"The reason why that's unlikely to happen is that companies treat source code as a significant asset, which is why I first mentioned a longer support period. My

"The reason why that's unlikely to happen is that companies treat source code as a significant asset, which is why I first mentioned a longer support period. My favorite approach for this problem would be regulation requiring mandatory release of source code, the toolchain, signing keys, etc. if the manufacturer stops supporting something, so the places which want to keep their trade secrets can still do so but are required to help their users at the same time." I mostly concur, therefore I certainly hope you're all donating to the Software Freedom Conservancy for their GNU GPL enforcement efforts (see https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/ https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/ for more) and encouraging people to license their free software under a strongly-copylefted free software license such as the GNU GPL v3 or later, or the AGPL v3 or later. These licenses allow users to request and deserve to receive complete corresponding source code, build instructions, signing keys, and other materials needed to build the software. We all need free software for all our computers and we need it whether a manufacturer supports something or not. It's not the public's job to look out for Western Digital's interests including their alleged trade secrets. Western Digital still supports the WDMyCloud device but apparently can't be trusted to handle the software that device runs. It would help WDMyCloud users to publish that device's entire software as free software (if they haven't already), as well as the other things you rightly mention (build instructions, signing keys, and anything else needed to get the device running) so users aren't waiting for this less trusted party to make better choices. Users ought to be free to run, inspect, modify, and share this software or get someone else they trust to do this work on their behalf.