So, can anyone shed some more light on what "Nextcloud" (the software/OS part) actually is? As far as I can gather it's more or less a fork of owncloud by one of the owncloud maintainers, paired with ubuntu core, and turned into a kind-a-sorta groupware and file server? But for some reason lacking an ldap/kerberos/ad/directory server - so it can't be the only part of a small office network - you still need ldap/AD set-up?
I'm not entirely sure I see the value proposition here.
It's a very recent fork of ownCloud, so if you know what that is, most of your knowledge transfers. It's basically self-hosted Dropbox/Google Drive/OneDrive, with some initial support for other cloud-y things: web-based document/spreadsheet/presentation software and chat/call/video conference being the main two. The value proposition is all in the self-hosted part. If you have a problem with giving a third party access to all of your files, this is a possible alternative. If you trust Google/Microsoft/Dropbox with your files, your life will probably be a whole lot easier letting their massive engineering and ops teams manage servers and software for you.
It's definitely not an all-in-one small office solution, there's no email app.
You can run that together with a Dovecot for example. It integrates nicely with Nextcloud Contacts for autocompletion and Files for attachments. Testing and contributions are very much welcome! :)
Just to add to what Scott said: One important part is that the Nextcloud Box is just a device running Nextcloud. It’s not the main product. :) We focus on developing the software, which is 100% open source and at https://github.com/nextcloud
(Disclaimer: I used to be Design Lead at ownCloud and moved to Nextcloud.)
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So, can anyone shed some more light on what "Nextcloud" (the software/OS part) actually is? As far as I can gather it's more or less a fork of owncloud by one of the owncloud maintainers, paired with ubuntu core, and turned into a kind-a-sorta groupware and file server? But for some reason lacking an ldap/kerberos/ad/directory server - so it can't be the only part of a small office network - you still need ldap/AD set-up?
I'm not entirely sure I see the value proposition here.
It's a very recent fork of ownCloud, so if you know what that is, most of your knowledge transfers. It's basically self-hosted Dropbox/Google Drive/OneDrive, with some initial support for other cloud-y things: web-based document/spreadsheet/presentation software and chat/call/video conference being the main two. The value proposition is all in the self-hosted part. If you have a problem with giving a third party access to all of your files, this is a possible alternative. If you trust Google/Microsoft/Dropbox with your files, your life will probably be a whole lot easier letting their massive engineering and ops teams manage servers and software for you.
It's definitely not an all-in-one small office solution, there's no email app.
We do have an IMAP app for mail https://github.com/nextcloud/mail
You can run that together with a Dovecot for example. It integrates nicely with Nextcloud Contacts for autocompletion and Files for attachments. Testing and contributions are very much welcome! :)
Just to add to what Scott said: One important part is that the Nextcloud Box is just a device running Nextcloud. It’s not the main product. :) We focus on developing the software, which is 100% open source and at https://github.com/nextcloud
(Disclaimer: I used to be Design Lead at ownCloud and moved to Nextcloud.)