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!
Nextcloud AIO (all in one) is a docker compose nextcloud instance that handles all of the optimizations for you. That’s what I use. I host it on a VPS I lease from contabo. Nextcloud is fast enough for me. I don’t need lightning speeds.
I remember trying it but it still felt sluggish. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling and it just kept failing and I didn’t want to wipe anything just for Nextcloud.
In my experience the performance issue with NC is the default docker container. Bare metal + the aio or a slightly tuned stack for NC performs reliably and snappy enough for it to be usable.
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.”
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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
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 :)
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !selfhosted@lemmy.world
A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don’t control.
Rules:
Be civil: we’re here to support and learn from one another. Insults won’t be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.
No spam posting.
Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it’s not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.
Don’t duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.
Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).
No trolling.
Resources:
selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
I sidestepped all this crap by buying Synology in 2014 and upgrading 2 years ago. Sure, it isn’t FOSS, but it is very nearly plug and play.
I configured OpenVPN for when I want to use it remotely, and self host my music, video, and family photos.
Having the 4 drive RAID-6 gives me some security from the danger of losing data between backups.
I store all my scanned documents, ocr’d, and keep the paper under control.
Synology was an option at some point in my journey, but yeah, I’m a FOSS enthusiast :)
Nextcloud AIO (all in one) is a docker compose nextcloud instance that handles all of the optimizations for you. That’s what I use. I host it on a VPS I lease from contabo. Nextcloud is fast enough for me. I don’t need lightning speeds.
Or not… https://lemmy.world/comment/346174
The AIO is equally a crappy solution that doesn’t work properly, like everything else in NC.
I remember trying it but it still felt sluggish. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling and it just kept failing and I didn’t want to wipe anything just for Nextcloud.
In my experience the performance issue with NC is the default docker container. Bare metal + the aio or a slightly tuned stack for NC performs reliably and snappy enough for it to be usable.
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:
I use a wireguard tunnel ;) Thank you for the updates on the vulnerability and from Kiteworks :)
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
My experience with NC’s Webmail: https://lemmy.world/comment/5490189
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”.
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.
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
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 :)
Okay yeah, then you’re absolutely right.