Demand Is Booming for New #NoTech, #Repairable #Tractor

"There is consumer pressure to back away from technology that is unnecessary to perform everyday tasks."

by Jason Koebler
Jun 3, 2026

"The secondary market for decades old, low-tech #JohnDeereTractors has been booming for years as farmers have sought reliable tractors that they can actually fix without having to deal with John Deere’s repair monopoly. A Canadian company has seen that demand and came up with a radical thought: What if they made a new, repairable, 'no-tech' tractor to solve what has become a gigantic pain point for farmers?

"Alberta’s #UrsaAg says that it has been inundated with demand after announcing its tractor, which costs roughly half as much as a Deere and has the benefit of not being a repair nightmare. We have for years covered the frustration that farmers have felt as they have been locked out of their Deere tractors with digital rights management systems that prevent them from fixing their machinery, tractors that won’t run because of minor sensor failures, and crops that literally die on the vine as they wait for an 'authorized' repair person to fix tractors during critical harvesting periods.

"Ursa Ag markets its tractors as '#NoFrills' and 'built to last.' Ursa Ag’s Doug Wilson told me that the company designed the tractor because of a need in the marketplace for a new machine that isn’t loaded with tech and is easy to maintain. The company follows in the footsteps of consumer electronics companies like #Fairphone, which makes a repairable smartphone and #Framework, which makes modular, repairable #laptops. The demand Ursa Ag has seen is part of the backlash to manufacturer repair #monopolies and the injection of #technology and #InternetConnectedSensors and terms of use into even the most basic of gadgets.

" 'I talk to farmers every day and I hear from farmers every day about how they went out and bought machinery from 1987 so that it wouldn’t have a computer on it,' Wilson said. 'All of this came from a simple discussion with a customer who wanted to be able to turn [the tractor] on at the start of the day, to use it, and shut it off at the end of the day. It needed to work, so that’s what we built.'

"Ursa Ag’s tractor has been hyped in agriculture circles after Wilson showed the tractor off at a Canadian farm show and it was featured by Farms.com. Wilson said more than a thousand farmers have contacted him after that show, from roughly 30 countries. 'I got a handwritten letter from a farmer in France who doesn’t own a computer and wanted us to mail him information about the tractors,' he said."

Read more:
https://www.404media.co/demand-is-booming-for-ursa-ag-new-no-tech-repairable-tractor/

#SolarPunkSunday #LowTech #LoTech #RightToRepair #Farmers

A chunky thinkpad-like framework

https://retrolemmy.com/post/38800424

В поисках баланса в backend-архитектуре

Размышление о backend‑архитектуре между двумя крайностями: академической чистотой и радикальным прагматизмом. На примере read/write path, CQRS, кэширования готовых ответов и собственного framework‑а на Go я показываю, как архитектурные шаблоны сталкиваются с production‑реальностью.

https://habr.com/ru/articles/1044218/

#backend #golang #go #clean_architecture #ddd #cqrs #архитектура #framework #read_path #write_path

Puter: la rivoluzione #Cloud #OpenSource con un intero Sistema Operativo nel tuo #Browser
#framework #software @computer @opensource

https://webappsmagazine.blogspot.com/2026/06/puter-la-rivoluzione-cloud-open-source.html

My daily dev machine is over 4.5 years old now (Surface Pro 8). While I have a pre-order for the #Framework 13 Pro I keep looking at alternatives as it's a bit until it gets delivered.

The only other machine catching my eye is the Lenovo X13 Detachable that releases next month. The Surface Pro form factor might still be my favorite, so it's good to see others copying i for their tablets.

Still not sure I want to give up stylus support on my main device just yet. 🤔