Linux is awesome at home, but aren't y'all forced to use Windows at work?
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?
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Full Linux shop here. Love it...
Desktops, laptops, servers.
For those rare customer teams meets, we just do it in the browser.
How big is your install base at work? Still wondering how to replace something like Active Directory, Group Policies and the like for centralized management akin to Windows based networks.
FreeIPA does a passable job at replacing AD for the absolute most basic functions. I used to use it for sudo rules and user management at one of my previous jobs, even though it wasn't a Linux shop.
FreeIPA covers most scenarios. Kerberos, Dynamic DNS/DNS, LDAP.
GPO equivalency would need some config management tool. Ansible is what RH would suggest, but something with an agent would probably be better.
I use an unofficial teams appimage all day every day.
I think its probably an electron thing.
I hate having to use it but it works fine.
my employer using windows on their machine is their problem. i could be faster via bash in several instances, wouldn't have to wait ours for updates to be done ... but i get to drink tea and listen to complaints about outlook from my co-workers.
it's okay. i get paid.
Yeah getting paid to sit there while windows wastes 20+ minutes of company time updating is always a treat
"Do the least amount of work for the most amount of pay you can"
Windows is a win for the proletariat at work. Linux was made for the proletariat for the revolution.
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.
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.
Same here :)
Office 365 and teams work fine on Linux in Chrome or Firefox, including voice calls, video calls and screen sharing, and notifications with pop-ups and sounds.
Excel, in particular, is 100% inside Office365 in the browser when I have to interact with it. In the past, I have created Excel files in LibreOfffice and uploaded them to Office365 to convert. Though I haven't been tempted to do so in a few years.
Most of my coworkers are not aware that I run Linux at work. My boss knows and doesn't care. My peers are just surprised when I mention it, because I use the same tools without issue.
Zoom works great on Linux, as well, both in bowers and as the native app. Many corporate VPNs are compiant with open standards, and so don't even require any additional install. Cisco's isn't made right, but they provide a Linux client that works fine.
Slack works fine in browser, including full first class notifications. I haven't sought out a dedicated client app, but I recall having some options.
DropBox and Google have particularly decent Linux client applications, and of course, fully functional web tools.
There's also some excellent ways to run Android apps nearly seemlessly inside an Android emulator of Linux. In theory, I could resort to those, but I haven't because everything I need works in a web browser now.
I've heard that the two glaring exceptions are AutoCad and Adobe Creative Suite. I understand that neither works on Linux or in a browser (per other threads on Lemmy).
Oh yeah, and Linux has more and better ways to produce nice PDFs than Windows does, and of course reads them without issue
Oh, and yes, mandatory compliance stuff like antivirus tools and CrowdStrike also have compliant options for Linux. Some of the really shitty spyware level invasive stuff probably hasn't been ported to Linux, but the "keep me virus free" stuff seems pretty available - because they want to sell copies for Linux servers.
Edit: If this seems needlessly thorough, it is because I worked to independently verify all of these details before my upgrade. I figure my notes might help someone making the case to switch, or just researching whether they need to not switch.
No. We are a proper engineering company.
Lol what kind of engineering? Because it probably isn't mechanical, electronics, or civil because most of those programs don't work in Linux 😂
I have dreams of KiCAD and FreeCAD becoming good enough to be used a lot in industry and kiCAD is nearly there, but missing tons of productivity and collaboration features, but altium is still pretty ubiquitous, spaghetti code garbage that it can be.
So not an industrial automation engineer. Nothing but windows software.
Ignition for scada works on Linux, but nothing else does.
As an engineer, piss off with this pretentious crap.
Thinkpads running Linux for the staff.
We use open-source. Our own on-prem servers running Linux. A lot of our software is also open source. Our git, our office suite, our video and chat... All open source.
We just got rid of our Google Cloud connections a few months ago, but we're still reliant on aws, cloudflare, etc.
LOL, spotted the "windows engineer".
