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Henry Ford Would Have Hated Linux
Henry Ford, father of the mass production assembly line, would have hated Linux although embracing it today might help pull his company out of its current financial nosedive (Current stock price under $1.50 per share). Ford held 161 patents and if he were alive today, some of those might well be software-related--a very anti-Linux and anti-open source concept. |
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Comments (18)
I can recommend two works on this subject if you're interested.
Shorter and "easier to digest", Hanse Hermann Hoppe's "Anti-intellectual Intellectuals":
http://mises.org/multimedia/mp3/25thNYC/15-Hoppe.mp3
and its transcription:
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/ayrnieu/archive/2008/07/15/...
For that matter, I really enjoy listening to Hoppe giving his lectures, lots of audio/video for anyone who wants it:
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=showname&ID=164
And there is "The Anti-Capitalist Mentality", which Mr Hess displays in _spades_!
http://mises.org/etexts/mises/anticap.asp
As you say, R.A., even the basis of Hess' argument has nothing to do with free market forces. After all, if the business is already on the rocks, then the "free market" is doing its work to eliminate an inefficient firm.
Maybe the competition uses Linux, and will buy up the resources freed by this failure to make better uses of them. Bravo!
Shorter and "easier to digest", Hanse Hermann Hoppe's "Anti-intellectual Intellectuals":
http://mises.org/multimedia/mp3/25thNYC/15-Hoppe.mp3
and its transcription:
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/ayrnieu/archive/2008/07/15/...
For that matter, I really enjoy listening to Hoppe giving his lectures, lots of audio/video for anyone who wants it:
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=showname&ID=164
And there is "The Anti-Capitalist Mentality", which Mr Hess displays in _spades_!
http://mises.org/etexts/mises/anticap.asp
As you say, R.A., even the basis of Hess' argument has nothing to do with free market forces. After all, if the business is already on the rocks, then the "free market" is doing its work to eliminate an inefficient firm.
Maybe the competition uses Linux, and will buy up the resources freed by this failure to make better uses of them. Bravo!
When you consider the way invalid patents wielded by lawsuit happy patent attorneys were used to leach money from automobile manufacturers in the early years of the auto industry:
http://www.cojoweb.com/us-patent-2.html
I think Henry Ford would have felt he had a lot in common with Linux and the FOSS industry.
I think Henry Ford would have felt he had a lot in common with Linux and the FOSS industry.
I read the article. I'm not sure what to make of it. For starters, it kind of puts words and thoughts into Henry Ford, a man long dead. Never really a good idea, if you seek to understand the dead person in question.
Second, isn't it taken for granted that Ford was Nuts? I mean, he had the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" reprinted and spread around, I believe.
It just goes to show you, like William Gibson once said about the Beatles, the societal and technological window for becoming Ford Motor Company is not open for very long.
Second, isn't it taken for granted that Ford was Nuts? I mean, he had the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" reprinted and spread around, I believe.
It just goes to show you, like William Gibson once said about the Beatles, the societal and technological window for becoming Ford Motor Company is not open for very long.
I think the article makes a few good points. Henry Ford was anti-union, and he was forced to pay high wages because nobody in their right mind wanted to work on an assembly line. Mind-numbingly boring, noisy, unhealthy-- the only thing that lured in workers was desperation and high wages. If it had been possible then, he might have gone for immigrant labor, whether legal or otherwise, or moving factories out of the country. You know, like they do now.
I don't get the Linux connection at all, that bit makes no sense to me.
I don't get the Linux connection at all, that bit makes no sense to me.
The only connection I see is that Ford had to fight against bogus patent attorneys who never built products, and that he introduced a disruptive cost lowering technology (mass production) that threatened the profits of the existing hand crafted auto manufacturers.
Henry Ford was in the position Red Hat is now compared to Microsoft and Sun. Or the position Microsoft, Sun or Apple were compared to IBM, Burroughs or DEC a few decades ago.
Henry Ford was in the position Red Hat is now compared to Microsoft and Sun. Or the position Microsoft, Sun or Apple were compared to IBM, Burroughs or DEC a few decades ago.
