Sad but true.

On the other hand, the average customer doesn't even want to go through the trouble of buying a device and then having to load the OS on it. Arguably it's a red herring to worry about the Surface. Let it succeed or fail. But you can be sure I won't buy one.

The saddest part is that in a place called hacker news there is such low interest in hacking combined with a high propensity to fall for such a transparent market manipulation maneuver coming from a convicted monopoly abuser that's trying to extend their PC dominance into ARM tablets.

"What's sad about it? I can't replace the OS in my car after all."

Oh, I did, and is fantastic.

I could log the rpms of the tachometer, the accelerations and the gyros, GPS, fuel that the car is spending, the battery use, so I could model the energy it takes for my car to go to the mountains up or down, how much it will spend more if there are red semaphores on my way, or the true air resistance with velocity( I had some marks in the bodywork and instruments outside that really affect aerodinamics with velocity).

It is really really useful planning ahead how much fuel you will use based on a map, how much money you will spend and how much your tires suffer in every circumstance with real data instead of suppositions(that are almost wrong).

In the future all cars will be like that, that is for sure.

Maybe it is sad from his perspective because it is something he would be interested in doing?

Just because it is an appliance that you are not interested in modifying doesn't mean that he should not be disappointed...

At least how I read it, the "sad but true" was in reference to the fact that people on HN didn't care that you couldn't modify it, not his personal disappointment.

Right.. he is personally disappointed that others do not share his interests. He isn't suggesting that you should be similarly disappointed.

Obviously if he thinks the general HN crowd isn't interested he doesn't expect the general HN crowd to be saddened by that fact.

Some people do replace (or at least tweak) the OS in their car.

The electronics in my car consisted of exactly one transistor (which drove the coil).

Ok, I hacked it and replaced it with an MSD electronic ignition.

Love it! I hope the car keeps on tickin'

Can you tell more?

72 Dodge Challenger, 340 sb. Slightly (ahem) modified to put out about 400 HP (measured on the dyno). Makes me feel like a kid everytime I drive it.

Having recently had the immense displeasure of using Ford' SYNC, I very, very much wish that I could replace the OS in [my] car.

Actually, no, I'd rather just wait for Google to bring out their car. Self driving, knows where I want to go based on my calendar/plane tickets/etc (things that Google Now already does), etc.