John Deere brags about sabotaging competitors & customers on hot mic - they’re PROUD of it!

  • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    250
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Corporations would have us all subscribe to the oxygen supply if they could.

    Take apart all the things. Reverse engineer their shit. Create open alternatives. Fuck all these monsters. John Deere, Apple, Samsung, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, everybody included.

    • SSX@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      107
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Meanwhile, Valve: Here’s how you can rip apart our handheld computer, we don’t recommend it, but it’s yours so who gives a shit?

      • AngryDemonoid@lemmy.lylapol.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        20
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I already wanted a Steam Deck, but was saving up for one of the higher tiers. Then I found out how relatively easy it is to buy the cheap one and add an nvme drive. So, now my savings goal is a lot closer.

        EDIT: Fixed some typos

      • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        1 year ago

        Damn right, I haven’t bought a console since the PS1 but I bought a Steam Deck just because of its hackability. I have plans for it beyond just gaming. Robotics control and FPV streaming is one thing I have in mind.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        Also Valve: we’ll make some proprietary components that have major failure points, and then not offer replacements for sale (and if we do, at exhorborant prices).

        I’m talking about their VR headsets.

        Don’t get me wrong, I love them as a company. But while they’re pushing new industries, hardware is an after thought.

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          proprietary components

          ridiculously stupid take. There are no open standards and commodity components for new inventions to adopt because the damned tech is new.

          absurd.

      • blackkn1ght@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Also, here’s our distribution platform where you can buy your games but have no physical medium, so if the game gets pulled you could lose access to it even though you won’t get your money back.

        Valve might be better, but they are far from perfect.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        To be fair, there is a use for it. If your at high altitudes, it may be needed. Hopefully no one should need it to deal with pollution though.

        • Shortstack@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          In this particular case its intended literally as portrayed in the Spaceballs movie which is what makes this whole thing appalling.

          But yeah, theres other use cases for bottled air.

          Maybe companies that manufacture and sell oxygen tanks can get in on the game by driving out of town 20 miles and bottling that air out there and marketing it as ‘Great Outdoors’ bottled air

          • brianorca@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            In areas with bad air, 20 miles is not “out of town.” But companies that bottle oxygen already have the equipment to purify the air even in the middle of that smog.

    • demlet@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      There’s a CEO in The Corporation (2003 documentary) who literally argues that everything should be monetized. Including air…

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Corporations would have us all subscribe to the oxygen supply if they could.

      Elon Musk’s X Mars Colony, coming in 2040.

    • jampacked@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Sounds like a screamy no context statement in vague cannibalistic threat form, fed made.

        • pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          28
          arrow-down
          8
          ·
          1 year ago

          Not necessarily. A bunch of us could band together and fund a bunch of folks who are good at building shit and just commission them to design and build new tractors that are easily repairable – preferably electric too – and then sell them. And this effort could be incorporated as a non-profit, which itself legally can own businesses and those businesses could sell them at a profit, and kill off John Deere’s shitty-ass company and any other shitbirds that want to take away consumers’ rights to own their own products.

            • FringeTheory999@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              22
              arrow-down
              6
              ·
              1 year ago

              Because it’s idiotic and non-actionable. I didn’t down vote him though. I say go ahead and try it, see how far you get. John Deer has lots of money, it’s not like they wouldn’t act to stop you. They’ll sue you into oblivion and they won’t even need a case with merit to drive your little startup into the ground. They’ll just outspend you, not to mention they’ll have consolidated supply lines that you’ll need and that they will not share. The first rule of capitalism is that competition is not to be tolerated.

                • FringeTheory999@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  10
                  arrow-down
                  3
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  If someone challenges you to a fist fight, don’t fist fight them. They want you to fist fight them because it gives them advantage. They’ve trained and prepared for fist fights their entire life. You are doing them a favor by fighting them by their rules. You have to fight them on your terms, playing your own game. Whatever your game is, that’s the way you have to face them. harrass, sabotage and disrupt. Failing that, guillotines are a very fun game indeed.

                  taking on a business, with business is like wresting a pig. You’ll both get dirty and the pig likes it.

              • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                You’re incorrect with your item number one, as far as being able to take an invention from the drawing board to actual product ready to be sold.

                Under the right conditions it can be done for a lot less is what you’ve stated.