What I expected was a discussion of Ford's famous quote, "You can have any color as long as it's black." Ford hated variety. He believed in "one size fits all" production.
Henry Ford certainly was eccentric and what we would now call a control freak, micro-managing every last detail of the assembly line as well as the social lives of his employees [company picnics, dances, etc.]. Mass production was the goal of the production line, enabling him to pay a $5 per day wage, thus allowing his employees to be able to purchase one of his cars [captive market] as well as being able to offer the most affordable cars in the marketplace. Hard to say if he would have embraced Linux, though, as most of his close friends were also business associates/tycoons such as Firestone, whose tires were mounted on the Model T and probably earlier models; he may have got along well with Bill Gates but I think he soon would have consulted with another good friend, Edison, to fix Windows. :) Most people were just wanting a car and didn't care that they were black although other colours were available in limited quantities, you just had to ask - most didn't. When the Model A came out in 1928, colour and trim packages were available, specific to the body style.
Quoting:Most people were just wanting a car and didn't care that they were black although other colours were available in limited quantities, you just had to ask - most didn't. When the Model A came out in 1928, colour and trim packages were available, specific to the body style.
Do you have a source? I would like to look at it. In all of my reading of automotive history I have always come across people saying that the Model T was only offered in black and the Model A was released with color options because of customer demand. If this is just an urban legend that would be neat to find out.
@theboomboomcars: Give me a bit of time to check my Ford books and I'll get back to you. I'm more familiar with the Model A [I own one] and it probably was customer demand that sparked the colour choice.
Thanks.
I think it's sad how all of the really cool aspects of the early cars are now gone. The model T was much more than just a car, but not so much any more.
I think it's sad how all of the really cool aspects of the early cars are now gone. The model T was much more than just a car, but not so much any more.
You don't often see the really old cars on tour but one weekend in August, about a dozen Model T's and a few other old cars, including three Model A's, toured in my area. Another weekend, a large group of assorted vintage vehicles, the oldest a 1903 Orient, travelled throughout British Columbia and I saw them at a Show & Shine, where they were on display.
"From "The Ubiquitous Model T" by Les Henry, p. 45:
'It has often been stated that Ford maintained two production lines, one for the cars and one for the jokes, but this is apocryphal. However, the free advertising value of such jokes, actually promulgated them. He was more interested in their effect than in their veracity, of course; witness his own jest apropos color for Model T, "The customer may have any color he wants - as long as it is BLACK!" This the public heard and remembered, forgetting the colorful Fords of 1909-1913 and shrugging off those of 1926-1927. Then, in a final splash of color, and after an heroic essay at glamour, Model T was finally stricken from the Ford production schedule in June, 1927.'
Black was the only colour offered in 1914 and no mention was made of colour choices for the 1915-25 T's. In 1926, colours were again offered and maroon and green were added in 1927.
Edsel Ford realized that a new car was necessary - the public was clamouring for one and GM was surpassing Ford in sales - and fought his father to support its manufacture. After the dust settled, Henry Ford, aged 64, designed and built what was, for its time, a most advanced automobile. The Model A was offered in four colours in 1928. More colour packages became available in 1929 and quite a variety of colour packages were available for the1930 & 1931 models.
"Henry's Lady" by Ray Miller and a few books on the Model T are available from http://www.amazon.ca
http://img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tmp6506tb4.jpg My 1928 Ford Model A roadster, with rumble seat.
"From "The Ubiquitous Model T" by Les Henry, p. 45:
'It has often been stated that Ford maintained two production lines, one for the cars and one for the jokes, but this is apocryphal. However, the free advertising value of such jokes, actually promulgated them. He was more interested in their effect than in their veracity, of course; witness his own jest apropos color for Model T, "The customer may have any color he wants - as long as it is BLACK!" This the public heard and remembered, forgetting the colorful Fords of 1909-1913 and shrugging off those of 1926-1927. Then, in a final splash of color, and after an heroic essay at glamour, Model T was finally stricken from the Ford production schedule in June, 1927.'
Black was the only colour offered in 1914 and no mention was made of colour choices for the 1915-25 T's. In 1926, colours were again offered and maroon and green were added in 1927.