Yeah, have fun making stuff when the device you're using to do so is actively fighting you
I'm a teacher and I make Linux work for me. Open doc formats get converted to pdf for the shitty windows 7 running the printer in the printing room, and the Android/Windows only app for communications I just run on my phone. PPTs run fine. When there was a problem with the projector, 'IT guy' went to my laptop, got confused (it's Gnome), I told him not to interfere with it because it's Linux. He proceeded to say 'Ah, not working because it's not windows.' Later that day he actually came to fix the cable to the projector.
There's few things more satisfying than having the "IT guy" say "oh it must be a Linux problem" only for them to have to eat crow within 24 hours.
Debian at home. Red Hat at work. I have tried to talk them into better OS choices, but really I'm just glad to not be on Windows.
Company went "here's your budget for ordering a laptop. Put on it whatever you want", and so there's NixOS running on it :)
(To be fair though: small-ish, tech focused company)
Yes, I'm forced to use Windows at work and that's part of why I only use Linux in my personal life.
Window is so stupid and annoying. It needs to reboot like twice a day for updates. Not to mention individual apps that need to update in the middle of usage. Also the news/spam and stuff. It's garbage. I'm the guy who's constantly telling everybody that we should switch to Linux.
(Also, even though my work laptop is Windows, I do most of my real work connected to a Linux server/IDE.)
This has been me for my entire pro career. There we are, working to maintain at&t Unix, but it's all (then) vandyke, winamp, Mozilla4. Here I am now, at work, corp win11, putty, radiogarden, fucking outlook/teams and all its dreck.
But look at bazzite and Nobara: if we can avoid the snaps/appimages/flatpaks in addition to the venvs and npm and other toxic cult cargo sploit vectors, we have a strong platform with still just enough windows access for fucking teams and the rest of the redmond-based data sovereignty threats.
Professor here facing the same problem. I am bounded by administrative procedures with grandma school administrators.
I use Linux at home, of course. Debloated my Win11 machine at work but hope to use Linux instead everyday.
Would requesting a mac with the argument of having access to a Unix shell potentially work? In college my IT instructor used a Mac with a windows VM via VMware Workstation and it pretty seemless. He'd use the Mac for most stuff then jump over to the Windows VM for windows specific stuff, and then diving into the native Bash shell for anything else. Honestly it was a pretty sweet setup
I'm allowed my own laptop cuz most of my work is ssh to a server and fix shit. You have to register your laptop on the network first though.
Office, Team: these can work via the browser if your company/organizations pay for the subscription. In fact, the web versions run much better than the standalone desktop ones for me.
Code editor, terminal, programing in general: These work much much better in linux. You open a terminal and you write commands to install stuff. Editors are even easier, i.e. nano, vim, vscode, emacs.... etc. just pick your poisons..
Email: now I login to my exchange email using the browser. That works for 100% of the stuff I need to do: basic emails stuff, accept/decline meetings...etc. Unless you absolutely need to use Outlook, there should be no problems.
Now... the real problem lies in specialized software like CAD, CAE tools. I like Linux but there isnt a free CAD / CAE tool that is comparable to what the industries are using. In academic? absolutely you can use for research.
I am an electrical engineer, so even beyond Teams and MS Office, several of the engineering and CAD programs we use are not supported or only partially supported on Linux (i.e. hardcoded to only work on a specific version of Ubuntu, lol).
I have spoken to our IT guy, and he would be completely on board with using Linux, but even he acknowledges that there is no reasonable path to us doing so, so I just sort of accept it.
Gotta change software if y'all want to be more than hostages.
That doesn't really work there's nothing to change to... at least in civil engineering. It also isn't possible when the client specifies the software a product has to be delivered in
I recently got my Linux-laptop in a heavy MS-based company. It is enrolled via Intune and I can access all company resourcws an MS365 apps through Edge.
Apart from having to use Edge for all of that, it is a great experience compared to what I am used to.
