30 January 2012, 17:01

ownCloud reaches version 3.0

Additions to ownCloud 3 include a photo gallery

The ownCloud developers have released version 3.0 of their synchronisation software. ownCloud lets users manage and synchronise personal data (addresses, appointments, music, photos, bookmarks, files) across multiple devices. The developers of ownCloud recommend their program as an alternative to services such as Dropbox, Apple's iCloud, and Strato HiDrive as users don't have to trust a service provider with their data.

Additions to ownCloud 3.0 include a photo gallery and an integrated PDF viewer. A new online editor now lets groups of users jointly edit text documents. The program, based on Ace, has syntax highlighting for 35 programming languages, recognises keyboard shortcuts, and features automatic indentation and code folding. The developers say that they still want to add support for Microsoft Word and Open/Libreoffice file types and include a sync client for working offline.

ownCloud manages files, appointments, and addresses via WebDAV or in a browser

The calendar, which features a completely new interface, now automatically recognises the time zone and can create recurring appointments. Pictures can be added to contacts. ownCloud 3.0 exports individual addresses and entire address books as vCard files, and users can now use multiple address books. Support has been improved for LDAP and Active Directory; a new logging feature makes setup easier.

ownCloud is available for download under the Affero GPL 3.0 licence and can be installed on any Linux server with an Apache web server, a MySQL or Sqlite database, and PHP 5.3 or later. There are instructions for operation on a personal server and on a rented server. An online demo provides an overview of ownCloud. The developers founded a startup a few weeks ago and plan to release a business version with support in March.