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My sister wants to de-Google as much as practical. She's not a programmer or sysadmin, but I can set up stuff for her. For file storage, including both documents and photos, should I set her up with SyncThing, self-hosted Nextcloud, both, or something else?
in reply to Matt Campbell

André Polykanine
André Polykanine
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I'd go for #NextCloud, they have plenty of other cool apps. If she has no particular accessibility needs, it's a good solution. Otherwise, they have quite a lot of rough edges in their frontend department, unfortunately, but it's still manageable.
#nextcloud
in reply to André Polykanine

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
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@menelion Yeah, she's sighted. And I have some usable vision, so I can probably work through the rough edges.
@André Polykanine
in reply to Matt Campbell

André Polykanine
André Polykanine
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You can do it even if you are blind, but some things are really tough, like the updater or pseudo-combo boxes they use.
in reply to André Polykanine

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
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@menelion I've never played with Nextcloud myself. Personally, I think I'd prefer to have SyncThing, so I can have something like Dropbox but self-hosted. My plan is to set up identical home servers for her and myself, with each server acting as a backup server for the other. I guess that doesn't mean we have to use the same server-side apps though.
@André Polykanine
in reply to Matt Campbell

André Polykanine
André Polykanine
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I only heard about SyncThing, probably played with it but a long time ago. What are the benefits?
in reply to Matt Campbell

Chris 👾
Chris 👾
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Nextcloud is solid. I've been using a small managed Nextcloud for about 2 years now, never had any issues and I don't have to do the maintenance and updates myself. I use Syncthing on my Android to automatically upload photos and sync a shared documents and notes folder. Works like a charm for now but Syncthing for Android has been retired last month. I don't know if there will be a fork - just something to keep in mind.

Link to the managed Nextcloud I use:
hetzner.com/storage/storage-sh…

Storage Share

www.hetzner.com
in reply to Matt Campbell

CEO of Anti-Clock Society
CEO of Anti-Clock Society
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Nextcloud is the most featureful and mature option. If you're looking for something comparable to Google Drive, Nextcloud is it.
in reply to Matt Campbell

Badly-optimised primate
Badly-optimised primate
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syncthing is great but you need multiple devices and the patience to keep them all going so I wouldn't suggest it to anyone fresh
in reply to Matt Campbell

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
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Related question: For Zoom-style meetings, what's the best self-hosted option, considering both accessibility and general ease of use? Jitsi Meet, Big Blue Button, or something else?
in reply to Matt Campbell

Brandon
Brandon
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I would pick next cloud. It’s between Jitsi Meet and Nextcloud Talk anyways for me.
This entry was edited (3 days ago)
in reply to Matt Campbell

Jonas Platte
Jonas Platte
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There's also @OpenTalkMeeting, haven't used it myself though so can't say how it compares.
@OpenTalk
in reply to Matt Campbell

Simran
Simran
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Haven't used it myself but there is also jami.net/ as a possible Zoom alternative

Jami

Jami - the distributed and open source communication platform
Jami
This entry was edited (3 days ago)
in reply to Matt Campbell

James Scholes
James Scholes
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I'm curious about the leap from de-Googling to everything being self-hosted. Does your sister specifically want to stop using Google services, or big tech in general?
in reply to Matt Campbell

James Scholes
James Scholes
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Fair enough. I've never tried any of the meeting alternatives, so I'll be watching to see if anyone else has thoughts. Zoom is becoming increasingly painful to use.
in reply to Matt Campbell

Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
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Hmm, I know someone who used the jitsi app thing, and I don't think they're selfhosting, but the website is accessible.
in reply to Matt Campbell

Dave🌱
Dave🌱
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if you and/or your sister want to make use of several of the features Nextcloud offers, more like a Google Apps replacement, it's probably the best self hostable choice.
For me I went with a hosted email solution six or seven years ago that takes care of all my email/calendar/contacts needs (Fastmail), so went with SyncThing as a Dropbox replacement, with most of its global discovery stuff disabled.
I think I've only tried the former, but Jitsu Meet and BBB both seem like nice solutions.
in reply to Matt Campbell

mosttoast
mosttoast
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I'd also add Proton and Pcloud both have pretty good android syncing. Pcloud has really nice backup integration across devices.
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