But it took a while and a lot of complaining about being allowed to use more appropriate tools for our job. But the bottom line is: ask for it. Tell them why you need it. When they say no, try again later, document why your current setup fails and why getting a Linux-machinee would work. Maybe you will succeed. IT here has gone from "we don't use open source" (actual quote) to giving us Linux-laptops and setting up Linux-servers on OT. They grow from this also.
Some companies will also supply Macs - several of my colleagues got MacBookPros just by asking for them. I, unfortunately, missed the "open funds" window and must wait until the current "all POs over X$ must be signed by GOD" phase passes.
I have to use 11 at work. In a way I'm thankful because I've been exposed to how shit it is and it makes me appreciate Linux more. I can't see them changing anytime soon as it seems like we're getting more dependent on their shit.
Exactly the same here.
The last several places I worked gave me a choice between Windows and Mac OS, so I picked Mac OS.
Yes, but maybe it's not so bad. It creates a clear separation between work and play. Windows is for boring work and office stuff. Linux is the happy place at home.
Web dev, Linux at home and work. Works fine for my scenario.
Linux admin grey(ish) beard here, work provides a MacBook and I just use it as a web browser and terminal.
Internal chat, mail, etc are all browser based, Google Docs is the office suite of choice for anyone I have to work with.
I get a decent terminal (iterm2), together with ZSH, tmux and Python is all I really need. We do have a bunch of GNU core utils installed as well, although coming from a UNIX background, I don't mind the BSD versions that ship on MacOS either.
Would I prefer Linux? Yes, I would. But at the same time, the M4 performance is awesome, the touchpad is glorious and I don't have to foot the bill, so I'm not complaining!
One addition, in the past I've been forced to use Windows at previous jobs, but once we got WSL, that wasn't too much of a pain either.
And once upon a time I worked at HP and we were allowed to run whatever we wanted on our workstations, but that was before laptops were commonplace for my kind of work.
Didn't macos go Linux base a few years ago? I thought they moved away from bsd. Admittedly it's been a good few years since I've had to touch a Mac os.
I never heard of that, and I doubt it happened. Apple won't touch anything with a GPL license.
Nope, still the same old BSD utils, but you can install the GNU versions pretty easily.
My university forces us to use Microsoft products and I hate it.
The only good thing is that most MS products are available through web browser nowadays, but they have random quirks that make me bash my head against the desk.
I use an M2 Caddy with a 1TB NVME SSD to boot into Aurora Linux on my work laptop.
The laptop keeps it's Windows license intact and when I need to move to a new laptop, it's plug and
playwork.CUPS works with every printer in my office out of the box.
I am the user with less IT support tickets, I don't require Windows, Office nor Adobe licenses.
IT is happy, I'm happy. Every day is pure bliss.
Why would the "Windows license" get affected by whatever it on the disk?
Also how your sysadmins keeping the uefi unlocked?
M2 Caddy?
M.2 Caddy
Its not my machine, so I don't really care. As long as it doesn't prevent me from doing the work, then that is the employers problem what OS they want to enforce.
On my personal computer, I run what I want and will continue to do so where possible. Hence, why I like using Linux.
My work PC has Windows 11 and it does get in the way of my work. This bullshit is using 12GB of RAM to run a web browser, Teams, and Powershell. Before "upgrading" to 11 from 10, it used about 3GB less RAM for the same stuff. Nothing has improved from 10 to 11, just made it slower.
That's pretty wild. I honestly haven't looked at how much ram is used on the computer. It hasn't been sluggish so hasn't come to mind. Mostly use a browser, teams, and a VPN.
Yup, and every time I have to deal with Windows bullshit at work, I get a little bit happier that I don't have to deal with it when I go home.
We're a Linux shop at my work. We do have a windows PC due to corporate policies...but everything we do on our windows PCs we could do from Linux.
