Why Owncloud was Build and Made OpenSource

 

frank-karlitschek-owncloud

"Open source is the only option for file storage that is really safe and secure.,” says ownCloud Founder Frank Karlitschek.

Frank Karlitschek is founder of ownCloud and maintainer of the project’s general architecture.

There I was, 4 years ago (this past January) at CampKDE in San Diego, giving a talk on data privacy, warning the audience about the risks to their privacy from cloud vendors – in particular, Dropbox. So, build it yourself they said. Sure, I’ve built things in the past, so sure, I’ll do it. And there is where I started my odyssey, first, to protect myself, my friends and my colleagues from the snooping of governments, and other bad guys, and later – as I saw the worldwide interest grow – to build a real and successful project.

I had to decide a few things before I got started of course, including what it is I wanted ownCloud to do, what development platform to use, how I wanted to structure ownCloud, and of course, to name it ownCloud.

My friends and I needed a way we could sync our pictures, documents and even videos to our various devices (instead of using a thumb drive), and even to share those files with friends and family. Dropbox was by then becoming very popular, but I just didn’t want to send my data through a third-party service to be stored who-knows-where. I wanted to create a platform that friends could use the storage they already had – instead of the cloud — but not just for syncing and sharing, but a platform flexible enough to build apps beyond that.

Of course ownCloud would be open source.

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SetUp Your Own Private Cloud Storage Service with OwnCloud

owncloud-square-logo-150x150Currently in the shop I decided that although I use Box, SkyDrive, Dropbox, Ubuntu One, and Amazon, I need a bit more storage and my own control. 

So I have setup OwnCloud.

For an overview of OwnCloud look at this article on Lifehacker.  Review OwnCloud’s list of features.

I am using Fedora 18 which is currently behind a version.  I needed to remove the old version, follow the instructions from OwnCloud to add the repository (ignore the warning error on install), add the MySQL database, and add SSL to my server and I was off.

Everything works.

I haven’t gotten my userdir moved to a public_html under the owncloud file structure yet, a hack on the .htaccess or ACLs or possible the userdir.conf seems indicated, but I am having fun playing Alice’s Restaurant in the player.

Give it a try.