Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: A disenshittification moment from the land of mass storage; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/10/synology/
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Discussion
@pluralistic Open source garage door openers:
Home Assistant's Next Official Hardware Partner Is Konnected https://share.google/qHoCsws1Tz8nO2Qk1
@pluralistic lately I noticed so much of enshittification looks like something about what RMS would say "I told you".
And it explains FSF's weird policy of calling closed firmware that cannot be updated by manufacturer as respecting your freedom. Because then manufacturer can't push update to remotely disable hard drives from competitor.
@pluralistic I'm also cheering this news, but I think the guru3d article is misleading? And you may have missed some of the nuance?
Synology's media release says this is a temporary pause, not a reversal.
Also, they didn't ban all 3rd party drives. They had a "Hardware Compatibility List" and it included Seagate, Toshiba, WD, etc.
They've had the list for years, it just didn't apply to consumer grade NAS.
And drives not on the list still worked, but didn't provide all functionality.
@pluralistic Also, note that the changes are not retroactive: they apply to 2025 NAS only. That's not to say that they aren't following the classic enshittification program. But some of the reporting I think has been misleading.
Synology are definitely in the vendor lock in stage, trying to encourage or force folks to buy Synology-branded drives - which are just regular drives from Toshiba/Seagate/WD rebranded.
Here's their media release saying it's a pause:
https://www.synology.com/en-ca/company/news/article/dsm73/Synology%C2%AE%20Releases%20DiskStation%20Manager%207.3%2C%20Bringing%20Efficient%20Data%20Tiering%2C%20Enhanced%20Security%2C%20and%20AI-Powered%20Collaboration
@pluralistic Lastly, I personally wonder how bad the effect on Synology's bottom line has been. I doubt the reliability of reports about their sales, and I bet their slice of the consumer grade device market has been in freefall for years anyway.
Synology probably makes most of their money from enterprise grade NAS. And they still have the same Product Compatibility List for enterprise that they've always had.
The new policies are pushing upper tier consumer grade into enterprise for them.
@pluralistic After a bit further research just now, I realize that my own info has also been a bit incomplete. It's hard to get good details on what exactly was going on, and what the policy was. Synology could do with better comms, that's for sure.
Here's an article from NAS Compares in April that seems to cover the details more accurately than the various social media links:
https://nascompares.com/2025/04/16/synology-2025-nas-hard-drive-and-ssd-lock-in-confirmed-bye-bye-seagate-and-wd/
@pluralistic main takeaway: "Of course, no one should ever buy a Synology product again." - I won't recommend them to anyone again despite of their 180
@spitfire @pluralistic Absolutely. I don’t need a new NAS yet, but when I do, it won’t be another Synology. It looks like it’ll be more work, but OpenMediaVault looks promising.
@spitfire @pluralistic I’m in the market for a new NAS, and the first thing I read was the “good news” about Synology. Completely disqualifying behavior.
