Nextcloud

Last updated
Nextcloud
Developer(s) Nextcloud GmbH., [1] Community
Stable release
Server28.0.4 [2]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 28 March 2024
Android3.28.2 [3]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 4 April 2024
iOS5.2.7 [4]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 15 April 2024
Desktop3.12.3 [5]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 28 March 2024
Repository
Written in PHP, JavaScript
Operating system Server: Linux
Clients: Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Android, iOS
Available in60 languages
Type Online storage, data synchronization, Collaboration, video conferencing, Groupware
Licence AGPL-3.0-only
Website nextcloud.com

Nextcloud is a suite of client-server software for creating and using file hosting services. Nextcloud provides functionality similar to Dropbox, Office 365 or Google Drive when used with integrated office suites Collabora Online or OnlyOffice. It can be hosted in the cloud or on-premises. It is scalable, from home office software based on the low cost Raspberry Pi, all the way through to full sized data centers that support millions of users. [6] [7] [8] Translations in 60 languages exist for web interface and client applications. [9]

Contents

Features

Nextcloud files are stored in conventional directory structures, accessible via WebDAV if necessary. A SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL database is required to provide additional functionality like permissions, shares, and comments. [10]

Nextcloud can synchronize with local clients running Windows (Windows 8.1 and above), [11] macOS (10.14 or later), Linux and FreeBSD. Nextcloud permits user and group administration locally or via different Backends like OpenID [12] [13] or LDAP. [14] Content can be shared inside the system by defining granular read/write permissions between users and groups. Nextcloud users can create public URLs when sharing files. [15] [ citation needed ]

Logging of file-related actions, as well as disallowing access based on file access rules is also available. [16]

Security options like Multi-factor authentication using TOTP, WebAuthn, Oauth2, [17] OpenID Connect, [12] [18] Brute-force protection [19] exist.

Nextcloud has planned new features such as monitoring capabilities, full-text search and Kerberos authentication, as well as audio/video conferencing, expanded federation and smaller user interface improvements. [20]

Integrations and devices

Multiple vendors and independent projects develop integrations and devices with Nextcloud focusing on different aspects like improved security or simplified administration.

NextcloudPi

Initially started to run Nextcloud on a RaspberryPi, NextcloudPi turned into a ready to use image for Virtual Machines, Raspberry Pi, Odroid HC1, Rock64 and other boards. [21]

Nextcloud Box (discontinued)

Nextcloud Box package Nextcloud Box package.jpg
Nextcloud Box package

In September 2016, Nextcloud, in cooperation with Western Digital Labs and Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu), released the Nextcloud Box. [22] The Nextcloud box was based on a Raspberry Pi, running Ubuntu Core with Snappy; it was intended to serve as a reference device for other vendors. [23] In June 2017, Western Digital shut down Western Digital Labs, [24] which caused the production of the box to end. [25]

History

In April 2016 Frank Karlitschek and most core contributors [26] left ownCloud Inc. [27] These included some of ownCloud's staff according to sources near to the ownCloud community. [28] Karlitschek and many of these contributors went on to fork the ownCloud, creating NextCloud. [28]

The fork was preceded by a blog post of Karlitschek announcing his departure and raising questions about the management of the ownCloud, its community, and priorities between growth, money, and sustainability. [27] There have been no official statements about the reason for the fork. However, Karlitschek mentioned the fork several times in a talk at the 2018 FOSDEM conference and in two appearances on the FLOSS Weekly podcast, [29] [30] emphasizing cultural mismatch between open source developers and business oriented people not used to the open source community. [31]

On June 2, within 12 hours of the announcement of the fork, the American entity "ownCloud Inc." announced that it is shutting down with immediate effect, stating that "[…] main lenders in the US have cancelled our credit. Following American law, we are forced to close the doors of ownCloud, Inc. with immediate effect and terminate the contracts of 8 employees.". ownCloud Inc. accused Karlitschek of poaching developers, while Nextcloud developers such as Arthur Schiwon stated that he "decided to quit because not everything in the ownCloud Inc. company world evolved as I imagined". [32] ownCloud GmbH continued operations, secured financing from new investors and took over the business of ownCloud Inc. [33]

In April 2018 Informationstechnikzentrum Bund (ITZBund) reported Nextcloud wins the tender for "Bundescloud" (Germany government cloud) project. [34] [35]

In August 2019 it was announced that the governments of France, Sweden and the Netherlands will use Nextcloud for file transfer. [36]

In January 2020 Nextcloud 18 "Nextcloud Hub" was released. The major change was direct integration of an Office suite (OnlyOffice) and Nextcloud claimed the goal to compete with Office 365 and Google Docs. [37] Partnership with Ionos was revealed - its hosting location in Germany and compliance with GDPR should support the goal of data sovereignty. [38]

In spring 2020 remote work and web conferencing usage raised due to COVID-19 pandemic and Nextcloud released version 19 with chat and videoconferencing Talk app integrated into the application core. Talk with an optional "high performance back-end" [39] allows self-hosting of web conferences with more than 10 participants. Collabora Online was introduced as another integrated office suite.

