As an electronics guy with both backend and frontend programming experience for me there are three routes when it comes to my home infrastructure:
1. Buy something dumb, non-smart, non-cloud
2. Build it myself
3. Buy something that can be hacked and used with my own infrastructure
The problem isn't even their infrastructure, it is that they decide when they want to change it. Even if it was all good faith changes, that could be a reliability issue and force me to dedicate time to the issue on their whim. I don't like that. If I run such things myself I can decide myself when to update and how much time I want to invest when (provided the system is decoupled from the public internet).
And this point isn't even about any single company trading the good will of their customers bit by bit — it is just about me not having to jump when their service changes or ends for whatever reason (and there are many).
1. Buy something dumb, non-smart, non-cloud
2. Build it myself
3. Buy something that can be hacked and used with my own infrastructure
The problem isn't even their infrastructure, it is that they decide when they want to change it. Even if it was all good faith changes, that could be a reliability issue and force me to dedicate time to the issue on their whim. I don't like that. If I run such things myself I can decide myself when to update and how much time I want to invest when (provided the system is decoupled from the public internet).
And this point isn't even about any single company trading the good will of their customers bit by bit — it is just about me not having to jump when their service changes or ends for whatever reason (and there are many).