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Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud

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Re: Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud

#71

Post by gpvos »

What I would like to have is a small Nextcloud installation (max. 200MB, preferably even smaller) that I can host on a ultra-cheap tiny server. I just need file sync, calendar and contacts. The total size of the synced files isn't much either.

Nextcloud used to be small enough for this, but they kept adding things, bundling word processors and other stuff I don't need, meanwhile making the contacts and calendar optional. I have had to move to a larger server only for this reason, to keep Nextcloud at a supported version.

Does Syncthing have contacts and calendar syncing? Any others? I like having a central server.

Re: Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud

#72

Post by spinningD20 »

jordemort wrote: post #65

I really want to like Nextcloud. I had it all set up perfectly earlier this year with their "AIO" setup. Then some upgrade came along and completely destroyed my install, couldn't get the containers to start after that, couldn't figure out how to debug it; seemed like the only way to get it back on its feet was to wipe and start over. I wiped; I haven't started over yet.

I had this happen to me as well, though I remember that it was either a docker or snap/flatpak/etc version of it. Got things working but lost a few months of data, likely something I foolishly did while trying to make things work. Stopped using it and went with Seafile for a while - grew frustrated with that and stopped syncing files between computers altogether.

Later on, when I set up an old dell xeon workstation as a home server (using proxmox), I used the turnkey image of nextcloud, and have (knock on wood) not had any issues at all.

Anyway - I wanted to ensure it was fully virtualized this next time if/when this happens again. I have it backing up the base vm once a week (I have the file storage separate/outside of the vm). So... hopefully this doesn't happen again to the degree that it did.

Re: Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud

#73

Post by miedpo »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #55

Comments here seem to suggest that Nextcloud isn't worth it. Later today I'm supposed to talk with some folks at IT looking for an in-house file-sharing/collaboration tool that Dropbox/GoogleDrive is (or was, because after GoogleDrive price hikes our institution ditched them). I was going to suggest Nextcloud as a possible option to investigate...

I'm using Nexcloud currently, but an alternative for you to check out for you might be Pydio.

It has a lot of the same features, and generally seemed a little more stable. However, it was a little more painful to configure, and has a few unique terminologies you'll have to get used to. Also it's UI does load faster than Nextcloud, but once loaded, it is a little less snappy.

For the user downloaded client, I found that it works, but is a little less convenient than Nextcloud (no Automatic pinning of the folder, no partial downloads to save space)

Re: Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud

#74

Post by blkhawk »

jordemort wrote: post #65

I really want to like Nextcloud. I had it all set up perfectly earlier this year with their "AIO" setup. Then some upgrade came along and completely destroyed my install, couldn't get the containers to start after that, couldn't figure out how to debug it; seemed like the only way to get it back on its feet was to wipe and start over. I wiped; I haven't started over yet.

I have been upgrading my then owncloud setup now nextcloud setup for the last 10 years or so almost without issue - most issues I had where back when it was still owncloud. I think I did a wipe back then once. Nowadays even if something goes wrong I know what i can do. For instance i upgraded PHP too soon once and had to manually patch it.

Anecdotal evidence tho. Results vary. I like nextcloud because worst case all a wipe would cost me is a re-upload of my local folders over a couple of hours.

Re: Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud

#76

Post by bityard »

I've been running Nextcloud for family collaboration purposes since before the fork from Owncloud. I've been pretty happy with it overall.

My biggest gripe with it is the increasing schizophrenia of the UX devs. One thing I _loved_ about Nextcloud was that they paid a lot of attention to making it easy to navigate and use. The newer UX "enhancements" seem to be all about maximizing (useless) whitespace and making every widget as spherical as possible. The calendar UI used to be a joy to use, now it's the most frustrating calendar I have ever seen.

On the plus side, if you're using the docker image, upgrades are a breeze. Just bump the tag on the image, redeploy, and you're done. (It did take a _lot_ of effort to migrating my existing data to the docker container, though.)