Edsel Ford realized that a new car was necessary - the public was clamouring for one and GM was surpassing Ford in sales - and fought his father to support its manufacture. After the dust settled, Henry Ford, aged 64, designed and built what was, for its time, a most advanced automobile. The Model A was offered in four colours in 1928. More colour packages became available in 1929 and quite a variety of colour packages were available for the1930 & 1931 models.
"Henry's Lady" by Ray Miller and a few books on the Model T are available from http://www.amazon.ca
http://img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tmp6506tb4.jpg My 1928 Ford Model A roadster, with rumble seat.
Leave it to the Internet...
My favorite Henry Ford anecdote:
When designing his Model A, he wanted something that people could _fix_. So he told his engineers to come up with a simple carburetor. They came back with the most advanced and simple carburetor in the world, held together with only two bolts.
He sent it back, saying it was still too complex. After a while, they came back with it held together with only one bolt. That's the one that made it into the Model A.
It's too bad that such simplicity and clarity of design has been lost on the over-engineered, over-packaged, over-loaded automobiles on the market today. I miss my 1975 Saab, with its mechanical _everything_. The fuel injection was tuned by ear using a 3mm Allen wrench. I think the only diodes in the entire car were in the radio I added. That car was a tank, easily serviced anywhere I happened to be, and got better milage than my present car made 23 years later.
Damn, I feel old right now. I need an Ensure.
When designing his Model A, he wanted something that people could _fix_. So he told his engineers to come up with a simple carburetor. They came back with the most advanced and simple carburetor in the world, held together with only two bolts.
He sent it back, saying it was still too complex. After a while, they came back with it held together with only one bolt. That's the one that made it into the Model A.
It's too bad that such simplicity and clarity of design has been lost on the over-engineered, over-packaged, over-loaded automobiles on the market today. I miss my 1975 Saab, with its mechanical _everything_. The fuel injection was tuned by ear using a 3mm Allen wrench. I think the only diodes in the entire car were in the radio I added. That car was a tank, easily serviced anywhere I happened to be, and got better milage than my present car made 23 years later.
Damn, I feel old right now. I need an Ensure.
cybergal thanks. That is a most interesting thing to learn. I like the car. Back around 2002 I worked at a Jiffy Lube and a guy came in with one, I think was even that same color, and wanted us to change the oil in the differential. That took a long time, I didn't even know they made oil that thick.
He came into a Jiffy Lube to change the oil of a car like that? That's like doing online banking with Internet Explorer.
Think of the entertainment value.
bigg: Just the oil in the rear differential. He didn't want the cover pulled off, since he was doing a cross country trip in it, and we had a pump that could suck the oil out. It took over an hour to suck the oil out because it was so thick it normally only takes like 15 minutes, 30 for the giant ones like in Ford F450s, and the differential was very small.
But yeah I know what you mean. While I was there we didn't push other services and had no warranty work done. About 90% of our business was return customers. Now I wont take my car there, shortly after I left the owners fired the Manager and now the store leads in warranty service with not nearly the volume of return customers. It's amazing what a little greed will do. I would rather have a store that sold less extra services and wasn't paying out for warranty work than to have a store that sold lots of extra services and was paying out thousands of dollars a month on warranty work. Then again I am not in business so what do I know?
But yeah I know what you mean. While I was there we didn't push other services and had no warranty work done. About 90% of our business was return customers. Now I wont take my car there, shortly after I left the owners fired the Manager and now the store leads in warranty service with not nearly the volume of return customers. It's amazing what a little greed will do. I would rather have a store that sold less extra services and wasn't paying out for warranty work than to have a store that sold lots of extra services and was paying out thousands of dollars a month on warranty work. Then again I am not in business so what do I know?
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No, of course not. An already faltering company, which has been caught in the current downturn, cannot be saved by GNU/Linux. They are too late. A migration to GNU/Linux takes several months at least and costs serious money.
A switch is only viable if it doesn't drain essential resources and the company can wait a while for the benefits to materialize. If the balance sheet is dire, a migration project could plunge a company over the edge.
Darn, it's hard not to feed the trolls...