FOSS version of google docs to run on a home server?

JoelJ@lemmy.world to Linux@lemmy.ml – 132 points –

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!

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https://owncloud.com/getting-started/

or

https://www.onlyoffice.com/download-docspace.aspx#docspace-community

or

https://nextcloud.com/install/#instructions-server

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.

Nextcloud is laggy and bloated, would not recommend

Good application but performance sucks

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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?

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

Sounds like someone wasn't using redis

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

Give redis a try, it significantly sped up the user experience in my testing.

Docker OnlyOffice HW requirements are a bit... Odd?

What, you don't have 6 cores and 12GB of RAM on your 2€/month VPS?

I have that on my RPi 50B! /s

We joke, but I actually have an 8-core Orange Pi with 16GB RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD that performs really well running Debian/Gnome!

Yes, I know these are far more powerful than RPi4s. I just wen with RPi because of cost and community...

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

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.

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.

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.

Oh, well. Thank you for your test. I may give it a try, then.

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

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.