"Imagine a machine that dominated its industry, was produced essentially unchanged for almost 20 years, generated billions in profit, and completely transformed life and business. The PC? No, the Model T. And it went from “wired” to “tired” overnight.
"As we explore Linux on the desktop, we can learn from the lesson of the Model T. After nearly 20 years in production, customers started to want different things from their cars. Some wanted performance, some wanted luxury, others wanted safety, cargo capacity, or any of a number of other attributes.
"Ford wouldn't give it to them. The company steadfastly stuck to their 'any color, as long as it's black,' one-size-fits-all mentality. (Even if Ford had wanted to, though, their vaunted assembly line actually inhibited their ability to offer new products. It was optimized to only make Model T's.) Today, we'd say their business model wasn't flexible enough..."
