So I want to build a home server to use as a media server, and to back up my photos etc.

I am also currently doing an online course, and happen to spend some time at work as well as at home working on it. I don’t like using Google where I can help it, but I find google docs really useful. So I’m wondering if there’s an open source application that works essentially the same, but I could run off my own server? It would have to be web-based as I use Windows at work and can’t install new programs :/

edit: Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I’ve got quite a few leads to follow now, it should be fun!

    • flashgnash@lemm.ee
      139·
      1 year ago

      Nextcloud is laggy and bloated, would not recommend

      Good application but performance sucks

      • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
        221·
        1 year ago

        It’s fine if you don’t set it up on a dogshit slow rPi and use postgres/redis in the docker compose. Every time I see this comment, it’s because of configuration errors or horrible hardware.

        Man, use Sharepoint on anything under a dual Xeon and see true lag.

        • oranki@sopuli.xyz
          8·
          1 year ago

          This is true, with a couple gigs of RAM and SATA storage Nextcloud is not at all bad. Assuming an instance with not that much simultaneous users.

          It feels like slow sometimes, then after an hour with M365 at work it doesn’t feel slow at all.

        • vector_zero@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          I ran it on a Dell EMC server blade and it was still awful. I couldn’t help but think I was doing something wrong, because its performance was shockingly bad. I also couldn’t get any of the office stuff to work acceptably, so I’ve given up on it for the time being.

        • Molecular0079@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Is there a way to transition from MariaDB to Postgres? I used the mariadb / redis version of the docker-compose, but now I hear everyone says Postgres is better for performance?

          • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            Create your users in the new install, move each users files to the created folders from your old install, and use the OCC addfiles command to enumerate the new files into the new db.

            • NRoach44@lemmy.mlEnglish
              2·
              1 year ago

              There is a db migration command that I used to do the same thing, was pretty painless, just needed to run that and then update the config iirc

      • rambos@lemm.ee
        3·
        1 year ago

        What you mean bloated? It is laggy in web browser, but using client apps solve that problem. It would be awesome if its more snappy, but I couldnt find anything better for my needs. What do you use?

        • flashgnash@lemm.ee
          14·
          1 year ago

          I was running the desktop app and the web app. I meant the server is laggy, though as it was melting my raspberry pi down to do something I could achieve with much lighter weight tools

          Running on a raspberry pi it was struggling to serve even one user

        • flashgnash@lemm.ee
          12·
          1 year ago

          You got me there

          I was also running it on a pi 4 though because I don’t want a high powered machine sucking up energy and kicking out heat 24/7

      • mhz@lemm.ee
        3·
        1 year ago

        Your comment made me check that, and yeah, those requirements can be extreme for someone like me who look to use it for two pcs and a phone on a 6th gen intel nuc

      • phrogpilot73@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        I run the Community Edition of OnlyOffice documents server on my home server in Docker. My server has a Core i77 7700 and 32GB of RAM. And tons of other Docker containers. No issues.

        • Engywuck@lemm.ee
          1·
          1 year ago

          I mean… My “servers” are a cheap VPS with 2 GB ram and a RPi 4 with 4 GB ram. Doubt any of them would be able to run OOCE decently.

          • phrogpilot73@lemmy.world
            2·
            1 year ago

            I was curious, so I took a look at what it was using. At idle, it sits at 927.4 MB, and 0.1% of my CPU (the 7700 is only a 4 core CPU). I opened and edited a Word document on OnlyOffice (I have it connected using the Nextcloud connector). It spiked to 1GB of RAM, and momentary spikes to 35% of CPU, and then back down to 0.1-0.2% of CPU. I’d say it’s worth trying at least. Worst case scenario, you delete the Docker container if it’s unworkable.

            However, I think the Community Edition is lighter than advertised.

      • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.one
        1·
        1 year ago

        Those specs seem likely to be extrapolated from the resource usage of their SaaS solution 😳

        Wouldn’t be surprised if it actually ended up needing that though, some game servers for example will happily chomp down 10GB+ of RAM with just two people online doing nothing

        • poVoq@slrpnk.net
          1·
          1 year ago

          Or rather they want to discourage self-hosting in favour of their SaaS.

          But the OO Document server will happily run with about 1gb RAM and small CPU use.

          edit: ah this is about the full OO suite. Well most of that is written in bloated asp.net so no wonder.

