Synology used to be the “Apple” of the NAS world — polished, user-friendly, and reliable. But after their latest announcement, it feels like the company is going downhill fast.

They’ve been stripping away features from Synology Photos, removing essential video codecs like H.265 (HEVC), H.264 (AVC), and VC-1, Video Station, and updating Container Manager (Docker) to a version that’s already reached end-of-life. Now, they're taking it even further by locking new Plus models to only use their hard drives or ones they explicitly approve.

It’s a disappointing direction. I’ll stick with the models I already have for now, but I’m seriously considering building a new server — probably running TrueNAS or Unraid.