Outlook? Website. Excel? Website. Jira? Website. Teams? Website. Nearly everything we do front end wise is all web based. Which, I know electron sucks, but from a "Linux as a main desktop environment"...I'm pretty damn happy with everything being web based nowadays. It's all OS agnostic.
with so many Windows programs being just PWAs these days, running everything in a browser is really no different anymore.
Forced to use Windows 11 at work, my brand new laptop with 32GB or RAM takes 10 to 20 seconds to open the explorer or view an image. It's horrendous. It's absolutely not because of the application I need to use because I literally do EVERYTHING in Google Chrome. This year IT uninstalled Excel and Word from our laptops because we are supposed to do all the work in Google Drive. Updates always need minimum 2 reboots and you need to attend to the computer because rebooting will get stuck on the encryption password. I hate it, but it always been like that so...
Same here. 64 gb ram win 11. Slow as FUCK. bloated. My linux pc has 20 gig and is lightning fast.
That was one of the main reasons I made the jump on my laptop. Windows was soooo slooow and ate up my 32gb like it was nothing
I used to work as a software dev before mass layoffs got me. Our work was technical enough that most of us used Linux to the point that finding a Windows user to test things was a real problem.
Nope, software dev here.... work gave me a budget, told me to pick a computer and I put Linux on it. My Boss (the VP of Engineering) also runs Linux. We're a small company and some people do run Windows but we have google workspace so there hasn't been anything I've needed windows for.
No idea how good whatever "Bluefin" is, but if their front page makes my computer lag much worse than actual videogames, it's really not a good first impression.
Also, it seems to come with Gnome which is a bit further away in terms of user experience from Windows than the other choices like Plasma and Enlightenment, so I am not sure if whoever sits in them cubicles will get used to the lack of tray icons for example. Well, assuming they know what a tray icon is, but even if they don't, they are gonna get a bigger "something's off/missing" feeling than otherwise. And I am assuming nobody is using Windows 8 specifically, so it will take some time for people to get used to the excuse of a start menu Gnome has. Have to always be pessimistic about user's intelligence and will to adapt.
I'm a Linux sysadmin. I was issued a Windows laptop. But I have been allowed to add a second NVME drive to it that has Debian 12 installed. So Debian 12 has been my main working environment.
I also have a desktop in my cube running Windows.
I rarely boot my laptop to windows. But if I need to do something with modifying Windows smb shares or active directory I just remote into my Windows Desktop. I'm also running a ssh server on my windows desktop so about half of my windows active directory work is done via powershell over ssh.
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.
Current workplace: Windows computers with all development being done in Linux VMs. Management and a few younger devs are pushing for WSL, while several older devs are demanding Linux-only laptops.
Previous workplaces: One more with Windows + Linux VMs. One with Windows + X remote desktop to development servers. One with Linux PCs.
I have been exclusively applying for jobs that promised Linux development though.
I'm a MLOps engineer. Rules at my current company is that you need Windows or MacOS. According to the IT department it won't work if you use Linux.
So I installed Linux anyway and everything is working perfectly. My manager don't care that I use Linux but the IT department is not happy.
IT probably has tools to manage policy on Mac and Windows, but have not set anything up for Linux and as a result cannot manage your computer.
Nah, I'm free to do what I want with my laptop as long as I can do the work. I work in IT and everyone uses windows. But so far so good. Would like to get outlook classic to run on Linux though
I'm a fucking Cloud Systems Engineer with 20 years in and at my new job IT wouldn't give me local admin and wouldn't approve hardly any software installation requests. Yet if I wanted to I could wipe every single customer's data and destroy them all. Doesn't make sense
Meanwhile I got local admin because the IT guy who's no longer there couldn't be bothered to install a couple of utilities for me and most of what I actually do is manage SaaS services in a web browser
Policy is not decided by logic and sense, my dude. Sorry you have the same wonks dictating that as I do.
What does those cloud systems run on? Makes sense to run the same thing, right?
Fuck that 'new outlook' garbage.
