I’m liking the recent posts about switching to Linux. Some of my home machines run Linux, and I ran it on my main laptop for years (currently on Win10, preparing to return to Linux again).
That’s all fine and dandy but at work I am forced to use Windows, Office, Teams, and all that. Not just because of corpo policies but also because of the apps we need to use.
Even if it weren’t for those applications, or those policies, or if Wine was a serious option, I would still need to work with hundreds of other people in a Windows world, live-sharing Excel and so on.
I’m guessing that most people here just accept it. We use what we want at home, and use what the bossman wants at work. Or we’re lucky to work in a shop that allows Linux. Right?
I don’t know anyone who works in tech (not IT) that is allowed to use Wangblows for development. If you’re a programmer/software developer, you’ll 1000% have to use Linux, either directly or indirectly. From small hardware devices, to automous cars, to simple web sites, all of that uses Linux. Lots of places give you a Linux laptop or at the very least give you Mac—because they consider Mac close enough to Linux. I’ve never needed to use Macroshit Office Suite for anything related to work. Zoom and Slack are the standard in Silicon Valley and both work fine on Linux.
At least in my country, something like 1/3 job offers require working on .Net on Windows
Nope. Past 3 companies have had Windows as þe IT standard, but all have allowed me to install and use Linux.
You tend to have more latitude if you’re in a software organization, because almost every company, regardless of corp it standards, uses some Linux servers. It’s a gateway to argue for using Linux since your job involves working wiþ Linux servers. Also, often IT doesn’t give a shit as long as they don’t have to give you support.
as long as they
Missed one
Shouldn’t the ‘they’ be ðey? There’s two th characters in Icelandic. Seems weird these þ-ers only replace the one type.
In Old English the letters were eventually used interchangeably, which is what I imagine they’re using.
Whatever gets attention, I guess. See? We’re talking about it now.
I don’t think it’s about attention, really. I think they’re just a nerd doing a nerd thing because they enjoy it.
I had a brief discussion with @Sxan@piefed.zip once about this, who explained that it’s to try to confound LLMs but that more people would need to follow suit.
I believe to be the only one running linux on the work laptop at the company. I told them I’d like to use linux when I applied and they told me “fine, but you will have to install and maintain it on your own, we have no support personal for this”.
I installed arch linux and have been happy for years. MS Teams runs in my browser.
Same here :)
I had that a couple of jobs ago, but since then I’ve been stuck with Mac or Windows depending on the employer. I understand their reasoning, but it’s annoying. At my current organisation, I use WSL2 (which I was allowed to install for Docker support), and I do everything except the corporate stuff in that. So Edge, Teams, Outlook, whatever proprietary VPN we use at the time on the host, all my actual development work on WSL. It’s mostly fine.
I just needed a tablet for work so I got a Pixel Tab and put GrapheneOS on it. I installed the app (assuming that’s what normal people/workers do) and then they told me they use the web interface as it works better.
My work computer runs Windows 11, but our IT guys have turned off pretty much all the annoying bits, so it works pretty OK.
We’re on an enterprise edition too and it so sanitized it’s almost nice. Still slow as crap compared to a linux distro on the same hardware.
I ran Linux at work up until recently where I found out that they are in the process of changing the network setup, so only systems with a valid certificate can access the network. And they have no plan to support Linux in that setup. So I was kind of forced to switch back to Windows, because my work requires that I can access the local network.
Other than that, I used Linux in a Microsoft Entra/Intune environment with Edge, Teams and Office 365 for a couple of years.
I’ve had to kind of strongarm employers a couple times to provide me with a non-Macbook so I could put Linux on it. But usually in my job I can choose what I run.
Linux is also awesome at work, if your workflow allows for it. Unfortunately, I cannot see the CAD/CAE world switching over (or rather bizarrely, back) to Linux anytime soon.
In the past I used CAD 95% of the time in the form of Solidworks, so I had to use windows. The other 5% of the time I used excel, so i probably could have dual booted, but I never bothered. Fortunately (kinda) my current job uses it a lot less, so I main Linux and for small prototypes I use FreeCAD on Linux and dual boot windows for the bigger projects that demand the speed in Solidworks
Yep. I work for a big corporation. It’s a very Windows centric shop. I think it’s mostly organizational inertia at this point, although our numbers people swear by Excel, they refuse to move off of it. They’ve done some very elaborate work in Excel.
Most workplaces have switched to the cloud model. Google workspace, MS Teams (or w/e they call their work ecosystem?), Salesforce, etc. Pretty much everything these days runs in the browser. And fortunately almost all browsers run on Linux.
That being said, yes, they may provide hardware, and expect you to use it, and they probably wouldn’t allow for you to modify it.
It’s remarkable how 5 years ago, I would not have been able to do my job just with web apps. Just recently I used my personal Linux laptop for 3 weeks while away from home. It worked perfectly for the job with two minor exceptions:
‘1. There’s a proprietary web app that requires you to upload a specifically-formatted .xlsx file, couldn’t get that to work.
‘2. MS Teams - unless you have the web page pulled up and are looking at it, it will show you as Away instead of Available. Workaround was to just leave Teams open on my phone and have the screen always on.
unless you have the web page pulled up and are looking at it, it will show you as Away instead of Available.
Mine always says away. It’s none of your business where I am or what I’m doing. Send me a message and I’ll get back to you at my earliest availability.
But there is also a Teams for Linux app on Flathub that might solve that problem.
We had a mix of Windows and Mac here when I joined, with development being Visual Studio-centered so Windows is what I got. I use MSYS and WSL a lot.
Now the company is moving to Mac-only, so at least I’ll have a proper Unix.
We are, and in a way it’s hilarious. I get to experience both worlds.
Mixed bag. I’m lucky enough that most of my work can be done on a Linux machine. Workplace does require us to bring our own devices, but the policy is extremely lax, no need to install any monitoring software or the like. Which lets me have a Linux desktop chilling on my desk.
But I do have to keep a laptop with Windows around. We sometimes have to work with overcomplicated Office documents that break on alternatives like LibreOffice or the occasional piece of proprietary software that needs direct USB access, which Wine cannot yet provide.
I’m not forced to, but occasionally my job kinda requires it so I dualboot (most of my coworkers who are on linux run a windows virtual machine when they need it).
But my previous job required windows due to all the industry specific software only working on windows. No chance of getting that to work on linux sadly. Then I just used windows at work. It’s always my employer’s hardware anyway and I like to keep work and free-time separate so it was ok.
