Re: it's the 21st century and they're still...
It is not THEM (as WD). They are just shopping from the lowest bidder.
That is "consumer device manufacturers" these days. It is all ODM by someone working to a minimal budget somewhere in South East Asia. So any expectations of bug fixes, etc are pretty far fetched as well.
It cannot be fixed in the current economic environment as it is the minimal cost model. The only way it can be fixed is if the seller (the one who stuck the brand sticker on it) will be made responsible at a FTC/Eu level to supply fixes for a reasonable amount of time. IMHO 5 years of security and safety fixes for software with penalties for non-delivering in the range of 5-10% of global turnover should do the job.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