Software engineer. Last company that made me use Windows was one I left 3 years ago I think. Since then it's been MacOS or LInux, and I love both. I actually prefer Linux at home and MacOS for work. Just add brew (obviously) and a tiling window manager and I'm done. With Linux at home I tinker more, I actually used to use Gentoo for gaming...
Mac, actually. Its a different kind of bad. At least I can use many of the same cli tools.
TIL companies have Mac fleets
I mean this happens. Traditionally it was companies with lots of digital artists for improved software compatibility, but these days it's really more done for developers and anyone else just as an employee perk to put them on their preferred platform.
Honestly, for administration purposes having a proper native Unix shell running standard utilities is extremely handy, especially when you need to manipulate files, such as working with disk/VM images for example
Yes there is also device managment for them. Our company uses Jamf. Not sure how it compares to AD group policies in power but some restrictions, settings and updates get pushed on the regular.
Oh sorry, just realized we are talking app servers.
Yeah, Google apps, and linux hosted apps. Havent had a company that ran windows or MS anything in 14 years.
No, instead I'm forced to use macOS at work.
And Microsoft Teams, which is terrible, but somehow still better than Cisco Webex, which we had before.
For us its the lack of proper multi-monitor support in the hardware. We have triple 27inch monitor setups on our desks with thunderbolt docks.
Plug a windows or Linux laptop into them no problem, single cable solution and 4 distinct displays. Plug a Mac into it and the best you get is two displays with the 3 external displays all showing the same image. Stupid arbitrary Apple limits.
Plus the Apple hardware is so fragile and difficult to repair. We mostly stick to Dell Latitudes, HP Elitebooks and Lenovo T series because of the better hardware.
Most people dont need more than 10 hours battery life. If you do, you are probably one of those people who always forget to charge their phones anyway.
So much.
I have installed various pieces of third party software to fix some of them, but still, those are things I dislike about macOS.
Nope: My lathe runs Linux.
Yes, unfortunately
Im self employed so I can use what I want.
I have a few assisstants who use win 11.
I work at a Linux-dominant shop. Macs are somewhat common. People with Windows are kind of seen as weirdos.
We don't use office packages all that much either; more geared towards markdown and git and programming languages. The office package I use the most is Google's.
I haven't had a machine with windows on it since Windows ME. I do have some training in windows server from over a decade ago (nearing two maybe?), but I've never used the knowledge.
That's what shadow IT is for.
You try through the normal channels, explaining why, and if it's not enough, you find a way to still be productive DESPITE the rules of the place. Then eventually you move on to a saner place.
I'm lucky that I work from home (have done since before the pandemic) and pretty much all my work is done in a browser, and my bosses don't care what I use as long as the work gets done. So I just work on Fedora on my regular desktop.
Luckily not. I work in the infrastructure team at a small company, everything we do is managed using Ansible (even Windows), so developing on Linux is a much nicer experience.
For communication we use Mattermost and Jitsi plus many other open source tools and services.
Is that any good?
I saw it once on a search result, went 😱🫣 and didn't look again...
Works pretty well and with some configuration you can get almost the same experience as configuring Linux with Ansible.
I count myself as one of the lucky ones that isn't forced to use Windows by the company I work for. We even have our internal (ubuntu-based) distro, and despite being passable proficient with Linux, I can count on having support if I ever need it.
Yeah, me too. But all of those (except Windows of course) can be used on the browser
sure am and it fucking sucks
just today I ran into a new issue - when you try to close an Excel document without saving, it asks if you want to merge your changes with the server.
I do not, I want to close without saving, so I choose no.
then it asks if I want to save the document.
I do not, I want to close without saving, so I choose don't save
The document finally closes. I reopen the document, and guess what's there? my unsaved changes. if I try to close the document, the cycle repeats.
Microsoft fucking removed the ability to close a document without saving
I tried this on Windows 10 on one computer and Windows 11 on another computer with the exact same behavior
My job involves maintaining Linux servers so there are no problems with Linux as my desktop.
