I have used Synology NASes for a good 15y now, and the one I'm on will likely be my last (DS920).

I have watched the software evolve from "quite good" to "very good" to "lets reimplement everything ourselves and close it off as much as possible".

It's sad because back in the day, at least for me, the brand was the perfect UX in many regards: small form factor and low power, price-accessible 4/5 bay NASes, a couple CPU tiers, upgradable hardware, regular software updates and a huge collection of software features.

For me they were the go-to choice for NAS because of the good web UI, the ease of setup and reliable operation that covered 99% of the prosumer usecases. They would just chug along forever, auto-updating themselves, never skipping a beat. Whenever I wanted to do special things with it via SSH I could, but the environment has become increasingly hostile to the point where I need to spend hours wondering how the heck the thing operates without bursting on fire.

I'm hoping that by the time I need to change my DS920 another good company like they were will have emerged, because building your own solution comes with operational maintenance and I want the thing to Just Work®.

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edem 5 days ago | parent [-]

What are the current options? I've been looking but I haven't found any. I have a DS923+ and it works fine, but I can already see what you are talking about.

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CharlesW 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

I've purchased 3 QNAP NAS products over the course of a decade or so, and remain happy to recommend them. Their reputation was damaged by a raft of ransomware attacks in 2021 and 2022, but since then they've been better about improving overall system security and forcing basic security hygiene on users (who often don't know any better).

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itsrobreally 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I just got a Ugreen 2800 to replace a homemade NAS, I had a Synology for a few years but it got slower and slower as the software changed so I ditched it maybe 10 years ago?

One of the things that sold me on the Ugreen was that it is basically just a garden-variety N100 box, upgradeable RAM, supports SATA and M.2, etc.

According to this installing your own OS doesn't invalidate the warranty so if I decide their software is lousy I can install Debian https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Ugreen

	▲	hedora 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I built two intel atom nas machines before switching to synology. One has no linux or windows video drivers (Intel’s fault — no transcoding), and caught fire (not intel’s fault). The other was one of the ones where the clock signal is basically a doomsday countdown timer. I had to swap it out for a warranty board for some other reason. So, there’s no way I’d consider an N100. Other options?

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CamperBob2 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There are a few previous-generation units still available on the market. This article reminded me that I'd meant to track down a DS1522+ before it's too late, and I found a couple on Amazon and other sites.

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tenuousemphasis 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

TrueNAS Community Edition?

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newsclues 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I bought a hexOS license when it when on sale. TrueNAS for people that don’t want to be a storage professional.