ownCloud 4 released

Today the ownCloud community released ownCloud 4. This is an important milestone for us as a community, for the product and for our code base.

So what are the new features?

• File Encryption
• File Versioning
• Mounting of external Filesystems (experimental)
• TODOs App
• Drag & Drop File Uploading
• Shared Calendars
• Calendar categories
• Hugely improved contacts app including groups
• Improved WebDAV, CalDAV, CardDAV compatibility 
• Movable Apps
• Improved External App
• Improved Sharing of Files
• Overall Performance Improvements
• System/User Exporting/Importing
• User/Groups support via LDAP/AD
• Viewer for ODF Files
• Improved Photo Gallery
• Improved installation of 3rd Party Apps
• Logging via syslog
• New public API for App developers
• Lots of bug fixes, smaller enhancements and UX improvements.

Isn´t this impressive for only 4 month of development?

Please check our nice feature page for more information.



This comes now only 4 month after the ownCloud 3 release early this year. We will switch back to a 3 month release cylce so you can expect ownCloud 5 at the end of August.

Even stronger KDE integration will be one of the focus areas of the next release. Currently we have the Desktop Sync Client, the Rekonq bookmark syncing, the OCS key value storage for all applications, desktop push notifications and more. Part of the next release will be deeper Dolphin integration, Akregator RSS feed syncing and KWallet integration for the Desktop Syncing Client. Looking forward to this cool Desktop/Cloud features.


Thanks to everybody who contributed and made this awesome release possible.
The core team, all the contributors, marketing people, designers, UX experts and of course all the testers and translators.

See the offical release announcement here and more information including the download on the homepage.

There are already packages for most distributions available on the Open Build Service.


I hope to see you all at our LinuxTag booth for hugs and chatting.


Frank

What a weekend

Just recovery from our weekend-long ownCloud development meeting -- and what a meeting it was.

Held here in the Stuttgart ownCloud offices, myself and 18 ownCloud contributors from across Europe borrowing down on the next version of ownCloud (coming next month) -- coding, brainstorming new features and functions and having fun.

We worked on a lot of different features:

• General stabilization of the ownCloud 4 code base.
• Work on a solution that solves the big file upload problem once and for all.
• Huge database optimizations for better performance.
• Improved KDE integration
• Implementation of an LDAP groups backend and big improvements in the LDAP user integration.
• Implementation of a lucene search engine for files. We now have proper searching. :-)
• UX optimisation all over the place
• Lot´s of small design improvements
• Improvement on ownCloud.org
• Work on Debian Packaging
• OpenID support
• Drag and Drop uploading
• Implementation of a "Find my Android phone" location based feature.
• Working on versioning and encryption support
• Lots of bugfixes at the Desktop Syncing client
• Porting of the Desktop Syncing Client to Mac OS X. Release soon.
• UX improvements at the Desktop Syncing Client.
• Work started on an ownCloud mail client. 
• Lots of bugs fixed

I want to thank everybody for their creativity, energy and the fun.

Looking forward to the next meeting later this year already!

Both Parts Win

Today is an exciting day for ownCloud -- for several reasons. First -- we launched our first commercial release of ownCloud. This includes a fully supported server available under the AGPL.

So for those running ownCloud in an enterprise environment (or who want to run ownCloud in an enterprise environment) and want support, you can buy it from ownCloud Inc. starting today.

We also released the first version of our Desktop Syncing Client for Linux and Windows. A Mac version is in development and will come shortly. These clients are based on Mirall and csync -- and Klaas is doing a fantastic job so expect a lot of new improvements and innovations. The clients are GPL licensed and based on Qt and we are working on a deep KDE integration. We also completed the development of the ownCloud iOS and Android apps. The Android client is GPL and we are looking into options to make the iOS App also GPL which is currently difficult because of the Apple AppStore policy. -- The Apps are in testing at the moment and will be released as soon as Google and Apple approve them.

And on the community side, ownCloud 3.0.1 was also released today. This is a bug fix release of ownCloud 3 with several performance improvements and fixes. You should probably update your ownCloud installation to 3.0.1.

What makes all this even more exciting is that all this work shows that the plan to create a symbiotic relationship between the ownCloud community and ownCloud Inc. really works great. Both parts win. And it works because of all the contributors who made all this possible.

Now, after a week nap, I´m looking forward to our next developer meeting in less than 2 weeks here in Stuttgart. Fifteen attendees are on the list and I´m sure it will be a cool event. The plan is to bring ownCloud 4 into shape -- which is scheduled in 4 weeks.