Currently Arch Linux as the desktop OS.
I use Linux on my work computer
Windows Sysadmin. My job is to enjoy the eternal arms race against Cortana every update via GPO and registry hacks. We are running on malware, it's a joke.
And before you ask, I am a peon and "Have we considered Linux?" was an office meme years before I arrived.
We in engineering are allowed to use whatever the heck we want so long as IT agrees that it is useful and safe and costs less than other options.
So we run a bunch of open source stuff. But the biggest one is Python. We connect arduinos and rpies to run complex machines. Meanwhile CAD runs on windows unfortunately along with all the bullshit spreadsheet, word and PowerPoint.
Linux is awesome and I see Windows day's numbered. So long piece of shit obsolescence software! One day you will be no more.
I am working in company where about 35% of users are on Windows, 40% on Linux and 25% on Mac. In Linux, official way to use MS Office is web apps, but Libreoffice is quite heavily used too.
Yes -- And it sucks balls.
Some people in a different department of the company do work with Linux. And some get Macs.
I was managing with virtual box on the work machine. But following win 11 the performance under hyper v is so appalling that I gave up.
In the end my solution is a 2nd hand ThinkPad off FB marketplace that I use for work.
Browser apps cover all the word/excel/outlook/teams requirements.
Winboat is covering the very limited set of other apps.
Everything else I do works better in Linux, or at least better on a device I have admin for.
Yes I am out of pocket but not significantly, and not having to deal with windows has been completely worth it for me.
At my work they use Mac OS. However before I started the job I said, that it's a requirement for me to work with Linux. So I'm the only one with a proper OS in the company now 🥴
But jokes aside, it's not that bad to work on different OSes. Nowadays everything runs in a Docker container. Ok, it's a bit slow for the Apple users, but that's not my problem 🤷♂️
Yep, IT worker here and all of our client machines run Windows 11 with all the usual Office 365 stuff. Most of our servers run Windows too. A small amount of servers are Linux-based, usually VMware hosts and some virtual appliances. Broadcom is fucking us over a barrel on VMware licensing/support but the inertia is so strong that the powers that be won't even entertain migrating to something like Proxmox. Something something Gartner top quadrant...
Work provides us relatively decent Dell Latitude hardware but we are stuck using the corporate Windows 11 image.
If they'd let us bring our own tech I'd be on a Thinkpad running Fedora and just use remote desktop to access all of the Microsoft shit.
Yes. Its their network and their systems and they pay me to use their tools. Thats the only reason i touch windows.
My last job was with a startup and they let me pick my rig. I went native linux and they all thought i was looney. 3 months later i had converted 2 coworkers to use ubuntu.
Thankfully no microsoft, but I do have to use google workspace.
at least i can sandbox it to a web browser? small wins...
I've used Linux Desktop both personal and at work since 2003, I guess I got lucky with where I worked, they always allowed it as long as I could do everything that needed to be done.
Then again, I was either the owner or CTO level for the last decade or so, and just made those decisions myself.
Now I'm trying to push my current company to switch completely to Linux, and it ain't easy. Not because of Linux, that part is fine and whatever easy, but because Microsoft worked hard to ensure you can't escape their fucking clutches.
Moving away from teams, for example, will be a tough one, because most of our customers and government have complety relented to Microsoft, and you MUST use teams to talk to them.
So then what? Use different messengers internally and externally? I'm still not sure how to get rid of that part, but for the rest, we are going off the microshit soon
You can use Teams on Linux through the web browser.
This is true, but it's one of the ways MS weasels it's way in. If you're using teams with clients, then they likely have Outlook as their scheduling app, so you have to use it too, since it only works with itself. It's a backdoor to get you into their trap and get more and more of your data tied up and expensive to migrate.
Huh, I've never encountered this obstacle. On the rare occasion I've had to use Outlook, I've just used OWA.
I'm sorry for the challenges you're facing.
