Ten Ways NAS Is Getting Enshitified
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
NAS vendors are adopting restrictive hardware designs that limit user repairability and choice.
The article lists ten ways NAS hardware is worsening, including soldered LPDDR RAM on x86 systems, persistent use of 1GbE networking, drive lock-in policies requiring proprietary drives, fixed low-capacity OS storage, PCIe lane throttling, recycled hardware generations, rising hard drive costs, and DRAM-less SSDs. These changes prioritize manufacturer margins and ecosystem lock-in over modularity, local ownership, and hardware longevity, pushing consumer NAS toward closed appliances.
What commenters are saying
Commenters are split: many defend DIY NAS builds (e.g., Ubuntu + ZFS on old PCs) for flexibility and lower cost, while others value prebuilt units for convenience, compact form factor, and energy efficiency. Some note that prebuilt NAS themselves often run outdated, unmaintained OS builds, and that long-term maintenance or security updates can be a concern. One commenter jokes the article's own website is so ad-heavy it exemplifies enshittification.