https://fountain.fm/episode/BHpub95Eg8pIqC32dth6 Give this a listen before ditching them. Just my two sats. There might be another more current episode but Iirc, this covers their shift to support as a service. Hardware is a hard business to sustain and scale.

I'll give it a listen. I don't want to ditch them... I love it, built it myself, and it was my first successful electronics DIY... So my relationship with that black box in my closet is deeper than with any other possession. But I've learned to pay attention to these things. The quality of a product only ever takes a hit, even a tiny hit, when the company isn't doing well.

I guess it depends how technical you are. CasaOS and Cosmos Cloud are somewhat similar, though more technical. I like TrueNAS, but I have nothing against Start9.

Excellent. Thanks, I'll start researching these

Hardware is generally a low-margin revenue stream. It's not wrong that you should pay attention to shifts in business strategy like this, but the underlying reasons are important and it can actually be a good thing. From what I've heard about S9 this recent shift actually makes market sense.