Synology's latest headline features are only available to people using solely Synology's own hard drives.

A year ago, they tried to make it so that you couldn't create a new RAID volume unless it used only first-person drives.[0] Then they walked that back to allow you to use normal Seagate and WD, etc., drvies.[1] It seems they've reverted locking new features to their own hardware.

After that first move, I swore I was done buying Synology hardware. After they relaxed, I was willing to consider that they'd learned from customer feedback and abandoned this scheme. Now? This is the future they're racing toward and I want no part of it.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43734706

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45513485

I've been using a Synology for several years now and I'm nervous about continuing with the platform with these moves they've been making. Day-to-day, I don't really have to think about it and it serves my needs well, but I know one day something is going to happen that requires me to think about it, and it feels like I'm waiting around to fall into a trap.

I'm not sure which direction to go, as I don't want my NAS to turn into a sys admin hobby.