The Synology End Game
Synology, once a darling of the NAS world, is facing a fierce backlash over new customer-hostile policies, including proprietary Samba limits and mandatory Synology-branded hard drives. This story resonates deeply on HN as it taps into a core fear: beloved tech companies succumbing to vendor lock-in and prioritizing profit extraction over user freedom. It's a classic tale of corporate overreach pushing a dedicated community to seek open-source alternatives and DIY solutions.
The Lowdown
The article expresses profound disillusionment with Synology, a once-favored Network Attached Storage (NAS) provider, due to recent shifts towards what the author describes as "abusive, customer-hostile policies."
- Samba Limits: Synology has reportedly implemented proprietary wrappers around the Samba daemon on some models, artificially limiting concurrent connections.
- Mandatory Drive Purchases: A new policy dictates that future Synology models will only recognize and function with hard drives purchased directly from Synology, a stark departure from their previous, more flexible stance. This is particularly problematic as Synology's drives offer a shorter warranty (3 years) compared to many third-party drives (5 years).
- Author's Response: The author, a long-time Synology user with multiple units, views these changes as a significant deterrent and is now considering returning to DIY NAS builds with TrueNAS or exploring other brands like UGREEN or Buffalo.
This "end game" scenario for Synology highlights a trend where companies compromise customer goodwill for increased control and profit, pushing loyal users towards open-source or competitor solutions.
The Gossip
Synology's Sad Squeeze
Many users expressed deep disappointment and frustration with Synology's recent policy changes, viewing them as a betrayal of customer trust and a shift from a user-friendly company to one focused on "value extraction." The sentiment is that Synology has "lost the plot" and that its previous excellent customer support and product quality are being undermined by these new restrictive practices.
Corporate Cunning and Consumer Capture
The discussion frequently broadens to the pervasive industry trend of companies, once beloved for their products, resorting to proprietary lock-in and anti-consumer practices to boost profits. Commenters lament how companies prioritize short-term gains and investor demands over long-term customer satisfaction and reputation, often describing it as a "circle of life" where good products eventually become predatory.
Alternative Adventures and DIY Driveways
A significant portion of the conversation revolved around finding and recommending alternatives to Synology. Users shared experiences with building custom NAS solutions using TrueNAS or Unraid, suggesting specific cases (like Fractal Node 304, Jonsbo) and components, and discussing other commercial NAS brands like ASUSTOR or even UGREEN. The emphasis was on maintaining flexibility and avoiding vendor lock-in.
Software's Shine, Hardware's Halt
While criticizing the new policies, some users still acknowledged the strengths of Synology's DiskStation Manager (DSM) software ecosystem, including applications like Synology Drive, Moments, and Hyper Backup. However, this appreciation was often tempered with the realization that the software's benefits might no longer outweigh the downsides of the restrictive hardware policies, pushing users towards self-hosted alternatives.