FOSS version of google drive or other drives that I can host on a raspberry pi
I want to degoogle and this is one of the last steps. The free versions of other services provide too little storage so I was wondering if I can make a cloud using my raspberry pi
I would vote for syncthing as it can have better support if you need syncing across work firewalls. Also allows device-to-device sync, not just server-device. It's a cool federated solution (like lemmy!).
In my experience syncthing is used to keep a folder on multiple devices in parity. So deletinga file in the folder on your desktop will also remove it from the linked folder.
Google drive is like a secondary hard drive. Files do not need to match the host files
This is what I use to sync notes between my mobile and pc. Sync only over wifi so I don't have to bother with internet facing security issues, and my data doesn't end up traveling outside my wifi.
Nextcloud. Do not forget to backup your data and sql db. Use mariadb or postgresql on initial setup and configure php-fpm, opcache and other tunings you may refer to documentation
I set up SAMBA so that I don't have to keep a copy of the content on my computer. I also don't need an application. But, setting up the SAMBA server requires a few terminal commands and editing a text file.
I'd recommend Immich if you want to replace Google Photos in particular and just a SSH/SFTP setup for saving files. A Raspberry Pi might be a bit underpowered tho.