The plan is as follows:
Code is free and open source, but 98% don't have the time/the knowledge/the will to self host and will happily be us to manage and secure their data (like DropBox).
Open source is not much a marketing argument, but in my opinion the only way to build a sustainable future.
> Code is free and open source, but 98% don't have the time/the knowledge/the will to self host
The vast majority of people who use GSuite won't understand or care about the OSS angle. Even if they do, they won't have the sophistication to examine your code. Thus, they must simply "trust" you, the same way they'd trust a corporation like Google.
People who really care about OSS are more likely to choose a more established solution for each use case (ie. Nextcloud for storage), and to self-host those solutions.
> will happily be us to manage and secure their data (like DropBox)
Again, if your edge over Dropbox is "we're open source!", I think this is just not compelling to most potential users who still want someone else hosting/managing their files. In that case, the open source transparency doesn't even mean anything, because the code in your repo isn't necessarily the code you're running on your servers.
In my case, I don't trust Dropbox, but I want their infrastructure. So I use a third-party encryption tool to ensure that they don't have access to folders I want to keep private. Best of both worlds.
Disclaimer: I’m part of the Nextcloud team (and formerly ownCloud before we forked).
With Nextcloud we don’t offer hosting for a reason – we would compete with Google, Dropbox, Amazon etc. in a race to the bottom, and it wouldn’t be private either. nathan-io said it very well already in their reply.
Another thing which then makes it super simple for people to self-host is a) PHP (yes, we got ridiculed soo much for that through the years …) and b) a dead-simple installation which in the simplest case (with SQLite) only asks for username and password you want for the admin. Most importantly, we use open standards and formats like WebDAV, CalDAV, CardDAV, IMAP, gpx, ActivityPub, etc. which makes Nextcloud universally compatible.
---------------
However, for people who do want to simply sign up we do have an easy way: https://nextcloud.com/signup/ – this is also very presently available as "Sign up with a provider" in the mobile and desktop apps.
How it works:
- We have a list of participating providers (of which there are many more at https://nextcloud.com/providers/ ) with some strict guidelines like minimum storage space, minimum set of specific apps, uptime, reliability, etc.
- On the signup site or step we show exactly 1 provider (instead of a list like Mastodon etc.) to not overwhelm people with choice. This is based on your location and it just shows the nearest one, assuming it’s probably best regarding law and performance. There’s an option to "change provider" right below the provider.
- The only thing we ask for is your email address, and you only have to wait shortly while they provision your new instance. Sign up approaches the simplicity of Google or Dropbox this way.
I’m curious to see how it will fare for you, and wish you best of luck. If you ever want to join us or collaborate regarding integration, you are very welcome → https://nextcloud.com/contribute/
The plan is as follows: Code is free and open source, but 98% don't have the time/the knowledge/the will to self host and will happily be us to manage and secure their data (like DropBox).
Open source is not much a marketing argument, but in my opinion the only way to build a sustainable future.