Thanks again to everyone for all the hard work.

Frank

We want you for ownCloud

Dear friends of ownCloud,

we are thrilled by the great feedback we receive from users and developers for 

ownCloud 3. 

As you might already know, we formed a commercial entity, ownCloud Inc, that 

will offer products and services for ownCloud in December 2011. To speed up 

ownCloud development we look for enthusiastic software engineers that look 

forward to join our development team full-time.

Preferred qualifications:

• Very good PHP skills
• Good skills of HTML5/CSS/JS
• Good skills of SQL
• Experience with the internals of ownCloud
• Experience with Open Source development
• Located in Germany or the U.S.
• Experience with enterprise technologies like LDAP, SAML, Clustering is a plus.

In case of interest, please send your CV together with your salary requirement 

and possible start date to work@owncloud.com.

We look forward to your application!

Cheers

Frank

ownCloud 3 released

Our labor of love is out today and I know you will share my excitement when you spend a little time with Version 3 of ownCloud.

What’s so exciting?

Well, let me start with the extensive polishing the community has done to
the look and feel – and the performance – of the calendar and contact
applications. Besides a completely new and more user-friendly web interface,
new features include repeating events and automatic time zone detection. The
interface of the contacts application is also improved with thumbnails of
contact photos, and the option to export address books or single contacts as
.vcf files. It is now possible to create, edit or delete multiple address
books in ownCloud.

What’s new?

ownCloud Version 3 gives users the unique ability to access and edit
documents in multiple ways. Users can access files directly if ownCloud is
mounted via WebDAV, access them offline if the file is synced locally with
the upcoming syncing client, or access and edit files directly from within a
browser with the new text editor.

The browser based text editor supports 35 programming languages for syntax
highlighting, keyboard shortcuts, drag and drop text, automatic indent and
outdent, unstructured / user code folding and Live syntax checker (for
JavaScript, Coffee and CSS). The editor is based on the ACE JavaScript
Editor. The editor supports basic text files. Editing more advanced formats
like doc and ODT is planned for future releases.

ownCloud Version 3 supports installation of new third party applications and
add-ons directly from a central repository of ownCloud applications.
Developers who want to offer new features can upload new ownCloud
applications at apps.owncloud.com. ownCloud users can browse and install the
new applications directly from within the ownCloud Admin interface. Both
users and developers can develop and use this new application store. The
system is based on the open collaboration services standard.

ownCloud Version 3 ships with an integrated PDF viewer for convenient
viewing and printing of PDFs, even with browsers that don´t have a PDF
plugin installed. The viewer is based on the pdf.js library.

ownCloud Version 3 adds a photo gallery application to help view and
organize photos of different file types. Photo albums are automatically
created for uploaded photos.

Most importantly though, his release is really a remarkable testament to the
hard work and dedication of our community. Since the release of Version 2 in
October, the ownCloud community has enabled ownCloud for Juju Charms
(Ubuntu) and built pre-configured software and virtual appliances ready for
direct deployment in SUSE Studio. Additionally, the community has created a
new owncloud.org website, improved installation documentation, created a new
bug tracker, and a new ownCloud forum!

Thank you!

ownCloud Inc. and the ownCloud community

The ownCloud project is 2 years old next month!! Today is an exciting day because today we announce a company as an addition to the open source project to push ownCloud forward. ownCloud Inc. will offer ownCloud services and support to enterprises in addition to to the normal open source version.


ownCloud Inc. will help us to spread ownCloud and free cloud services in general – way more than we could have done without.

So why is it good for an open source project to have a company which offers enterprise services and solutions around free software?

One year ago I wrote an essay for a soon to be released book which sums it up quite nicely. Here is an excerpt of my text:

—-
The Free Software motivation

Most Free Software developers have two basic motivations to work on Free Software. The first motivation is the fun factor. It is a fantastic experience to work together with very talented people from all over the world and create great technology. KDE, for example, is one of the most welcoming communities I know. It is so much fun to work with thousands of contributors from all over the world to create software which will be used by millions. Basically, everyone is an expert in one or more areas and we collaborate to create a shared vision. For me it is always a blast to meet other free software contributors, exchange ideas or workon our software whether we meet online or in real life at one of the many conferences or events. And it is also about friendship. Over the years I have made many good friends in KDE.