In August 2021 Nextcloud was chosen as collaboration platform for European cloud software GAIA-X. [40] [41] [42] [43]

In Sep 2021 Nextcloud is mentioned as "success case" and "most widely deployed Open Source content collaboration platform" in an "Open Source Study" [44] of the European Commission.

25 April to 10 May 2022 "Open Source Programme Office" at the European Commission organizes NextGov Hackathon and awards up to 5000 EUR for improvements to Nextcloud apps and security. [45] [46] [47]

See also

Related Research Articles

In computing, cross-platform software is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software requires a separate build for each platform, but some can be directly run on any platform without special preparation, being written in an interpreted language or compiled to portable bytecode for which the interpreters or run-time packages are common or standard components of all supported platforms.

A collaborative real-time editor is a type of collaborative software or web application which enables real-time collaborative editing, simultaneous editing, or live editing of the same digital document, computer file or cloud-stored data – such as an online spreadsheet, word processing document, database or presentation – at the same time by different users on different computers or mobile devices, with automatic and nearly instantaneous merging of their edits.

An online office suite, online productivity suite or cloud office suite is an office suite offered in the form of a web application, accessed online using a web browser. This allows people to work together worldwide and at any time, thereby leading to web-based collaboration and virtual teamwork. Some online office suites can be installed either on-premise or online and some are offered only as online as a software as a service. Some versions can be free of charge, some have a subscription fee. Some online office suites can run as progressive web applications which no longer require an online connection to function. Online office suites exist as both open-source and proprietary software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collabora</span> Global private company

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">ChromiumOS</span> Free open-source operating system designed by Google

ChromiumOS is a free and open-source operating system designed for running web applications and browsing the World Wide Web. It is the open-source version of ChromeOS, a Linux-based operating system made by Google.

This is a list of file synchronization software for which there are Wikipedia articles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LibreOffice</span> Free and open-source office software suite

LibreOffice is a free and open-source office productivity software suite, a project of The Document Foundation (TDF). It was forked in 2010 from OpenOffice.org, an open-sourced version of the earlier StarOffice. It consists of programs for word processing; creating and editing spreadsheets, slideshows, diagrams, and drawings; working with databases; and composing mathematical formulae. It is available in 115 languages. TDF does not provide support for LibreOffice, but enterprise-focused editions are available from companies in the ecosystem.

OnlyOffice, stylized as ONLYOFFICE, is a free software office suite and ecosystem of collaborative applications. It consists of online editors for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and PDFs, and the room-based collaborative platform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Karlitschek</span>

Frank Karlitschek is a German open source software developer living in Stuttgart, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raspberry Pi</span> Series of low-cost single-board computers used for educational purposes and embedded systems

Raspberry Pi is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. Since 2013, Raspberry Pi devices have been developed and supported by a subsidiary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, now named Raspberry Pi Ltd. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned toward the promotion of teaching basic computer science in schools. The original model became more popular than anticipated, selling outside its target market for diverse uses such as robotics, home and industrial automation, and by computer and electronic hobbyists, because of its low cost, modularity, open design, and its adoption of the HDMI and USB standards.

ownCloud Free software for cloud computing

ownCloud is a free and open-source software project for content collaboration and sharing and syncing of files in distributed and federated enterprise scenarios. It allows companies and remote end-users to organize their documents on servers, computers, and mobile devices and work with them collaboratively while keeping a centrally organized and synchronized state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raspberry Pi OS</span> Debian-based operating system for Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi OS is a Unix-like operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution for the Raspberry Pi family of compact single-board computers. First developed independently in 2012, it has been produced as the primary operating system for these boards since 2013, distributed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Docker is a set of platform as a service (PaaS) products that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers. The service has both free and premium tiers. The software that hosts the containers is called Docker Engine. It was first released in 2013 and is developed by Docker, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan-Christoph Borchardt</span>

Jan-Christoph Borchardt is a German open source interaction designer. He is primarily known for his work on Open Source Design, Terms of Service; Didn't Read, ownCloud, and now Nextcloud.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet-in-a-Box</span> Electronic device that allows multiple people to access the content on it via wireless access

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pi-hole</span> Network level ad- and tracker-blocking app

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collabora Online</span> Online office suite based on LibreOffice

Collabora Online is an open source online office suite built on LibreOffice Technology, enabling web-based collaborative real-time editing of word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and vector graphics. Optional apps are available for desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and Chromebooks.

