

        Roundcube Open-Source Webmail Software Merges With Nextcloud ... So, what should we expect now? To have RC as NextCloud’s default e-mail interface OR to get RC filled with mindless bugs and crappy features/decisions? Most likely the latter as NC's "management" is what it is.

        My second question about this merge is what is gonna happen with the Kolab guys (https://kolab.org / https://kolabnow.com) as they've been the ones actually "paying the bill" and investing serious development time into RoundCube and into useful plugins such as CardDAV and CalDAV that are actually better than anything NextCloud has done to this day. Their funding comes from their e-mail hosting service that is somehow in competition with NextCloud. Around 2006 Kolab also raised more than $100k USD to develop RoundCube so... that's the kind of investment they've been working under.

        Like nextcloud maps. In their blog they wrote a post over one year ago describing it as the next big thing after sliced bread.

        Another joke by NextCloud.

    • Wow, you did spend quite some time trying to make it properly work.

      As someone that looks to be educated on the subject, what did you end up using as a replacement to NC ?

      • @Tiritibambix@lemmy.ml read the last part of my comment here. :)

        In short, a mix of Dovecot, Postfix, Syncthing, FileBrowser, WebDAV, Baikal, RoundCube (with Kolab plugins) and deployments to machines via Ansible. I also plan to integrate ejabberd, converse.js or Jitsi as a chat/call solution as soon as I have the time.

  • Then, I tried ownCloud for the first time. Wow, it was fast! Uploading an 8GB folder took just 3 minutes compared to the 25 minutes it took with Nextcloud. Plus, everything was lightning quick on the same machine. I really loved using it. Unfortunately, there’s currently a vulnerability affecting it, which led me to uninstall it.

    I have no idea on how you access your self-hosted services but wireguard could help you out to access all your service from all your devices, with less security risks and only one point of failure (the wireguard port). Also this takes away most of the vulnerabilities you could be exposed to, because you access all your home services through a secure tunnel without directly exposing the api ports on your router !

    I personally run all my services with docker-compose + traefik + self signed CA certificats + adguardhome dns rewrite. And access all my services through https://service.home.lab on all my devices ! It took me some time to set everything up nicely but right now I'm pretty happy how everything works !

    About the current ownCloud vulnerability, they already took some measure and the new docker image has the phpinfo fix (uhhg). Also while I wouldn't take their word for granted:

    "The importance of ownCloud’s open source in the enterprise and public-sector markets is embraced by both organizations.”

    • I use a wireguard tunnel ;) Thank you for the updates on the vulnerability and from Kiteworks :)

58 comments