@sabik @ramin_hal9001 @pluralistic
"John Deere used to send engineers on the road to visit farms and learn how farmers had adapted their equipment, and then it would integrate those improvements into new models of its tractors."
I live in Manitoba. That means my proximity to great farmers is par for the course, and it pains me to say that this is the juncture at which john deere could have chosen to go open source adjacent, and specifically chose not to
@sabik @ramin_hal9001 @pluralistic
John Deere among other brands is notorious for trying to dominate the entrepeneurial spirit of the farmer. Ive known farmers all my life and one thing I know is true for all of them is that they will GET SHIT DONE because none of them are under any illusion about what failure to do their job equates to. It feels like a rare case of the ends justifies the means. If we have no food, we have nothing.
@sabik @ramin_hal9001 @pluralistic
This intersection of interests has also meant spirited hacking of the system has taken place. I remember surfing for neat stls to 3d print and coming across a farmers opengps hack to use modern gps mapping digital infrastructure with their older tractor. A godsend!
Sometimes I feel like some kind of whacko for not wanting software locked hardware of any kind. And then I look to my mennonite farmer roots and think 'what would admiral adama do' ffs
Lord_Pantsington
sabik
Veebs