And so EC2 repents for another one of their design mistakes... finally fixing the problem that storage isn't persistent. Maybe we can look forward to EC2 one day becoming a standard Virtual Private Server environment!
It is somewhat notable that _this_ entry was written (and submitted) by the CTO of the company in question.
I don't think it is useful to bring attention to that. Hacker News readers familiar with AWS will recognize the name. A certain amount of pseudo-anonymity may encourage people like him to post more on HN.
People have been doing this using the Linux kernel's root pivot functionality. While it might be a bit more copious as you've got to launch the instance, wait for it to come up, then attach the EBS, it's not that much more complicated.
Can't believe it took them so long to implement a feature that is so obviously useful.