References

  1. ↑ "Official Company Website".
  2. ↑ "Release 28.0.4". 28 March 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  3. ↑ "Release 3.28.2". 4 April 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  4. ↑ "Release 5.2.7". 15 April 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  5. ↑ "Release 3.12.3". 28 March 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  6. ↑ "System requirements — Nextcloud latest Administration Manual latest documentation". docs.nextcloud.com. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
  7. ↑ Nestor, Marius (2021-03-25). "Canonical, Collabora, and Nextcloud Deliver Work From Home Solution to Raspberry Pi Users". 9to5Linux. Retrieved 2021-04-15. ...fully pre-configured and automatically updated in time so you won't have to do any manual maintenance on it
  8. ↑ Nextcloud Global Scale explained , retrieved 2022-12-03
  9. ↑ "The Nextcloud translation project on Transifex". explore.transifex.com. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  10. ↑ "Database configuration — Nextcloud latest Administration Manual latest documentation". docs.nextcloud.com. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  11. ↑ "Desktop Client System Requirements".
  12. 1 2 Schießle, Björn. "Nextcloud and OpenID-Connect". www.schiessle.org. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
  13. ↑ "Social Login - Apps - App Store - Nextcloud". apps.nextcloud.com. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
  14. ↑ "User authentication with LDAP — Nextcloud latest Administration Manual latest documentation". docs.nextcloud.com. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
  15. ↑ "File Sharing — Nextcloud latest User Manual latest documentation". docs.nextcloud.com. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  16. ↑ "File Access Control – A firewall for your private files in Nextcloud". 25 August 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  17. ↑ "OAuth2 — Nextcloud latest Administration Manual latest documentation". docs.nextcloud.com. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
  18. ↑ user_oidc, Nextcloud, 2022-11-30, retrieved 2022-12-03
  19. ↑ "Brute force protection — Nextcloud latest Administration Manual latest documentation". docs.nextcloud.com. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
  20. ↑ Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (14 December 2016). "Nextcloud adds security and scalability to its private cloud offering". ZDNet. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
  21. ↑ Jurzik, Heike. "Own your cloud with NextcloudPi on the Raspberry Pi | Opensource.com". opensource.com. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  22. ↑ "Nextcloud Box – a private cloud and IoT solution for home users – from Nextcloud, Canonical and WDLabs Box". Nextcloud. 16 September 2016. Archived from the original on 24 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  23. ↑ Swapnil Bhartiya (16 September 2016). "Everything you need to know about Nextcloud Box". CIO.com. Archived from the original on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  24. ↑ Kevin Parrish (22 June 2017). "Source confirms Western Digital is closing WDLabs and canceling projects". Digital Trends. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  25. ↑ "Nextcloud box updates: Raspberry Pi 3, Nextcloud 12 and looking for a new provider". Nextcloud. 4 August 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  26. ↑ Github (1 June 2016). "Contribution overview to Nextcloud Server" . Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  27. 1 2 Frank Karlitschek (27 April 2016). "big changes: I am leaving ownCloud, Inc. today". blog. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  28. 1 2 Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (2 June 2016). "OwnCloud founder forks popular open-source cloud". ZDNET . Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  29. ↑ "TWiT - FLOSS Weekly 755 - Nextcloud".
  30. ↑ "TWiT - FLOSS Weekly Episode 513 - Nextcloud Update".
  31. ↑ Frank Karlitschek (4 February 2018). "Why I forked my own project and my own company".
  32. ↑ Swapnil Bhartiya (6 June 2016). "What we can learn from ownCloud's collapse". CIO.com. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  33. ↑ "ownCloud Secures Financing and Expands its Management Team - ownCloud". 14 July 2016.
  34. ↑ online, heise (17 April 2018). "Bundescloud: Open-Source mit Nextcloud statt Dropbox oder Google Drive". iX Magazin (in German). Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  35. ↑ Beuth, Patrick (2018-04-17). "Open-Source-Software: Nextcloud baut die Bundescloud". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN   2195-1349 . Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  36. ↑ "Cloud-Dienste: EU-Staaten setzen auf deutsches Start-up Nextcloud". www.handelsblatt.com (in German). Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  37. ↑ Poortvliet, Jos (2020-01-17). "The new standard in on-premises team collaboration: Nextcloud Hub". Nextcloud. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  38. ↑ Poortvliet, Jos (2020-01-17). "IONOS and Nextcloud together for more data sovereignty". Nextcloud. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  39. ↑ Poortvliet, Jos (2020-05-19). "Talk 9 brings grid view, file editing, open sources Talk back-end". Nextcloud. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  40. ↑ "Gaia-X setzt auf Nextcloud". GNU/Linux.ch (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  41. ↑ Puselja, Marija (2021-08-26). "Nextcloud beat US hyperscalers as collaboration platform for EU digital sovereignty project Gaia-X". Nextcloud. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  42. ↑ S, Jan (2022-07-13). "Gaia-X: Europas Kampf um digitale Souveränität". OPTIMAL SYSTEMS (in German). Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  43. ↑ "Gaia-X beweist Unabhängigkeit von großen US-Tech-Anbietern und entscheidet sich für EU-basierte Kollaborationsplattform". OSBA – Open Source Business Alliance (in German). 2021-08-26. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  44. ↑ "Study about the impact of open source software and hardware on technological independence, competitiveness and innovation in the EU economy | Shaping Europe's digital future". digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu. 6 September 2021. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  45. ↑ "The Commission invites ethical hackers to the NextGov Hackathon with Nextcloud from 25 April to 10 May 2022!". commission.europa.eu. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  46. ↑ "Nextgov Hackathon". Nextgov. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  47. ↑ HILLENIUS, Gijs (2022-06-13). "Successful NextGov hackathon | Joinup". joinup.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
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