I also use Roundcube as my main email client. I've looked at bunches of them, but Roundcube is the closest thing to a web-based Thunderbird that I have seen. Unfortunately, this had a UI "update" too and now practically nothing can be customized the way I prefer. If someone forks Roundcube and brings back the old theme, I will switch to it tomorrow.

Re: Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud

#77

Post by RealStickman_ »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #55

Comments here seem to suggest that Nextcloud isn't worth it. Later today I'm supposed to talk with some folks at IT looking for an in-house file-sharing/collaboration tool that Dropbox/GoogleDrive is (or was, because after GoogleDrive price hikes our institution ditched them). I was going to suggest Nextcloud as a possible option to investigate...

I guess it's fine if you want a widely integrated solution that can do a lot of different things. I'm using it only for myself, so definitely not representative of using it in a company but maybe my experience helps.

The just working part, at least for me, are the calendar and contact plugins. Never had any issues with those. File sync with the desktop client works mostly fine on Linux where I use it most of the time. However, I've run into issues with it on Windows. Using the automatic bandwidth limit for example might cause Explorer to freeze. [1] Also forget about the automatic upload feature in the Android client, I switched to FolderSync for a reliable experience.

I've managed to get OnlyOffice working, Collabora Office previously broke for some reason. However latest upgrade also broke OnlyOffice. The solution for this is to put the secret and authorization headers into config.php in addition to the OnlyOffice plugin settings. [2] No idea why, but that is a thing.

My Nextcloud runs as a normal PHP application and I haven't had any issues with upgrading yet. Going from, I think, version 23 on Debian 11 to 27.1 now on a different machine running Debian 12 since I started using it.

Maybe I should find something more focused on file syncing, but the all-in-one approach of Nextcloud and its various plugins makes trying some new services very easy.

[1] https://github.com/nextcloud/desktop/issues/5031

[2] https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE/onlyoffice-nextcloud/issues/60...

Re: Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud

#78

Post by brnt »

jchw wrote: post #31
jmnicolas wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Dropbox is all you need you might be satisfied with Syncthing. I have used it for a week now, it works well and I have the warm fuzzy feeling that nobody is using my data to make a few bucks (I'm self hosting it on a home server).

Not only that, you don't even need to "host" Syncthing. Being P2P in nature, it can just run on whatever computers you want to sync to, directly. That's pretty cool. The only thing I'd really want for Syncthing is some kind of simple interface for my desktops (all running SwayWM.) There's a GTK app that I use on my Pinephone, but it's a little janky. I mainly just want to be able to know that I'll get notifications w…

I use an old phone (with Resilio) as such an always-on node.

Re: Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud

#79

Post by RealStickman_ »

deng wrote: post #15
preya2k wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure which "focus on hub/groupware" you're talking about. Some groupware features are still horribly buggy and understaffed (e.g. the whole mess of co-existing methods of sharing files/folders with groups – Share vs. Group Folder vs. Collectives/Circles – or the crazy amount of WebDav and CalDav bugs that have been existing for many years), while "AI" (or some other buzzwordy technology) gets all the focus. As mu…

Unfortunately, I can only second this. The absolute basic functionality, meaning file storage and access through a browser, works fine. However, as soon as it comes to integration with the various existing clients, things fall apart, and it's not even terribly complicated stuff. For instance, I used Nextcloud to automatically upload photos from my Android mobile, and this has been completely broken for over 2 months…

I can absolutely recommend FolderSync. It's not open source, but absolutely solid for automatic and scheduled uploads of various files.

Re: Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud

#80

Post by dchest »

gpvos wrote: post #71

What I would like to have is a small Nextcloud installation (max. 200MB, preferably even smaller) that I can host on a ultra-cheap tiny server. I just need file sync, calendar and contacts. The total size of the synced files isn't much either. Nextcloud used to be small enough for this, but they kept adding things, bundling word processors and other stuff I don't need, meanwhile making the contacts and calendar optio…

For calendars and contacts you can try Radicale if you don't need web access: https://radicale.org/v3.html
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