I do usually end up asking my team to do this.
The external one is usually Slack or Teams.
I figure it's worth it for the faster turn around of communication with key clients.
Thankfully, both have web interfaces that work fine on Linux.
We are an MSP for small business. We have been a strict linux server environment for 10+ years.
On the desktop side, we have a few clients running Linux mint desktops and laptops now. Mostly for 2nd line personel, or roles where only browsers are required. We run microsoft Edge Browser on those devices for Office 365 usage and because firefox based browsers are so hit and miss with business web apps these days. We have our RMM tool to manage configurations and run our own Rustdesk instance for remote support.
The main impediment for larger adoption we see is still 3rd party app support. Desktop Excel being the primary one. Online Excel and LibreOffice is still not quite there in terms of some features for intermediate users. Whatsapp desktop app for voice calls with clients are also a major one in our country. Its a windows store app, which I have not been able to find a way to get connected to wine.
What we need is a proton like project for business applications. Proton has likely already done half the work. Once Office and windows store apps installs work as smoothly as games under steam, adoption can start at a larger scale.
The question is which company is going to make that investment. Canonical is too close to Microsoft and wont want to upset that relationship. And Red Hat always seems to be stuck in their own world. Other teams with the insight to tackle such a project, are probably too small, or do not have the financial backing or incentive for it.
I’ve never had to use windows at work except for some extremely rare moments, such as debugging a customer issue.
Always had a choice between Linux and macOS, and even if it was a requirement, I’d just become the change I wanted to see, show them all the money they could be saving and improve security demonstrably.
My biggest issue with Windows is the lack of control I have of the actual hardware I own. I don't own my work computer to begin with nor am I entitled to have full control over it so it doesn't matter.
I do use WSL, but mainly because I'm more familiar with Bash than Powershell and don't have to constantly figure out how Powershell does things I already know how to do.
It's the same reason I have no problem using my company's OneDrive for work files when I go out of my way to avoid putting any of my personal data on the cloud. It's their data and they don't care so I don't care either.
It's also nice because I can set up a Linux-only file server at home with things like SSHFS and the Windows computer can't even see it since it has no SSH access doesn't even support the network share protocol. If I had an SMB share it would show up on my work computer because it autodetects it.
We are, and in a way it's hilarious. I get to experience both worlds.
As I build my business. All systems will work natively on Linux. So people can use that if they wish.
If there is something that specific to windows, then I do not use it.
Thank you for that
I pretty much have to use Linux at work. I’m only still on windows for gaming but that will probably change soon.
If you have an AMD GPU and don't care about playing games that require kernel-level access for anticheat (ew), then Linux might just work better for you than Windows, for most games.
Like, getting Minecraft installed and working with mods in CachyOS just required installing Prism Launcher from the CachyOS repos (1 easy step) then launching it. I didn't even need to open a web browser to download an installer.
Heroic Launcher is amaze balls, too. It pulls all the free games I get on GOG, Epic, and Amazon (iirc?) into one library that looks and works like Steam's (amazing) library. So slick. (I think it's preinstalled in CachyOS, too.)
I have an older 1080ti or something like that which is still running just fine. And with the current prices I’m unlikely to change that.
It will also likely work really well, apparently. I think you just need to be careful to pick a distro that comes with NVidea drivers, like CachyOS, and it will likely just work. Test with a live USB boot.
Yeah, I think I’m mostly done with my current set of games, so maybe a good time to make the switch.
I think photography workflow might have some issues, but it’s probably manageable.
I'm liking Krita and Photopea (web app), but I'm not heavy into photography. I haven't looked for a Lightroom replacement.
I’m aware of Darktable, but haven’t tried it myself.
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.
Our engineers can use Linux desktop if they want, and I suppose anyone else could as well, but Microsoft Office is really what keeps me on Windows at work. I could use the browser based apps for 80% but that last 20% is nasty. And yes, I use libreoffice at home. The cross compatibility just isn't there without loads of extra time that I don't have.
