Going from Windows to Linux then back to windows sucks.
Edit; Going through the comments it seems it doesn’t matter so long as IT supports the operating system, which is fair, in my scenario I’m not involved with our systems-management/IT/developers unless it’s an update to the software we use.
My desktop at work is still Windows 10 and while it works, kinda, my keyboard shortcuts are almost entirely different, I’ve encountered numerous moments where switching tab either by alt-tabbing or by the taskbar not working at all forcing me to minimize everything till I find that tab, couple times it wouldn’t even boot.
I started unplugging the Ethernet cable when I leave for work so IT can’t do any behind the scenes when I’m away.
I dredd the day they force a win 11 desktop on me.
Not so much convinced as in that I always just installed Linux, period, and then proceeded to do everything I was told I wasn’t going to be able to do on linux
The custom software which is absolutely required for my job is only developed for Windows. There would be no point even going to work if that software wasn’t available. So I’d never ask.
There are some people in authority who think the native windows application should be swapped for a “more modern” web/cloud-type. Which would be awful, but say they got their wish and the primary software therefor became more portable. I don’t think it would be worth asking or even a good idea.
I know the IT people have zero familiarity with Linux. Their role is to provide me a workstation that facilitates every task required by my job description. It must be stable and secure. It’s a complex technical environment where each workstation interacts with other devices. Even with the most constrained, homogeneous ecology that can be arranged, there are constant hiccups that need to smoothed out. I can’t be the only person who knows how to use my computer. There are aspects of the environment that are out of scope for me to know about so even if I was a much more skilled linux desktop user, it would be impossible for me to set up my own machine. It would be irresponsible for IT to allow me to run whatever on my system without their being able to properly supervise things.
I have advocated for use of free/libre software at every chance for the workplace as a whole. I try to get people on board with switching secondary/helped applications when available. At some point in the future, I think the software we are using will be discontinued so the question of what to switch to will become live. So I am hoping to propose everyone moves to linux, or at least that we prioritize a less proprietary solution. I have some strong arguments based in our business needs. I doubt the bravery exists for a full switch to Free software (if it is even possible, which it might not be). A better plan would be to find some way to get IT comfortable with Linux first. They would need to have the skills to support all the users properly.
At the end of the day I wish someone had done this in the 80s-90s-00s when everyone was transitioned to using the computers. Now there is so much intertia with windows and everything that goes along with it. The work would be much smoother in a linux environment but 999 individual things need to change to get there.
I work for a big enterprise, we have very strict policies when it comes to work PCs, no way anyone would be allowed to change the operating system.
BUT I got permission to install Virtualbox so I can happily use Linux for many things nonetheless.
I started unplugging the Ethernet cable when I leave for work so IT can’t do any behind the scenes when I’m away.
It’s not your computer, why do you care?
All that’s going to do is make you an annoyance and potentially end up with you being called into a special meeting.
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The other commenter is right, my work desktop has access to my home server so I can remotely monitor on my breaks, as well as my password manager.
Well, that’s your own fault and poor opsec. That’s also a likely breach of your employer’s acceptable use policy in using their equipment for your personal things.
I know you’re going to say “They don’t care” and that’s probably true - right up until the point when they suddenly do care, or are looking for reasons. It doesn’t matter if your IT are in-house or a MSP, they’re still paid by your employers and so answer to them.
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what difference does it make if it’s through a web browser on the work desktop or my personal tablet.
Yeah what difference does it make? Why don’t you use your own device?
Your work computer likely contains personally identifiable information. Microsoft very likely has a significant profile on what you do at work and could conceivably link that to your other identities outside of work.
Are they actually doing that? It’s hard to say. Microsoft does have relationships with data brokers like Snowflake Inc. and SCUBA plus its own internal capabilities like Xandr Inc.
Cross pollination is more than possible when employees use personsal devices to login to work accounts. Most of the people that I work with login to Slack on their personal device using Microsoft Entra SSO.
Small company, I’m friends with IT dude so he told me I could do it as long as I didn’t go to him for tech support. He then came to me asking for help installing linux on his machine. LMAO
Uno reverse
I did, in my previous and curret job…e very happy camper
My previous job, yes! A few people had that fight years before I started and won. It was decided on the basis that we’re Linux sysadmins who already operate a sizeable fleet of Linux systems and running our own desktops would be beneficial and self-supported.
Sadly my current employer doesn’t share this view. We used a crippled Linux desktop through Apache Guacamole which is a bit average to say the least. I have to put up with the constant bullshit that is Windows and all of its ads, news headlines and trash that I don’t want on my computer at work. I hate it but I have very little influence in that space.
Convince?
Im a software dev. If you don’t use linux or macos youre a weirdo
If you use macos but are deploying to Linux, you’re also a weirdo.
+10 masochism points if you’re using docker on MacOS as well
Wait, docker exists for mac?
Depends on what you work for specifically, at my current job most people use Windows, and it makes sense because our product will mainly be used on Windows, and some of them are windows only. But I also worked in many other places where we were deploying to Linux servers but the majority of devs were on Windows.
