
Desperate John Deere tractor owners downloading illegal Ukrainian firmware hacks - coloneltcb
http://kadrey.tumblr.com/post/158975071802/desperate-john-deere-tractor-owners-are
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donatj
I've always felt that the Tractor business was just waiting for new blood.
Someone get on a less awful Tractor start-up.

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I_am_neo
The problem seems that they are dug in like a tick. Surrounded by thick
bureaucracies and they actually helped write the laws that protect their
profits, this is of course a full on slap in the face to who laws are supposed
to protect....

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dhfhduk
This is the tip of the iceberg with John Deere. They're squeezing sales
franchises hard too, punishing sellers for doing business with anyone but
Deere. Deere is basically trying to get complete control over the chain from
sales to use to repair, and push out any and all competition anywhere along
that chain.

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watter
They have been on this path a long time. I grew up in the midwest and 30 years
ago I remember there were "John Deere" farms and those farmers refused to buy
anything else. Deere's marketing echoed this sentiment. The rest of the
farmers had a mix of other brands, but almost never a Deere, because the
reasoning was that you find the best product regardless of brand. There could
also be an aspect of protest over quality, but in general I still believe
Deere to be a little less than the other companies who often specialize in
doing one thing (type of tractor) really well. It is probably obvious at this
point I grew up on an anti-Deere farm but we eventually did buy one of their
lawnmowers.

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jeffwass
Obligatory book link? (My first thought after seeing the tumblr title)

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Tractors_...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Tractors_in_Ukrainian)

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sushid
Link to the discussion/Vice article from 8 days ago.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13925994](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13925994)

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retrogradeorbit
Why do farmers continue to buy these tractors?

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sintaxi
Farmers tend have a tremendous amount of brand loyalty and farmers grew up
loving John Deere.

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watter
John Deere always promoted the idea that you should be all-in with them. I
know a lot of farmers absolutely hate them.

