ownCloud reached version 8 today, February 9, 2015. We’re talking about the ownCloud Server, a powerful, open-source, free, and self-hosted file sharing solution that offers easier and faster file syncing and sharing functionality, along with numerous other attractive features. ownCloud Server is considered by many a Dropbox replacement and it is distributed in two editions, ownCloud Community Edition and ownCloud Enterprise Edition.

Key features of ownCloud Server 8 include a brand-new Favorites section that allows users to easily access their favorite files and folder with a single mouse click, support for federated cloud version 2 (server to server sharing), direct download support, better search functionality, various accessibility enhancements, updated PDF viewer, user management improvements, better updater app, several enhancements to the apps management page, as well as overall performance improvements.

ownCloud Server 8 brings many other important features

Moreover, ownCloud Server 8 improves the importing of contacts function, offers better storage configuration, shorter and better looking sharing links, automatic dependency resolver for app containers, better structured admin and settings pages, support for creating and deleting LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) configurations, support for deleting LDAP user name attributes, a provisioning API (Application Programming Interface) that will be distributed as part of the Community Edition of ownCloud, several API features, and better documentation.

The ownCloud 8 file sharing server can run on Linux kernel-based and Microsoft Windows computer operating systems, and it’s available for download for free as a single file php installer designed for shared hosts, ready-to-deploy packages for various distributions of GNU/Linux, including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, OpenSuSE, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and CentOS, or as a source package from Softpedia.

Keep in mind that in order to communicate with the ownCloud Server 8 from a remote machine, you will need to install a client or access its web interface via a web browser. Desktop clients are available at the moment for Linux, Windows (XP, Vista, 7, and 8), as well as Mac OS X 10.7 or later, supporting both 64 and 32-bit hardware platforms. Mobile clients exist only for the Android and iPhone/iPad devices. Please watch the video below for more information about the new features implemented in ownCloud Server 8.