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0 pointsshmerl6y ago0 comments

I surely can't stand Windows for work. Some companies unfortunately force it in the work environment due to IT not willing to handle Linux. Better ones allow using Linux.

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4 comments · 1 top-level

tracker16y ago· 3 in thread

Well, when you've got over a hundred people at your company, and 20 of them are developers, and an IT staff (non-development) of 3 people, change doesn't come easy.

Aside: I may be able to switch in a couple months... I'm literally working on isolating a windows tether in the primary app I'm working on into an isolated service. After that, it'll be separated enough that I won't have to support it. We also have some other projects that are k8s/docker/linux as the target, and some of the contractors are using macs. So may be able to make a case for a switch.

edit: My experience (elearning, banking, govt) has been no companies supporting desktop users on linux. Though some VM deskop use for software on non-windows servers.

lucb1e6y ago

Change? Introducing a Microsoft ecosystem would be the change. Who worked first at that company: the developers or the sysadmin/sales/customer support/management/cleaning/finance/HR/recruitment/... people? Assuming that a company with 20% of its workforce being developers actually sells a software product or does contractual development, the first few employees were probably all developers working on whatever they pleased. At some point, someone makes the decision to make all developers work on something they don't please when they propose enforcing a monoculture.

tracker16y ago

Up until about a year and a half ago when the company started working on a couple software solutions the company was print focused for several decades... over I believe about 10 years they got into smaller hardware print/scanning solutions, using 3-4 developers and 1-2 IT staff... They've been using Windows apps, with their core developers C# focused for most of that time... MS was the most natural fit for their environment.

So, the monoculture was there when the new projects started.. the majority of developers and staff are from/in a windows and microsoft centric world view.

Moving stuff away from that has been very hard, and something I've worked hard to make an effort on... I'm not sure where your dogma comes from, but Linux 20 years ago was not what it's been for the last decade even.

jve6y ago

> edit: My experience (elearning, banking, govt) has been no companies supporting desktop users on linux.

It could partially be to maintaining a desktop OS. GPO / SCCM helps manage computers with scale. I'm sure there are Linux tools, but suddenly you have 2x more work to secure, patch and keep up with the best practices for your workstations. Moreover GPO and SCCM is IT friendly way of managing computers.

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