The 6th incarnation of Elmer's blog
ownCloud is an open source, self-hosted file sync and share app platform. Access & sync your files, contacts, calendars & bookmarks across your devices. You decide what happens with your data, where it is and who can access it!
Source: New in owncloud 9.1 | ownCloud.org
This update adds 2FA for better authentication, collaborative doc editing with Collabora Online, and improvements in scalability and federation. No mention of NextCloud fork.
First it is important to understand what this encryption module is actually supposed to do and understand the threat scenario. The encryption provides no security against a malicious server operator, because the encryption happens on the server. The only scenario where this encryption helps is if one has a trusted server that is using an untrusted storage space.
Source: Pwncloud – bad crypto in the Owncloud encryption module – Hanno’s blog
A good read, but also worth noting that encrypting data at rest on a server is rarely bullet proof anyway. If an attacker can get access to the server they can decrypt the data. I wouldn’t even bother encrypting the data store for something like Owncloud anyway since the data is at the end of a long chain where significant security is needed. For example, is the local copy of the data encrypted? Is the web component using HTTPS? Are Owncloud accounts secure with long passwords and 2FA? Is access to the sever running Owncloud properly secure with very limited access? Encrypting data at rest in Owncloud is the least of my worries.
As a result of this, for ownCloud 9.0 we developed new Storage and Sharing APIs, which make it possible to write storage connectors that access and use advanced capabilities and metadata directly from the storage. One example is the EOS filesystem that is developed and used by CERN to store and manage their huge amount of scientific data. This filesystem can provide metadata, such as ETags, FileIDs, and more, which can be used by ownCloud 9.0 directly, avoiding the need to store this in the ownCloud database and providing the sought-after reduction in overhead. The option to leverage existing sharing capabilities of the storage layer (if available) is also possible, which removed the need to store sharing information in the central database.
— Open collaboration: ownCloud, CERN, and AARNET | Opensource.com https://opensource.com/business/16/3/cern-and-owncloud?sc_cid=70160000000q67aAAA
The new release of ownCloud 9 brings a number of new features including improvements to the API that allows CERN to use ownCloud as a frontend to their massive data store. Other new features beef up the Libre office based collaboration tools and add additional storage options.
Frank Karlitschek_ » 9.0 is the biggest ownCloud release so far http://karlitschek.de/2016/03/9-0-is-the-biggest-owncloud-release-so-far/
Like the idea of having a cloud office suite, but not crazy about being locked into Microsoft Office 365 or Google Docs software-as-a-service (SaaS) ? Two open-source companies, ownCloud and Kolab Systems, are working on enabling an office suite for your own private cloud.
Kolab, like ownCloud, is using Collabora’s cloud version of the open-source LibreOfficeoffice suite, Collabora CloudSuite. The desktop version of LibreOffice is my favorite office suite.
A cloud office suite alternative to Microsoft and Google – CSC Blogs http://blogs.csc.com/2016/02/02/a-cloud-office-suite-alternative-to-microsoft-and-google/
Soon these tools will ready to go and we can finally have real control over out data.
The 2015 Open Source Yearbook is a community-contributed collection of the year’s top open source projects, people, tools, and stories. New articles are added as they are published here.
— 2015 Open Source Yearbook https://opensource.com/yearbook/2015
The yearbook highlights the best of open source in 2015 including hardware, software, and resources that made 2015 a great year for open source. There are 22 entries covering everything from the raspberry pi to Drupal to free ebooks.
6 creative uses for ownCloud | Opensource.com https://opensource.com/life/15/12/6-creative-ways-use-owncloud
Syncthing replaces proprietary sync and cloud services with something open, trustworthy and decentralized. Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, if it is shared with some third party and how it’s transmitted over the Internet.
Source: Syncthing
Interesting. Unlike the open source ownCloud that does rely on a central server this appears to use a peer to peer strategy to sync data between devices you select with no hub server. See Syncthing’s Getting Started page for more details. The whole thing is open source and available on Github.
Moving your Contacts and Calendar Away from Google.
Info in this article works well. I’m on my way to getting my contacts and personal calendar stuff out of Google.
The best new feature on ownCloud 7, as far as I’m concerned, is that its new “Server-to-Server Sharing enables users on one ownCloud instance to seamlessly share files with users on a different ownCloud installation without using share links.” So, for example, you can share files with a business partner without a lot of fuss or muss while maintaining your own independent private clouds.
Frank Karlitschek, founder and leader of the ownCloud project, proclaimed that “Server-to-server sharing is a game changer, allowing individuals — and organizations — to more easily share across private clouds, while still maintaining complete control of their data.” I can certainly see companies with close partner ties really liking this feature.
via ownCloud 7 pulls in users and open source developers | ZDNet.