    • rastilin@kbin.social
      3·
      1 year ago

      I’ve seen owncloud merge files together. Like, you open one file and see data from another file inside it. That to me was a dealbreaker.

  • WeAreAllOne@lemm.ee
    9·
    1 year ago

    You might also wanna check yunohost.org . It’s a well organized self hosting platform where you can install with few clicks and has huge amount of Foss apps, including office and media ones and Nextcloud that others suggested.

  • Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works
    71·
    1 year ago

    I’m using Onlyoffice and it works really well. Although I use it with kDrive from Infomaniak, I’m almost sure you can run it on your own server.

    In fact I managed to ditch Google for everything but I can’t find a good replacement for Google photos which I’m not using anymore.

      • Serinus@lemmy.mlEnglish
        5·
        1 year ago

        Immich is working pretty well for me. Even the search does a decent job of recognizing the things in the pictures.

        I’m not sure what Google photos has that Immich doesn’t, and I’ve been using Google photos for years.

        • Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de
          2·
          1 year ago

          The mobile app sometimes gets stuck while updating new photos, or just doesn’t run the upload in background even though it’s activated. The web app looks and feels great though.

          • Serinus@lemmy.mlEnglish
            3·
            1 year ago

            You do have to turn off battery saver for the background process. Phones tend to not like background processes. That would cause the behavior you’re seeing.

            Settings > Apps > App battery usage > Immich > Set to “unrestricted”

            Also I have mine set to a ten minute delay, maybe that’s why I haven’t noticed. Maybe try adding a small delay to the load?

            (Primarily I wanted a chance to delete photos before they uploaded.)

      • Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        1 year ago

        Thanks for the answer.

        I remember looking at these but I think the fact that the pictures would be on my kDrive was also a problem.

        Maybe with something like WebDAV it could work.

    • BlinkerFluid@lemmy.oneEnglish
      51·
      1 year ago

      Nextcloud needs a heaping helping of a disclaimer before anyone installs it.

      Use the Docker or Podman images, they’ll include most things a lot of first time users leave out that render Nextcloud buggy and inconsistent. It includes a cache, and about half of the security issues preconfigured out of the box.

      Installing it native from a guide with zero explanation beyond “welp, there’s the start page” as the final step really doesn’t do much for people and there’s a lot of guides out there like that for Nextcloud.

      • Engywuck@lemm.ee
        3·
        1 year ago

        Even with Docker, my feeling is that BC is something extremely fragile andd one has to be quite careful when updating it, for instance.

        • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I hope to hell you don’t try to use the update button inside NC when running a docker image. The web updater is trash in any case, but in a docker that would be a real fuckup.

          You update docker with a docker pull and I’ve never had it fail. It just quietly upgrades the database and goes along it’s merry way.

          • Engywuck@lemm.ee
            1·
            1 year ago

            Nope, I updated with docker-compost stop/pull/up -d and suddenly everything was gone. Luckily I had a local copy of my files. Looks like updating trashed the volume I had mapped to my SSD.

        • laenurd@lemmy.lemist.de
          1·
          1 year ago

          I’ve been using Nextcloud docker for quite some time, updated it countless times, have never had any problems whatsoever.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    6·
    1 year ago

    After a lot of searching (granted, years ago) I landed on

    Nextcloud with only office.

    Nextcloud is pretty awesome. Open source, well supported, new versions like once or twice a year, aetric shittonne of plugins, its awesome.

    Onlyoffice feels a lot like Microsoft office, but is online open source, and allows multi user editing, which was always a bit of a pain point with colabora.

  • ChickenAndRice@sh.itjust.works
    21·
    1 year ago

    I just use syncthing and set up the appropriate send /receive permissions for each folder

    When I want to access those files remotely, I just sftp / ssh into the server. (Someone more knowledgeble than me can help you with that part, I just install Tailscale on my devices for remote ssh)

    sure it may not be elegant, but is pretty easy to maintain in the long run (see complaints about updating / setting up nextcloud in this thread)

    maybe this will help with setup. Note he is doing bidirectional sync, but one way sync works too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBVTedUWbfg

    edit: forgot to mention, this is cross platform across Mac, Windows, Android, and Linux. Not sure about iOS