Would it be possible (not supported) to replace RouterOS with something else on RDS2216 server?
This device looks like amazing hardware, but I've been using Rose and Containers features on other devices for a long time and I'm absolutely not going to use them for such serious purpose any time soon.
But I would like to buy and recommend RDS2216 if I could replace the bootloader with u-boot so that I can install Linux on it.
Naturally, I don't expect Mikrotik to do any work on it nor support it. I just don't want to jump through hoops like OpenWRT folks have to in order to put an auditable operating system on a storage server.

IMHO RouterOS simply doesn't qualify for storage server right now at any organization that needs to meet any security or disaster recovery compliance because it's simply impossible to audit or monitor using popular tools (Datadog, Crowdstrike). It's also not possible to use any standard backup or data integrity tools which are a strict iso27001 requirement.

So... any chance that Mikrotik could allow replacing bootloader so that we could run Linux on them and start buying these devices?

I have the exact same thoughts. The hardware is really interesting for that price, with built-in NIC features like 2×100G, 4×25G, etc and an SFF-8644.

The problem with this setup, as I see it, is that you simply can't rely on a locked-down and limited network operating system environment like Mikrotik ROS—especially for business-critical storage use. There are no proper tools for managing and troubleshooting the storage system, and the lack of auditability makes it unsuitable for organizations that require security or disaster recovery compliance.

I also don’t see how running virtual machines under ROS is supposed to work, despite the "Container & VM-ready" claim in the newsletter. On top of that, the ROS container system is still undergoing constant changes, making it quite unsuitable for business use.

So I agree it would be great if there were a way to replace the bootloader and install a vanilla Linux distro and running ROS as a VM instead. That way, you'd have full control over the storage system and how to manage add-on applications.

I’m absolutely dying to know which target audience marketing had in mind for this "appliance"!

Brave ones, living on the edge

One fly in the ointment is the fact that RDS2216 is still a switch and thus most of the network interfaces are behind the Marvell switch ASIC and not directly on the PCI bus.

If that’s the case, using the 98DX4310 only as a standalone switch with just the control plane connected to the PCI bus would be pretty useless.

Of course there's connectivity from the CPU to the switch and not just for the control plane, but you'd still have to be able to bring up and configure the switch ASIC from the non-routeros OS you're using and that just sounds like a non-starter to me.

If you're thinking about drivers, pretty much all Prestera drivers developed by Marvell are already available in Linux, and since RouterOS is based on Linux, I'm pretty sure MT is using the same ones.