I sold my Synology NAS as soon as I found out, that I can't change the underlying software (DiskStationManager). It wasn't open source and the hardware was dependent on that propriatary software. As soon as they decide, that your device is too old, they drop support and you are left with an unsecure brick.
And you are saying the software is open source. Did I miss something? Did something change?
Any advice for a near (tech) illiterate newb on what to get? I only recently switched from using a patchwork of like 2 dozen different google drives to store all my stuff to a single nextcloud account through hertzner. But it costs per month, and that's always risky with my finances. Would love to learn how to do it myself, but don't know where to start. If it matters, I got the 5tb plan, and have 5 people on it (self included).
I think it's closed source indeed, but their support window is very long at the moment, so while you're right, at least until now they're actually acting responsibly.
It would be easy to unlock the devices for different Software - like ugreen does.
And imagine all the possible backdoors in their software. No one can check, because it is closed source. And this on a device with your most senisble data.
Calling their acting 'responsible' is a huuuge strech.
Also, I had a very bad experience with Synology support when the C2000 bug hit my DS415+. Once this thing dies, I’ll definitely won’t get another Synology.
By your definition no closed source company can act responsibly. If that is your definition, they indeed don't act responsibly, my point is that they appear to ship security updates for at least a decade after the device got released, which seems pretty decent. And they have a good record on quickly responding to any security issues and keeping everything up to date.
So they're doing pretty good. Would it be nice if they go open source? for sure, but for a closed source system, it's currently doing great.
Is this a new thing? AFAIK, Synology used to be open source, but then went closed source several years ago. Which is, when the Xpenology project was born.