Shaun (he/ him)Feb 11, 2025

No community better than the #fediverse to ask this question

Are there self-hosted alternatives to Google Docs and such?
I’m hoping to collaborate with others with confidence that my data isn’t sold to the highest bidder.

Ease and convenience are nice to have, but privacy and long-term sustainability are my key concerns.

Also, are there paid options worth considering?

Show threadDan Fixes Coin-Ops
@ShmosKnows I use a thing called Nextcloud, it's pretty slick and nice in a lot of ways, but watch out 'cause they've started fiddling with AI crap a lot lately and IDK where they're going with that. They're on here too, @nextcloud
Feb 11, 2025 at 12:33amWeb
Show threadShaun (he/ him)Feb 11, 2025
@ifixcoinops @nextcloud hmmm - thanks for the tip and the honesty. Will keep all of this in mind.
Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsFeb 11, 2025
@ShmosKnows @nextcloud reopening the thread to see what others have said and I think I need to pay closer attention to cryptpad now :)
Show threadJonathan DickinsonFeb 11, 2025

@ShmosKnows @ifixcoinops I have had a pretty bad experience with Nextcloud. If you self-host it, it goes down from time to time (some updates), by design, and you need to Google how to fix it. While that isn't a problem for _me,_ if I were to be hit by a bus it would become inoperable for my family.

I would have suggested OnlyOffice, but it looks like they are on the AI nonsense badwagon.

Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsFeb 11, 2025
@jcdickinson @ShmosKnows I've also had some frustrating downtime due to updates etc, and yyyyeah, it can sometimes be a right pain in the arse. I feel like that's probably par for the course, if you self-host then you're basically your own sysadmin, one day you'll go "Damn, this is bollocksed, I need to call a guy... oh shit, I AM the guy"
Show threadcuan_knaggsFeb 11, 2025
@ifixcoinops @jcdickinson @ShmosKnows you know, one day i will learn to do full backups before i do upgrades
Show threadRachelFeb 11, 2025
@ifixcoinops @ShmosKnows @nextcloud there is an office app that can be hosted alongside nextcloud called Collabora, but that was possibly the most cursed container I have ever seen
Show threadShaun (he/ him)Feb 11, 2025

@rachel “most cursed container“?

Which was the container?
And cursed how?

Show threadRachelFeb 11, 2025
@ShmosKnows it has been a while so looking back at the deployment manifest I see allowPrivilegeEscalation: true enabled. I remember seeing some other ugly stuff with how sub-proccesses were spawned in the container. The offical docs recommend setting --privileged when running in regular docker.

They're creating jails per doc open for some reason. wild stuff
Show threadRachelFeb 11, 2025
@ShmosKnows https://github.com/CollaboraOnline/online/issues/9948

ok so maybe some of the worst got resolved? not sure, I'll have to take a deeper look eventually, but at the end of a loooooooooooooong homelab backlog
Latest Docker image is only working in privileged mode · Issue #9948 · CollaboraOnline/online

Describe the Bug With the latest Docker image (tag: 24.04.7.1.1) the container doesn't start up correctly without privileged rights. With previous versions (tag 24.04.6.2.1 and before) it was possi...

GitHub
Show threadGorgeous na Shock!Feb 11, 2025
@rachel @ShmosKnows Yeah I run Collabora and I don't have to enable privileged mode or anything... It's pretty standard from a compose file perspective...
Show threadJack AponteFeb 11, 2025
@ifixcoinops @ShmosKnows @nextcloud Seconding #nextcloud here!