Questions about OwnCloud
1For the last few months, I have been thinking of setting OwnCloud up, but I'm not sure if the hassle is worth it.
As it stands, my Raspberry Pi is sitting comfortably on my desk, with the only way to access the files on it being though the local network. While that has obvious security benefits (in that, the chances of it being accessed by anyone other than me are nonexistent), the only downside is that I need to be connected to my WiFi in order to access it.
The only trouble this has caused me, is that while transferring files to it through my phone (Yay Solid Explorer), I have had to pause the file transfers occasionally.
Hence my considering setting up OwnCloud. Besides the files which I am constantly placing on my Pi to get back to later, a bunch of other apps which I use have OwnCloud as a backup source.
I think what's stopping me from seriously considering moving to OwnCloud though, is that unless someone develops an OS which can connect fully to OwnCloud, it will never fully replace Google Drive.
So my questions are as follows:
Firstly, do any meh-mbers looking at this thread have any experience with OwnCloud?
Secondly, if you do, is it worth it for me to set it up?
Thirdly, if I don't want to enable port forwarding, would there be any point in setting OwnCloud up? If I don't, then it would pretty much just be a localized cloud of sorts, which is basically what I have it as right now.
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I'm confused by the suggestion that "unless someone develops an OS which can connect fully to OwnCloud, it will never fully replace Google Drive", since the only OS that comes with support for Google Drive is Chrome OS (not even all Android devices include the app).
Chrome OS has add-ons for other services. I hear OwnCloud uses WebDAV to share files, so [this WebDAV add-on] should work on Chrome OS. (Other OSes support WebDAV as well).
I think self-hosted stuff could be useful even if you can't get to it remotely. if you e.g. have it set up to sync when you're at home. But it's way more useful if you can access it from anywhere if you're trying to wean yourself off of services hosted by big companies.
By the way, I recommend checking out [Sandstorm] as another option. Instead of limiting you to the features it comes with, it has access to app-store style library of popular software. As a bonus, it's secretly the proving ground for a new kind of high-security hosting system that prevents common security problems by design.
I messed up the links typing on my phone, so here:
WebDAV thing for Chrome OS
Sandstorm
Have you looked at Synology options? Fairly cheap and you can expand as you like. Add any apps that are allowed on the thing, it's basically a server without the 60 pounds of hardware and pretty simple to set up.
If Amazon Cloud Drive had better APIs for app integration, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it over Google Cloud, just based on the unlimited capacity. But syncing to a Windows PC is terrible, and app support is minimal. It's good for media storage, and that's about it, sadly...