Comparison of a Proprietary and OSE Tractor

1. design - Proprietary - dedicated parts, typically expensive, relying on a dedicated supply chain. Parts can't be manufactured independely because there are no blueprints to build them. OSE - modular, commonly sourced parts, do not rely on particular suppliers as parts are available, or easy to manufacture because they are open source.

2. construction - Proprietary - non-modular; hidden, hard to reach parts, bells-and-whistles. Interchangeable parts exist only at part level, not entire lego-like modules OSE - transparent, no frills, modular interchangeable parts up to entire engine units.

3. maintenance - Propriety - requires trip to repair shop becuase of difficulty of the job. In some cases, it is illegal to work on your machine- such as replacing the computer unit or doing work on anything voids the warranty. OSE - self-maintenance is always possible. Option to go to service stations is there, based on open source maintenance manuals.

4. recycling - Proprietary - After its lifetime, John Deere goes to a local junkyard and is shipped to china for recycling into recycling into virgin steel. At the point the JD is sent to the junkyard, it is more expensive to do repairs than to buy a new tractor. OSE - Open source version is modular and allows quick replacement of parts, therefore a given machine never needs to go to the junkyard, as replacing parts always makes economic sense.