Photocopier vendors do not open the controller software up to competitors / vendors who provide support. They just give them specs for replacement parts. Do you force Apple to let 'competitors' support OS X 10.5 on G5 Macs? Do you force Google to let competitors still support Google Wave?

Ah yes, mis read. :)

No, support will only come for large enterprise customers.

$3500 is a lot to spend on software

Again do we really expect the target Chromebook consumer to be able to install Linux on them? Chromebooks are meant for mom and dad who can't fend off viruses and updates on their PC...

Exactly. Maybe it isn't just that I got older...

burning man? really? if you are beyond your early 20s and haven't realized how dumb burning man is....

Totally, that is what you and I would do. But that isn't viable for every Chromebook consumer, or even the majority of them.

I think these cloud services are a little different. You probably physically purchased games that are now unplayable because they don't have servers to connect to. Similarly if you bought a Chromebook and Google discontinued the Docs service you'd have purchased a very pretty brick.

No matter who it is, how long it has been around, or what the service is... if it is a cloud service it will one day go away.

Somehow I think we'll find out one day he and Nerval's Lobster were just bots all along, unreleased parts of Slashcode.

I think having to spool the engine up or keep turbo boost is actually kinda fun. Same with rowing my own gears, driving fast should be a involving, I'm not trying to set perfect lap times on the open road :)

Can't argue with the final row of 2 seats, but without that option an M5 is a competitor, similarly priced, and certainly as fun to drive. Especially the previous V10 generation.

Can't say I'm exactly a fan either.

Having driven one extensively, it is kinda fun, but not in the sense that a Porsche Cayman is fun. It goes very fast off the line, but it is hard to hide its rather ample weight. Same deal with the Tesla Roadster too, having owned the chassis mate Lotus Exige for several years, the experiences weren't comparable.