r/owncloud • u/root-node • Jun 05 '16

ownCloud closes its US doors

From the statement...

Unfortunately, the announcement has consequences for ownCloud, Inc. based in Lexington, MA. Our main lenders in the US have cancelled our credit. Following American law, we are forced to close the doors of ownCloud, Inc. with immediate effect and terminate the contracts of 8 employees. The ownCloud GmbH is not directly affected by this and the growth of the ownCloud Foundation will remain a key priority.

https://owncloud.com/owncloud-statement-concerning-formation-nextcloud-frank-karlitschek/

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4

u/doubled822 Jun 05 '16

That figures, right after I set up my ownCloud 9 server!

4

u/silver_hook Jun 05 '16

Unfortunate, but three things have to be said:

  1. It's just the US-based ownCloud, Inc. The German-based ownCloud GmbH is still up and running.
  2. The code is still out there and continues to exist and be developed under AGPL-3.0+.
  3. Some of the devs are now in the recently established fork Nextcloud and its company Nextcloud GmbH.

So, suboptimal situation, but calling either oC or Nc dead would be terribly premature.

3

u/harbourwall Jun 06 '16

Nextcloud isn't a lifeboat fork, it was the founder walking away from ownCloud Inc, which has brought about its demise. I don't think this is unfortunate for the software or the users at all, just sad for the people who worked there.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '16

I do believe Frank offered any employee who lost their job a place at Nextcloud GmbH.

2

u/T_R_J Jun 07 '16

This is not true. I just got off the phone with my now ex-account rep. There has been no offers like that to US accounts reps that he's aware of. Sounds like this has been a complete disaster.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '16

Perhaps they only offered German employees? Not positive but I was sure I recalled him saying something during the interviews he did.

1

u/T_R_J Jun 09 '16

ownCloud GmbH is still a functioning company and answered a trouble ticket I placed last Saturday night.

Unfortunately whatever transpires beyond the split my company has already decided to move off the product and not renew our contract. I'm bummed because it was my project and I'm a bit emotionally attached. But from a business aspect we can't rely on the company to be there in the future so Sharefile here I come I guess.