[Owncloud] OwnClouds Future

[Mario Đanić]

Hi,

please find my comments in-lined.

On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 22:10, Cosmin Gorgovan <cosmin at linux-geek.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>> I see one flaw - for this you need desktop implementation of OwnCloud
>> in a form of a
>> daemon and an application for syncing.
>>
>
> Yeah, I was proposing an implementation using FUSE because this way you can
> make applications wait until a file becomes available before allowing them
> access to it. This would prevent race conditions like starting firefox,
> firefox creating a new profile because the existent one hasn't been
> downloaded yet and then being unable to download the original file because
> the new one is locked.
> I consider this essential if you want more functionality than dropbox (eg.
> using owncloud for your whole home directory).
>>

Doesn't FUSE use a lot of memory while you're on battery? Hm...

>> I plan on working on this (daemon and sync app), either for KDE or
>> GNOME organizations, but it would be great if you would like to
>> collaborate as our projects overlap - perhaps work together on the
>> backend, I'll work on the UI, and you can modify the apps to make it
>> work with OwnCloud.
>>
>
> I think it would be orders of magnitude easier and faster to do decent file
> syncing (that is, not too slow) for dot files instead of modifying every
> application out there to use a custom library for saving settings.
>

Actually, what I meant are applications like KDM or/and GMD.

> The other thing is that at least for the moment I intend to work through
> GSoC, and as this is a KDE project, I suppose my work would need to be
> mostly DE independent or KDE-specific. By the way, are you also a GSoC
> student?

I always vote for DE independent. That's why my sync client architecture was
designed with that in mind - backend separated from the UIs.
>>
>> I am also inviting the other guy that wishes to do UI for other DE, to
>> collaborate. Reusing effort and collaborating is good.
>
> Sure. The only thing to keep in mind is that in the context of GSoC there's
> not too much time, so the tasks would need to be fairly discrete.
>>

Of course.
>> The backend and
>> the UI would be written in python.
>>
>
> I was also going to suggest Python, with the mention that I'd like to test
> the disk and network I/O speed more thoroughly.
>>

For critical tasks, we could use C-extensions (for example, rsync).
>> That being said, the approach you mentioned is a very rough one. I
>> have some ideas
>> in mind that might improve situation, namely:
>>
>> - collect basic info about the computer, and attach it to particular
>> home folder in OwnCloud
>>
>
> That sounds like something to use when otherwise things start breaking.
>>
>> - if you want to mount it on another computer, inspect that computer
>> and see if there are
>>  any potential problems
>>
>
> Those being file conflicts?

And others - potential config file -> installed program(s) conflict.
>>
>> - if there are no problem, just mount it, otherwise say there might be
>> potential conflicts
>>
>> That being said, I'd say we should avoid syncing dot-files for now:
>> its not easy to get
>> it right, and you still get most of the functionality. However I can
>> see that this has some
>> shortcomings, especially in applications like firefox that holds
>> profile data in such
>> files and directories, so we *might* selectively choose that.
>>
>
> Almost all applications save user data in dot files. Personally, I have
> switched between different distributions and kept my home directory intact
> for a number of times without encountering any significant problem. What
> we'd need is an option for creating symlinks, because files used by the same
> application might have slightly different names on different distributions.
>>

Somtimes you encounter problems, sometimes you don't. But it adds to the
bloat for sure.
>> I must say that I am really happy to see so much interest in OwnCloud.
>> Let's see
>> what the future holds for us.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Mario
>>
>
> Exciting times ahead :)
>
Indeed :)
> Thanks,
> Cosmin
>>

Cheers,
Mario
>> On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 05:18, Cosmin Gorgovan<cosmin at linux-geek.org>
>>  wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I think it should be possible to develop an webdav fuse driver optimized
>>> for this kind of use;
>>> and to modify KDM to 1) allow this kind of logins and 2)mount your
>>> owncloud as your home directory after logging in
>>>
>>> This would result in having the same dot-files on every computer you log
>>> in on, so you'd basically get what you want (and probably get in some
>>> trouble if you are running significantly different versions of the
>>> apps). With decent optimisations, I think this would work quite OK,
>>> maybe except for the initial sync where you'd be limited by the
>>> bandwidth, transfer overhead and number of files.
>>>
>>> Unless someone else sees a fatal flaw, I might just turn this into my
>>> GSoC proposal for OwnCloud.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Cosmin
>>>
>>>
>>> On 03/20/2010 10:48 PM, cody at killsudo.info wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Could OwnCloud be used to seperate kde and the home folder from any
>>>> physical
>>>> computer.
>>>>
>>>> I would one day like to be able to keep my kde desktop/resources/data in
>>>> the
>>>> cloud and simple use a domain login to request and cache my desktop to
>>>> any
>>>> kde4 pc or device. I imagine kdm supporting a login so I could specifiy
>>>> cody at killsudo.info and it would connect to my owncloud instance on the
>>>> server
>>>> and load my desktop and files. My widgets, themes, mail, tags,  etc
>>>> would all
>>>> be pulled down.
>>>>
>>>> I would even like to push akonadi to the server and connect my kde apps
>>>> up to
>>>> the cloud to store and send/receive data.
>>>>
>>>> A phone running kde(or any app that uses open-standards) could connect
>>>> to my
>>>> same instance and using akondi pull my mail, contacts, etc. Could even
>>>> stream
>>>> music on the go from my owncloud instance to the phone.
>>>>
>>>> Internet speeds are getting fast enough even wirelessly to make this a
>>>> final
>>>> reality.
>>>>
>>>> Right now I use libgcal and akonadi resources to plan my calendar then
>>>> push
>>>> the calendar to my google calendar that can then be shared with family.
>>>>
>>>> I would also like to see a nice web frontend over owncloud as you are
>>>> doing
>>>> now that lets me access my data, contacts, etc in a browser if need be
>>>> to make
>>>> quick changes or share a file.
>>>>
>>>> So, am I crazy?
>>>>
>>>> Signed
>>>>
>>>> Cody
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Owncloud mailing list
>>>> Owncloud at kde.org
>>>> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/owncloud
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Owncloud mailing list
>>> Owncloud at kde.org
>>> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/owncloud
>>>
>>>
>
>