[dba-Tech] The new nextCloud

[Jim Lawrence]

About a year ago the then OwnCloud management had a serious argument with their staff. The result was that the staff quit and went and formed a new company and the forked product line is now called NextCloud. 

If you do not know what NextCloud is and how it can help your business and/or your client's business, check out the following linked descriptions. We, as retired citizens, use it mostly to synchronize transfers, family pictures back and forth, collaborate on and send documents and have a universal calendar. All of these features are available via Google, Apple, Dropbox and so on, Cloud offerings but I think they have enough our data already. As a personal family or business Cloud is so easy to setup, I thought why not take advantage of an open source solution?

Check the following features out: 
http://bit.ly/2fPotZO

If you have already setup an OwnCloud server service and wish to migrate to NextCloud, below is a couple of links that will help:
An overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byw55vgAe-M

Step by step migration from OwnCloud to NextCloud: 
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-upgrade-to-the-nextcloud-10-cloud-server-in-seven-easy-steps/
http://tek.io/2gOXq0q

Aside: If you do not already have a NextCloud installation just run up a Ubuntu Linux server (desktop actually), on an old or new (64bit) box (the last installation of Ubuntu, took less than 10 minutes (9 minutes and 54 seconds to be exact). You can download the latest stable release of Ubuntu 16.04 from the following link, copy the ISO to a 32GB (16GB?), USB stick, plug the stick into the new computer and boot:
http://releases.ubuntu.com/16.04/ubuntu-16.04-desktop-amd64.iso

Installing NextCloud and all its dependencies, libraries and addition components will probably take another 15 to 20 minutes. Cutting and pasting scripts to expedite the installation will speed things up dramatically. Note; careful planning on who all is going to use your system may take longer:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-configure-nextcloud-on-ubuntu-16-04
http://do.co/2gvEpiS

Please note: This installation assumes that you have a domain and an SSL certificate. To get a free SSL Certificate check out the following:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-secure-apache-with-let-s-encrypt-on-ubuntu-16-04
http://do.co/2gJeS3h

Aside: Linux systems happily coexist with Windows machines. I recommended the latest Ubuntu desktop (it has all the functionality of the server version and more...servers are actually stripped down desktop distros.) as it has been my go-to distro for years, I am most familiar with it and it has a very nice GUI. After the server has been setup appropriately there are clients that run on all platforms and devices.

This will be a great afternoon or weekend project. Have fun. :-)
Jim