I don’t work at an office, but at a bicycle workshop. We just have the one computer at the frontdesk to register sales and new memberships (we’re a non-profit association). So the PC doesn’t have TPM 2.0 so I convinced the board to install linux on it, since it’s a security risk to keep using Windows after it’s going to be discontinued. But that wasn’t easy ! Especially because one of the board member is an Apple fanboy and keep saying things like: “If it’s free, it’s probably not very good”. :[
“If it’s free, it’s probably not very good”
That’s so funny to me. I used linux a long time ago but at some point I decided I didn’t want to have computer-as-hobby anymore so I got a Mac. And to be fair it did serve me well as intended for a few years. But over time, despite my intentions, I slowly started installing more free software, getting comfortable with the command line (I’d always been a GUI-only linux user), and trying to recreate certain aspects of the Linux experience that I missed.
The unfree of Mac OS led to so much frustration. I was constantly running up against Apple’s antagonism towards libre software — despite the underlying BSD/unix skeleton. Being unfree was really not very good at all. Eventually I was forced to the conclusion that I would be better off with linux. And the Apple hardware was end-of-lifed with no more OS support so I had to chose. In fairness to Apple, it did allow me to very slowly transition to linuxy ways. To some extent the contradictions and problems of Mac OS led me to learning the command line and all kinds of other things. If I stayed on Linux the whole time, perhaps I never would have had the motivation to get over my distrust of terminals. And if for some reason I had chosen Windows instead of Mac OS as my non-hobby computer, I doubt I would have gotten into any of it. I would probably just hate computers like so many people I know.
1000x happier this way. I’m even back to computer-as-hobby. Which to be clear is no longer required to run linux. Just my nature.
As to your board member, if it makes him feel better, I’ll sell him a USB key with Linux on it for as much as he wants to pay me. So it will give the feeling of being valuable to him.
Especially because one of the board member is an Apple fanboy and keep saying things like: “If it’s free, it’s probably not very good”. :[
Thanks for ruining my evening, as this made me unnecessarily angry.
Ah… Sorry
In the words of Jamie Zawinski, “Linux is only free if your time has no value.”
Is not really relevant any more. OpenSUSE has been rock solid for 8 years. NixOS, just fill in config ams it all just works
+++ for NixOS. I run it across an average daily fleet of 40k systems. We’re automotive, and nix is used everywhere.
The smb server is Linux, my desktop is Linux.
The office workers use a debloated Windows 11.
I installed pihole at the same time as the server swapped from Windows to Linux, so now they believe the Linux server magically sped up the Internet.
Any suggestions on what to give people for debloated windows?
I used this: https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat
For sure. I worked in IT for a long time. After we switched from the mainframe to os/2 I ran it for a decade on my desktop while the company went to Windows. Then once I couldn’t run os/2 anymore due to newer hardware I switched to Linux. Ran it from the late 90s until my retirement 5 years ago.
I had to support it all myself but they let me since I was also the security guy and they realized that Windows sucked.
I didn’t need to.
Once I had to write a utility and made sure it works on other OSes except GNU/Linux. The CTO asked in review why doing so? I explained, he said no, make it Linux only, if somebody needs to use it, they will have to install Linux then use it.
Something I appreciate about that place till this day.
I didn’t convince anyone, I just did it.
As soon as microsoft announced the recall feature I was like nope this I aint consenting to that even at work. I put Nixos/Gnome on my work laptop and haven’t looked back. Everytime I help someone on their windows 11 laptop it feels like a snails pace.
I wish I could convince our workplace to switch to linux. I feel like Nixos would be PERFECT for the workplace, you could just deploy like a standard config and add more apps if needed.
It would make all the software requests super easy. (given they were FOSS ofc. Even most windows apps work using Wine or Proton tbh.) I don’t use any closed source apps on my laptop, but others could.
Where this doesn’t work is the entire Finance department.
They need proper Excel, full of all the proper Excel shenanigans. Some of them will also have VBA macros and random plugins too that they rely on
It’s definitely doable. There’s plenty of companies and governments in Europe that have made the switch to open source away from Microsoft.
This is true, here is a brief list: https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/who-uses-libreoffice/
But I’m sure it is a massive project you would need to have sufficient motivation at all levels. Not at all a trivial project.
I am curious how these changes feel on-the-ground to the affected workers who had no personal interest in linux or free software.
At my current job they asked what OS I wanted for my laptop and Linux was an option. I do have a Windows desktop at the office that I remote to that needs to be Windows for technical reasons, but my main device is Linux.
At my job before this I worked for one year on my own Linux laptop, until one day I asked for a laptop lent temporarily because I was going to travel and my wife needed mine, and it had to be Windows. I never minded much because it was temporary, but when I came back I was told that I was supposed to always have been using a Windows machine and that I shouldn’t use a Linux machine anymore (even though our product was a website deployed to Linux servers). That was one of the reasons I eventually took another job, not the main one, but an important one nevertheless.
Before that the company also offered Linux.
And before that it was a very small company when all of the owners were software engineer guys using Linux themselves. I remember one day we were discussing OS and someone said “can we take a moment to recognize we’ve been talking about this for 15 minutes and no one even considered Windows as an option”.
I’ve had Linux on my work desktop for the past twenty years.
Me too, I have also refused job offers to places that don’t allow Linux on the workstations.
Yea but what distro ? Yes you will be judged!
Debian, of course.
youll need to update your work desktop for the first time soon
I got to update my WSL on my work machine to Debian 13. Very exciting.