        • grayman@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          19
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          Look up Edison Motors. A literal logger in Canada is beating out every truck company with investors. People are excited and lining up to buy them (logging companies anyway).

          What he’s doing with logging trucks can be done with tractors.

            • grayman@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              What is it? 90% of companies fail in under 3 years?

              I get it. Still cool to see someone try and try well.

          • steltek@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Wow, that’s a cool little company. Also, “Stealing Tesla’s Ideas”, ha.

            Related to the sibling comment, good ideas are rarely the whole story to a company’s success. Execution (and luck) matter.

            I’m going to need to read up more on them. The jump from “regular truck drivers who do repairs” to “so we put a locomotive drivetrain in our truck” is too big and I think it’s really the key to them getting off the ground.

  • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    75
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Sounds like another industry in dire need of competition. Makes sense that they’re fighting tooth and nail to keep a deathgrip on what they’ve still got (for now).

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      39
      ·
      1 year ago

      There’s plenty of competition; the problem isn’t the proprietary firmware, it’s the expensive parts. You can still fix 99% of a machine yourself, you might have to get a tech out to put a CANbus ID into the computer so a new part that you put on works.

      But it still comes down to the fact that the competition don’t make as good/productive of a machine, and parts availability, even if they are expensive, is key. I’ve paid $1000 for a part I could make myself on a mill, but it would take me a day and I’d lose $100,000 of lost production on that machine because rain is coming.

      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I don’t think anyone’s suggesting that right-to-repair replaces repair options from the OEM, but it’s a critical option to have in a functional product support ecosystem and Deer’s trying to cut it out entirely.

      • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        That’s fair, there’s definitely more to it than just having the capability when you’re also dealing with weather and other factors that impact your deadlines. I’m not a fan of equipment manufacturers who exploit their stranglehold on their customers even though I see why it happens.

        • ikidd@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          This is probably the first time I’ve made a comment like this on a thread about Deere that hasn’t been downvoted into the basement. People don’t want to hear about what the ground truth of this situation is, they want to hate a company that they haven’t ever actually dealt with.

          Don’t get me wrong, I would like to see Deere stop some of their practices, particularly using opensource software like Linux to power their devices and then selling them at steep prices to farmers that sometimes barely have enough money to fix a tire on one of these machines. But the “unrepairability” of Deere equipement is massively misunderstood by most of these armchair warriors, including Rossman.

          On the plus side, the uproar has given us the ability to go buy a diagnostic computer from Deere now for the low, low prices of $26,000. It takes a lot of $100 tech visits to make that pay.

    • raptir@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      1 year ago

      There is competition - New Holland, Massey Ferguson, Case IH, etc… The problem is that despite all the anti-consumer nonsense John Deere still tops the lists as the best option.

      • The_v@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        27
        ·
        1 year ago

        Deere has the most massive dealer network in the U.S./Canada. So when looking for a part farmers have an easier time finding them. In other places of the world the competition is much more fierce and they don’t compete as well.

        As for quality of equipment, Deere makes stuff about average. It’s not terrible but it’s not great.

        Other companies have specialized in some things and make vastly better equipment.

        New Holland/Massey F has the best swathers and bailers.

        Kubota has the best small tractors.

        CLAAS has the best choppers and combines.

        • Shortstack@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Deere has the most massive dealer network in the U.S./Canada. So when looking for a part farmers have an easier time finding them.

          I have no doubt that this is caused at least partly by the decline of keeping spare parts on the shelf in a warehouse, something most companies did before everyone shifted to ‘just in time’ inventory management because it saved money up front.

          But as it turns out ‘just in time’ doesnt work so great when a farmer needs a part right this moment since it relies on ordering then shipping only whats needed.

          It probably made Deere’s dealer network look pretty good by comparison since they (presumably) stock parts that another farm store down the road doesnt carry.>

          • ikidd@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            There’s also legislation ( at least in Canada) that requires a manufacturer to have parts for machines less than a decade old to be readily available. A “machine down” order is 3 days or they can explain to the ag minister why they can’t comply.

        • ikidd@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I wouldn’t trade our 569 for anything else. We’ve had Case and Heston balers, they’re kinda meh and break way more often than if seen on our Deere’s. As for the rest, well parts availability is king.

      • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’ll move my goalposts a bit then. The industry needs more significant competition for that top spot. It’s not an area I know much about though, just what I’ve picked up from discussions like this about how they respond when people get the crazy idea that they own the equipment they paid for.

      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        query because I am not a farmer: Is Deere tops because they make products that are superior / better bang-for-buck, or is it just hometown advantage of no shipping/delivery overhead, tarrifs/taxes/import fees etc?

        • raptir@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Honestly I don’t know. All three I listed are American or have American production facilities (New Holland was founded in PA, and still has a facility there, but is owned by an Italian company).

      • gamer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        1 year ago

        Are brother printer still good? I thought they started doing the ink DRM thing and other bullshit too.

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I have a brother color laser from 2013 that’s still printing awesome. toner cartridges are $200 for all 4 colors, but I only replaced them in 2015, 2019, and at the beginning of this summer - getting a few thousand pages out of each, conservatively. it’s not a glossy photoprinter, but if you just need high res document prints, I cannot recommend it enough. wifi, cat5, driver is built in to windows 10/11, works fine with android and linux too.

          • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            I run a multifunction colour Brother as well. I’ve used it with Brother and various other brands of toner without issues. It will keep printing even if a cartridge is empty. Finding consumables is easy. It runs great from Linux (duplex scans and prints), Windows and mobiles through the LAN. It’s a great machine. You can even override the “low toner” alarm and basically double the life of your cartridges (maybe shake them a bit beforehand). You just swap them out when the quality visibly degrades. I think I bought it for about 400€, it was well worth it.

          • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            yup. I never thought I’d feel evangelistic about a brand of printers but holy hell did everyone else race to the bottom of the shit barrel in this entire category. so here we are, praise brother lol, they’re COMPETENT.

        • joenforcer@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Sorta. My old MFP Brother apparently has a firmware update available that makes it aware of the toner brand and I just ignore it. It’s not as bad as HP where a low level of ink turns the machine into a brick.

        • wth@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          My 5 year old brother color laser is awesome. Cheap to run and toner doesn’t dry out, and it doesn’t wake up in the middle of the night and clean (i.e. use up) the ink.

          However having seem comments like this, I think I will hold off on any firmware updates.

  • Countmacula@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    52
    ·
    1 year ago

    Fuck John Deere and their anti-self repair bs.

    The individuals using these machines don’t have time to wait for some tech to find the time to get to BFE, Kansas.

  • Fester@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m sure those competitors will successfully sue them for <1% of their yearly profit in damages, plus they’ll suffer a single employee’s salary amount in fines.

    • lennybird@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah I don’t know how anyone could compel themselves to buy one. Do they really have that much of a monopoly on the industry? Is their tech that much further advanced? I genuinely don’t know.

      What is the best, more ethical alternative? Growing up my dad had New Holland and we liked them. Eventually I’ll be going more rural and choosing a route to take and it sure as shit won’t be John Deere.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        One? Probably not. A fleet of 5-20 to tend a thousand or more acres, I can see that. They’ve basically got the things able to run on autopilot for many processes

    • tabular@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      The result of vote is only as good at the voting system used and the people voting. A more representative voting system leads to more public representation in government, which would likely improve the lives of the voters who will vote next time.

        • tabular@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I’m not sure about that. A party that ‘wins’ under first-past-the-post/winner-take-all is unlikly to change the voting system such that they would be less likely to get into power next time. I have no idea of the path to changing the voting system. I hope intoducing people to other voting systems helps.

      • Chozo@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        This is inherently a political issue, because partisan policies enable this sort of abusive behavior from John Deere in the first place.

        If you can’t see that, then you don’t understand the full breadth of the situation being discussed, and probably should avoid commenting on it. There’s no point in popping into a conversation to say “I don’t understand anything that’s going on, but here’s what I think about it anyway”, because nobody cares for uneducated opinions. Unless you’re just fishing for an internet argument, in which case I recommend maybe just sticking to a Roblox forum or something else that’s more to your speed.

          • theodewere@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            so you don’t understand the direct causal relationship between Republican politics, and deregulation… that’s what you’re telling everyone here… that your head is too buried to see that…

            you need to understand that when you speak, it mostly just sounds like farts, son… you need to try to speak more clearly…

            this is why no one needs to take your concerns seriously…

  • Iwasondigg@lemmy.one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’ve never had need for a tractor, but if I did, I wouldn’t buy their shit.