ah,,,but i did mention those brands! all three of them!!!
you see, john deere does not make a chainsaw...they buy them from people that do.
j.d. bought out homelite and sold green/yellow saws under the j.d. name, for a short period of time. after being disappointed by the quality, they dropped their own company, and relegated it to selling the familiar red homelite brand at home depot. the fate of homelite is still undecided, last i heard.
the smaller j.d. "pro" saws are manufactured by poulan, and are very close stock versions of the poulan "pro" line of yellow and black (not the lime green) saws. a guy i work with bought one off ebay and showed it to me...a dead ringer for my poulan pro. same case molding in a different color.
the more expensive saws (larger, and heavier duty) may be the solo or olympik (both german) brands. from the $339 model up, they have the magnesium crankcase, instead of plastic.
someone please correct me if i got the models of the high end j.d. line crossed up, but they sure look like solo's to me.