Ask Paul: April 18 (Premium)

Happy Friday! This is a weird one, thanks to the holiday weekend and our last-minute trip to Oaxaca, here in Mexico. This will be a lot shorter than usual, but that's fine. Let's dive in!
? Synologistic
spacecamel asks:

On WW, you mentioned that you were still looking at a Synology for your storage needs. Did you see the report in Tom’s Hardware that we’re requiring to use their own drives? Another example of enshittification.

I saw the headline, but since you mentioned it, I went and read up on it. And it's semi-defensible, though Synology uses Toshiba and Seagate drives, and doesn't make its own. So the worry here is that there will be some markup on Synology drives and/or that it will artificially limit feature availability based on which types of drives you have. The latter seems to be underway and the former is, well, we'll see.

That said, I'm not sure whether this changes my mind on Synology per se. The value of this ecosystem is very high and while there are some other options I've considered, it's almost a no-brainer to go with Synology. I do hear you on the enshittification. But when I do get a NAS, I'll be getting new drives anyway. So having to get Synology drives is ... whatever. Assuming they work reliably, don't cost more (or, at least too much more), and are supported properly because of this requirement.

Plus, I expect the feedback from the community to be overwhelmingly negative on this. A better approach would be for individuals and drive makers to assess the quality of various drives to see whether they meet whatever needs Synology has. A sort of Synology certified score/program. I'd be surprised if this didn't evolve into something like that.
? Dreaming of streaming
christianwilson asks:

My family made it clear they do not want to switch away from Fire TV, which I'm generally fine with, but I think we'd be better served with a different platform.

Now I'm intrigued. Why on earth would anyone feel strongly about Fire TV? Is this about Amazon content? For example, most of the movie/TV content I purchased was via Apple, which is what helps put Apple TV over the top.

I like Apple TV for its hardware performance and clean UI. I'd gladly move to Google TV if it weren't missing Xfinity Stream (I am baffled it is still not there). Roku holds no appeal for me anymore.

Yeah. I've tried all the streaming platforms at one time or another--and I've spent a lot of time on Roku and Google TV/Android TV, in particular--but they've all fallen a bit in my eyes thanks to rampant advertising. Apple TV has some of that before shows, but not in the UI. And though the hardware is due for an upgrade, it feels like a higher-end device with better performance too.

Jason Snell recently did a comparison of the major streaming device platforms on Six Colors and found a lot to like, and not like, about each. I know you are settled in with Apple TV as your streaming device of choice but have you considered doing a...