CERN Endorsing Microsoft Alternatives Like ownCloud, Kopano, Alt-Office Suite

[eltomito]

I have mixed feelings about this. I’d really would prefer that a greater portion of their budget be spent on nuclear research instead of software development. [...] That isn’t to dismiss how nice things like KiCAD are but it isn’t core to the research going on.

Also, that WWW thing they developed, it got pretty popular back in the day.

[wizard69]

I have mixed feelings about this. I’d really would prefer that a greater portion of their budget be spent on nuclear research instead of software development. Thus desire of both commercial and open software is ideal. Unfortunately CERN spends a lot of money on the development of software not directly related to its research focus. That isn’t to dismiss how nice things like KiCAD are but it isn’t core to the research going on.

Ultimately it comes down to good use of ones tax dollars. Frankly there isn’t a perfect way to determine what CERN should focus on. This can be likened to NASA spending money to builds word processor. It is just outside the mandate or expectations for NASA to be working on word processing software instead of aviation oriented apps.

[stiiixy]

Compelling reason, like Frank Karlitschek, the founder of ownCloud, as well as most core contributors to date of the fork, leaving ownCloud to NextCloud? And like NextCloud being the place where new features and new developments go?

I'm waiting on the pro's/con's of his argument as well

[ThoreauHD]

All I know is that for the last few months, these guys/girls have been popping up on reddit asking for linux help. Seems they migrated hard and fast. CentOS/RHEL based.

[intelfx]

IMO as the established player, ownCloud is the default choice, and "anyone in their right mind" must have some compelling reason to chose the fork over the established product.

Compelling reason, like Frank Karlitschek, the founder of ownCloud, as well as most core contributors to date of the fork, leaving ownCloud to NextCloud? And like NextCloud being the place where new features and new developments go?

[torsionbar28]

Care to enlighten us? I'd be very interested to know why anyone in their right mind would be using Owncloud instead of Nextcloud in ~2020, for reasons other than brand recognition (same as the Open/LibreOffice controversy back in the day).

I don't work for CERN so I cannot speak to their selection criteria or process. I can however speak to these topics for myself, and my customers. I run ownCloud personally at home, and also manage oC enterprise installations (along with a ton of other FOSS products) for several corporate clients. Neither myself in my home usage, nor my business clients in a corporate setting have found any compelling reason to switch to the NextCloud fork. IMO as the established player, ownCloud is the default choice, and "anyone in their right mind" must have some compelling reason to chose the fork over the established product.

Edit: Not to mention the ugly way in which the fork was handled. To those in the business world, shady dealings that screw people over (financially speaking) are a huge turn off.

[Michael_S]

I've been using it for many years now. It's created by a Dutch company that used to be called Zarafa. Maybe that rings a bell? Kopano works very well in combination with Z-Push (for mobile phone integration). You get a webinterface, IMAP which works great with Thunderbird, Calender, Contacts, Notes, Tasks, LDAP integration, Sync, etc. It's all Open Source and they offer enterprise support too.

Thanks. I hadn't heard of Zarafa either. Interesting.

[eltomito]

I understand; what I meant is that the Phoronix article ("Alt-Office for office software") makes it sound as if "Alt-Office" was product name you could get interested in (I started googling it and was disappointed to find nothing), as all the other things mentioned are actual products. So I found it a bit misleading/confusing.

Exactly. Michael probably copied the name from their list without clicking on it to see what it was. Or maybe CERN really uses that New-Delhi based office management company that comes up when googling Alt-Office as an alternative to LibreOffice. Who knows...

[[email protected]]

and "logiciel gratuit" for "free software" as in "free beer".

The neologism "gratuiciel" ("freeware") might be encountered as well, occasionally

CERN has a history of being open-friendly. The worldwide web was born there, after all.

Edit: regarding the "Alt Office": reading the page, they call this initiative "Microsoft Alternatives". So I guess that Libreoffice comes out naturally as "alt office".

I personally had trouble integrating collabora online with my nextcloud instance, and ended up with onlyoffice instead, which isn't bad either.

[lowlands]

I never heard of Kopano before. I'm astonished that it's news to me. Did everyone else know about it?

I've been using it for many years now. It's created by a Dutch company that used to be called Zarafa. Maybe that rings a bell? Kopano works very well in combination with Z-Push (for mobile phone integration). You get a webinterface, IMAP which works great with Thunderbird, Calender, Contacts, Notes, Tasks, LDAP integration, Sync, etc. It's all Open Source and they offer enterprise support too.