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I personally switched from NextCloud to Syncthing.

Syncthing:

• is easier for me to maintain,
• allows for the “server” to be behind NAT,
• lets me have multiple “servers” at the same time (eg. something at home and a VPS)
• lets me have certain “servers” set as untrusted, so all data on them is encrypted, while others can have it unencrypted for easier access I put “server” in quotes, as Syncthing doesn’t really have a server, all clients are equal peers.

On the other hand, NextCloud:

• gives me a way to share files by link with others,
• lets me browse files via a web interface,
• mobile app lets me access files as I need them instead of having to synchronize everything.

I do - because shipping with Windows means that I pay for a Windows license when buying the product.

Unpopular opinion: non-pro can handle the OS just fine and then some. Try out SailfishOS (unfortunately not OSS) - it’s as smooth as butter. Or UBPorts - it works great (unfortunately both Sailfish and UBPorts aren’t as polished when it comes to actual hardware support on PinePhone, but they show nicely what could be done). I don’t think I even need to mention Sxmo, which is no surprise that it works great, but its approach is definitely not for everyone.

It’s just Gnome/Plasma that are mainly developed for “big” computers and are pretty wasteful. But the situation is definitely improving.

Matrix works, but it’s way harder and more expensive to selfhost than for example XMPP, which can be hosted even on cheapest VPS or first RPi. I would definitely take the cost and “how hard is it to maintain in the long run” into consideration.

Mattermost also works and is pretty easy to selfhost, but it doesn’t have federation.

Another option is always an email with delta.chat - I don’t think it offers voice calling, but email is one of the most basic services one can host, and many automated solutions to help with that exist.