14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical has finally released the source code for the Ubuntu One file-syncing online service that was retired just last year.
Some of you might remember that Canonical had an online storage solution under the name of Ubuntu One, but the company decided to drop it back in April 2014. They said at the time that the service was not living up to their standards and that other companies, like Dropbox, were doing a much better job. It was also true that all that online storage space was costing them quite a lot, and they didn't get a return on their investment.
When they finally pulled the plug on the file-syncing part of Ubuntu One, they also said that they were going to release the source code for it. In fact, that code is one of the few proprietary components owned by Canonical. It didn't sit too well with the community, but now they are finally making it right.
Ubuntu One is not entirely gone
Many users tend to think that Canonical retired Ubuntu One last year, but they only closed a couple of services, the online storage part and the music functionality. Ubuntu One still exists to take care of sign-in services that are required in various parts of the ecosystem, like Ubuntu Touch, for example.
"Today, we’re happy to be open sourcing the biggest piece of our Ubuntu One file syncing service. The code we’re releasing is the server side of what desktop clients connected to when syncing local or remote changes. This is code where most of the innovation and hard work went throughout the years, where we faced most of the scaling challenges and the basis on which other components were built upon. We have released it under a AGPLv3 license and hoping it’s useful for developers to read through, fork into their own projects or pick out useful bits and pieces," reads the announcement from Canonical.
As you would expect, the code is now available on Launchpad. This is not everything in Canonical's treasury, as code pertaining to the website, REST APIs, contacts and music streaming is still on its way.