I would agree if it's non-EoL products. This, not so much.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say since it's EoL WD don't need to do anything. Just that the degree of seriousness of this incident changes with that.
A company should not be permitted to just declare something “EoL” if it is still in widespread usage. They made it, they support it as long as any customer still has it.
If the product in question doesn't have an available extended warranty, then pick another product.
Telling every hardware maker "you have to support every device you make forever" is ludicrous.
I have some 15-year-old netbooks in storage that still power on, should eeePC have to "support" them now? Should they have to maintain a repair depot with replacement parts forever? Should they have to just release their own version of Linux forever to support each model of hardware?
Yes, yes and yes.
Accumulation of benefits, shifting of responsibilities, the American way.
There's a good middle ground. Perhaps, like the 10 years for cars, it needs to be legislated. Perhaps this is what we consumers have decided to accept, that once the warranty runs out, that's it.
In the case of car service parts, there’s a burgeoning after-market network of suppliers. I can probably find 5+ parts from different suppliers for brake wear parts for even 25 year old cars sold in significant volume. As someone wrenching on very much not-new cars for the family (and occasional friend), I don’t think we need a legislative solution for car parts.
The fact that there is after-market suppliers is more that manufacturers haven't worked out how to stop that on purely mechanical parts.
They would much prefer to tie you to their own maintenance network and parts if they could.
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2020/08/03/ask-a-hemmings-e...
I am sure there are Windows NT machines still in service. I think my Dad has one in his basement. Should Windows forever support NT?
If they were offering an online service, then yes. These devices were compromised by WD’s online file sharing tool.
[EDIT: widespread, very public data loss with a remote cause, as a result of a firmware vulnerability in a product whose job is to store data]
My data is much more important than a 50$ rebate on a storage device.