But contributors are not motivated only by fun to join the free software community. It is also the idea that all of us can make the world a better place with our contributions. Free Software is essential if you care about access to technology and IT for developing countries. It enables poor people to participate in the information age without buying expensive licenses for proprietary software. It is essential for people who care about privacy and security, because Free Software is the only way to see exactly what your computer is doing with your private data. Free Software is important for a healthy IT eco-system, because it enables everybody to build on the work of others and really innovate. Without Free Software it would not have been possible for Google or Facebook to start their businesses. It is not possible to innovate and create the next disruptive technology if you depend on proprietary software and do not have full access to all parts of the software.

The need for an ecosystem

These are the main reasons why I want to see Free Software become mainstream. To make this happen, we need a lot more contributors than we have today. By contributors I mean people who write the core frameworks, the desktop, the servers, the great applications. We need people who work on usability, artwork, promotion and many other important areas. KDE is already a really big community with thousands of members. But we need more people to help to compete with proprietary software in a big way. The Free Software community is tiny compared to the proprietary software world. On the one hand this is not
a problem, because the distributed software development model of the Free Software world is much more efficient than the closed source way of writing software. One big advantage is, for example, the ability to re-use code better. But even with these advantages we need many more contributors than we have today, if we really want to conquer the IT world.

We also need companies to help us bring our work to the mass market. In a nutshell, we need a big and healthy ecosystem that enables people to work on Free Software for a living.

The current situation

I started contributing to KDE over 10 years ago and since then I have seen countless highly motivated and talented people join KDE. This is really cool. The problem is that I also saw a lot of experienced contributors dropping out of free software communities. That is really sad. Sometimes it is just the normal way of the world. Priorities shift and people concentrate on other stuff. The problem is that many also drop out because of money. At some point people graduate and want to move out of their dorm rooms. Later some people want to get married and have kids. At this point people have to find jobs. There are some companies in the free software ecosystem that offer KDE-related jobs. But these are only a fraction of the available IT jobs. So, a lot of senior KDE contributors have to work for companies where they work on proprietary software, unrelated to Free Software. Sooner or later most of these developers drop out of free software. I underestimated this factor 10 years ago, but I think it is a problem for open source
in the long term, because we lose our most experienced people to proprietary software companies.

My dream world

In my dream world people can pay their rent by working on Free Software and they can do it in a way which does not conflict with our values. KDE contributors should have all the time they need to contribute to KDE and Free Software in general. They should earn money by doing free software. Their hobbies should become their jobs. This would make KDE grow in a big way, because it would be fun to contribute and also provide good long-term job prospects.
—-

I think the excerpt explains nicely why we need the ownCloud company if we want to really change the world.

So ownCloud Inc. helps us in several important areas without taking any freedom away.

• Developers can pay their rent with working full time on ownCloud. Are you looking for a job? Drop me a line.
• ownCloud Inc. helps to market ownCloud in the IT world more effectively than an open source projects can do.
• ownCloud Inc. brings ownCloud to companies, governments, schools and other organizations.
• It helps developers with travel support and other costs
• It helps with infrastructure.

The business model of ownCloud Inc. is very similar to the ones by Red Hat, SUSE, Nokia/Trolltech, MySQL, Kolab Systems and other free software companies. We will offer services and support around ownCloud for enterprises.

ownCloud is and will always be free software (AGPL) and the development will be controlled by the community on our public mailing list. So ownCloud Inc. is not taking anything away from the existing ownCloud community. On the contrary. It adds important parts so that we can make a bigger impact together.

This is why I am so excited today.

• Welcome to ownCloud, Inc.
• ownCloud, Inc. Announcement
• The technology behind ownCloud

ownCloud 2 is released

Today is a really happy and exiting day for me. After one and a half years of work the ownCloud community just released the shiny new version 2 of ownCloud.

ownCloud 2 has a great new userinterface, lot´s of exciting new features like calendar and addressbook syncing, sharing of files, OpenID consumer and provider, a great new mediaplayer with an ampache interface, support for more installable 3rd party applications, a key value storage for KDE applications, integration of desktop notifications and a lot more cool and useful features.
But the most awesome improvement we achieved is our fast growing, creative and friendly developer community. We have over 15 core developers now working on ownCloud and a lot more developer contributing translations, bugfixes, artwork or third party applications.


Go to ownCloud.org to download your ownCloud to put it on your workstation or server or try our live demo at demo.owncloud.org. Ownloud is also available on all major Linux distributions but it´s designed to run on most webspaces withour special configuration.

Let´s take our data back!

dot.kde.org
ownCloud.org


Frank