HUGE news: Nextcloud future of ownCloud!
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@JaredBusch said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
Additionally, as stated in the ornCloud response linked above, they took to heart (supposedly) the issues with the community and just 2 days ago formed a foundation to be the formal front for the open source ownCloud.
https://owncloud.com/owncloud-announces-formation-owncloud-foundation/Seems like it was a bit late, though. They probably should have done that before everyone quit, rather than afterwards. Better late than never, hopefully. But very late. It's hard to believe that there were no complaints until people just quit.
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@JaredBusch said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
@scottalanmiller said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
@JaredBusch said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
@scottalanmiller did you read the entire statement or only the highlights i posted?
But what does it "do"? Does Germany have development, support or anything useful? Or just European sales?
They are a private company and do not have to divulge that.
And they don't, which is why I was wondering. Is there effectively any product now? ownCloud did not give any solid indication that they are really going to be continuing. Everyone we have dealt with was from Boston, so the ownCloud that we know and all of the people that we know are gone. They say that support for existing customers will continue, that's good. But they certainly made it sound like things were wrapping up. Maybe that wasn't the tone that they meant to imply, but it certainly felt that way.
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Now I'm really confused - I thought Karlitschek wanted to support FOSS, but now it seems that he, leading this new company doesn't. Did we misunderstand originally?
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@Dashrender said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
Now I'm really confused - I thought Karlitschek wanted to support FOSS, but now it seems that he, leading this new company doesn't. Did we misunderstand originally?
Why do you say this? I'm not saying it is wrong, only that I've seen absolutely nothing that would suggest what you are saying. Why do you think he is not supporting the open source model?
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Wasn't there a huffing contest a few months ago, I thought the CEO quit because the board wanted to charge for Owncloud, or charge more such crap to do with making more money... but the CEO or whoever it really was didn't like that and really wanted more to support the open source community.
Did I dream that?
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@Dashrender said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
Wasn't there a huffing contest a few months ago, I thought the CEO quit because the board wanted to charge for Owncloud, or charge more such crap to do with making more money... but the CEO or whoever it really was didn't like that and really wanted more to support the open source community.
Did I dream that?
I think so. The CEO was still there until yesterday. A non-management technical founder quit with a lack of open source support being a key issue. And he founded this new company.
So... what part of any of this leads to you feeling that support for the open source community is not there? That's where I am more confused.
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@scottalanmiller said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
@Dashrender said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
Wasn't there a huffing contest a few months ago, I thought the CEO quit because the board wanted to charge for Owncloud, or charge more such crap to do with making more money... but the CEO or whoever it really was didn't like that and really wanted more to support the open source community.
Did I dream that?
I think so. The CEO was still there until yesterday. A non-management technical founder quit with a lack of open source support being a key issue. And he founded this new company.
So... what part of any of this leads to you feeling that support for the open source community is not there? That's where I am more confused.
I'm guessing the forked company (the for profit one) will probably not participate with the ownCloud Foundation in moving the open source version forward. So then my question is - who will? where will the money come from for them to have devs to move that project forward?
and OH - it was a non-management technical founder who quit.. so is that non-management technical founder part of the ownCloud Foundation, Karlitschek is listed specifically not part of it.
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@Dashrender said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
I'm guessing the forked company (the for profit one) will probably not participate with the ownCloud Foundation in moving the open source version forward.
I would not expect so, they are forking so why would they support a different open source project? That would not make much sense. They will be contibuting to the NextCloud open source code base, of course... which was the whole point of all of these moves.
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@Dashrender said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
So then my question is - who will? where will the money come from for them to have devs to move that project forward?
Well, ownCloud Germany might. Or possibly no one will. The team that made ownCloud has left and is now working on NextCloud which is, presumably, going to be a lot more dedicated to open source - which was their stated goal.
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@Dashrender said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
and OH - it was a non-management technical founder who quit.. so is that non-management technical founder part of the ownCloud Foundation, Karlitschek is listed specifically not part of it.
No, of course they are not part of the ownCloud Foundation as that was formed in response to the people leaving. They left, presumably due to issues with open source not getting good support, and now we know forked the product to NextCloud. ownCloud then responded, too late, that they would start the ownCloud Foundation.
the OCF is for the OC code, not the NC code.
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I think most people are assuming at this point, but everyone is guessing, that the ownCloud product is dead. Their US branch has already shut down (which is why they are not responding here, everyone involved that we knew was fired) and all of the main contributors have left. Now that the announcement is out, chances are all the other contributors will leave, too. Why would anyone contribute to the old, poorly supported ownCloud when NextCloud has the momentum, investors and supposedly was founded to be supportive of the open source community?
While there is a chance for ownCloud to turn things around, it seems unlikely. NextCloud has the technology and the financing and the open source people. Just like how LibreOffice forked OpenOffice and by the time OpenOffice figured out that they had to donate the project to Apache, it was too late and the market had already given up on them. That's likely exactly what will happen here in the next few weeks.
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@scottalanmiller said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
the OCF is for the OC code, not the NC code.
This I did understand - but who's going to be supporting that now? Of course the answer is oCF - but how do they pay the bills?
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@Dashrender said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
@scottalanmiller said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
the OCF is for the OC code, not the NC code.
This I did understand - but who's going to be supporting that now? Of course the answer is oCF - but how do they pay the bills?
From their paying customers, same as always. Or from investors. Or not at all. Does it matter? ownCloud seems likely to be dead, what's the concern around the support and why bring it up in this thread about NextCloud?
From the sounds of it, no one is going to support it, and that's a good thing. You don't want any support going to ownCloud if NextCloud does a good job because it will just water down the two products.
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So the open source project is dead? this is now a pay only product?
Or does NextCloud have to have an open source version because it's forked from open source code?
and if that's that case, why was this move needed? How does creating a new company, and forking the code allow the investors/NextCloud the ability to do things that they couldn't do before?
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@Dashrender said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
So the open source project is dead? this is now a pay only product?
That's not possible. ownCloud is dead, it was forked to NextCloud. NextCloud is very much alive. And obviously it is open source. That's the miracle of open source, it can't go away.
The old open source project is dead, that's good. We want it dead so that the new open source project can thrive with the former's code and developers.
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@Dashrender said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
Or does NextCloud have to have an open source version because it's forked from open source code?
Exactly. You can't go grab Linux, fork it and close it making it your own. The licensing guarantees that it stays open.
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@Dashrender said in HUGE news: Nextcloud replacing ownCloud!:
and if that's that case, why was this move needed? How does creating a new company, and forking the code allow the investors/NextCloud the ability to do things that they couldn't do before?
Control. NextCloud now has the power to brand, market, sell and support a product while having control over the community and code. ownCloud had this before and, the accusation is, were bad stewards of it not treating the open source product and contributors well. So those contributors took their code, started their own project and have left ownCloud to their own devices to figure out what they want to do with themselves.
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Here is an example... if you want to make your own operating system and want to do something differently than Linux can do or will do, you are free to do that. Just fork Linux and start your own project. You can't just "change Linux" because your changes have to be approved by Linus. But if you have your own fork, DashOS, you can make and approve any changes that you want!
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If you are interested in the specific license in use here, here it is: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html
