this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2024
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The article didn't specify how old the affected models are, but any time you use an all-in-one device with proprietary software, you take the risk of this happening.
To some extent, you can't really blame the manufacturers for this, either. They can't reasonably continue maintaining software for their products for an indefinite period of time. As an extreme example, I wouldn't expect the old Linksys wifi router I used in 2004 to still be receiving firmware updates.
My NAS hardware is relatively ancient, but it's regular server hardware running TrueNAS. If TrueNAS suddenly stops getting updates, there's UnRaid, or just Linux. It really goes to show the advantage of using generic hardware with open software.
You're right in saying that these devices are basically ancient, and also right about why you should never use all-in-ones for anything that you would want to last more than a couple of years.
http://support.dlink.com.au/download/download.aspx?product=DNS-320 The age of the devices:
For those kind of devices, the manufacturer should be required to make it possible to easily load a third-party firmware when they declare a device as obsolete.
I understand it's not financially viable to support a device beyond a certain threshold, but there's likely a community behind those that are willing to keep these devices alive for a while longer, with the benefit of reducing the amount of ewaste.