Sharepoint and collaborative editing is what keeps us on Windows. Everything else we do is browser based so the OS doesn’t matter. I suppose we could live in Office365 but it’s not nearly as full featured as the desktop apps.
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
I was handed a Windows laptop. I used it for a few weeks and then quietly just upgraded to a personal Linux machine. It's been six months and no one cares. Fine with me.
Yeah we have to use windows at work but we are trying to move software development to support Linux. It's just a bit hard when you have a monster codebase, bigger than the Linux kernel or Firefox, built using all Microsoft products. That being said, dotnet now supporting Linux is a huge positive
I actually get forced to use a Chromebook at my current job but it doesn't really change anything since all our software is "in the cloud" accessed through Chrome.
No.
I just don't work.
(said in jest, but more truth to that than none)
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.
Keep your eye open for opportunities to advocate for Linux in the workplace, change will come.
sad times
I run teams and Outlook using versions in electron wrappers. For one drive I have to use the web interface to get to the shared storage because our folks don't know how to set it up and I don't care enough to figure it out for them.
I have one application that I really need to use that I still can't get working in Linux but I'm still trying.
Mac at work. Yabai+sketchybar is no i3wm replacement, but it works ok.
My
.zshrcis basically the same as I use on my personal computers, and aside from a few coreutils differences it...kinda just works. I haveaptaliased tobrewso I can feel more at home.Stock terminal works fine---I use
xtermon Linux, so I'm used to relying ontmuxfor nice features anyway.Basically, I miss the window manager, but practically speaking that's a about it. (I obviously have
xscreensaverinstalled!)The last two corporate jobs I had I was able to use Linux. I did have to dual boot but that's easy. Currently I run my own company and I have one machine that runs windows for people that remote in and need to use my PC for terminal access etc. that machine basically just sits there and doesn't get used for anything except for that stuff. All my other computers I run at home are all Linux based.
I've been lucky, at two of my previous jobs, I was permitted to use a Linux laptop instead of the default Windows ones, it was wonderful.
Sadly you're right though, at least in the US, even in the IT world, unless you're working specifically at a Linux company, you're almost certainly using Windows.
My current job is all Windows, even though my team spends a significant amount of time maintaining Linux systems. I just open up WSL and try to pretend It's running on bare metal. 😞
My main computer at work is Linux, I do have a Windows build box where I compile code for Windows, and to make my life easier I usually develop it there as well. But outside of platform specific code, or code related to a product that's Windows only, I don't have any issues.
As for other software Teams, slack, zoom, Google meeting and docs work well enough that I can use them daily without issues.
At a previous job for some reason they wanted me to use Windows, which was absurd since I worked on the backend of a site which would only be deployed to Linux, didn't last long in that job after that was made official.
In short, as long as my main machine is Linux, I don't mind having to have a Windows machine to do Windows stuff. But I get annoyed out of my mind if I'm either forced to use Windows as my main OS (it's just not ergonomic for me), especially if there's no reason for it.
Yep, and I fucking hate every minute of it...
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.
It depends on your work. I'm a web designer and I can use anything I want. I also work from home.
Nope.
I have been on macOS at work since December of 2019. Before that it was Windows since 2014. If I had the choice for Linux I might take it over macOS, but I'd happily take either over Windows.
All my jobs back to 2002 until now I have had full authority to run any OS I like on my work computer. I've run nothing but Linux on all my work machines and I have convinced many coworkers to do the same.
We can choose what we want to run at work. I work as with Solution Architecture and Platform Engineering mainly with Azure, PaaS and dotnet solutions. It’s atypical I suppose but surprisingly seamless.
Doing this in Linux is pretty straightforward and my choice of distro is Ubuntu since last year. I have modified Gnome getting it sorta close to Omakub (the precursor to Omarchy).
The stack, including Dotnet, C#, PowerShell, Bicep, Terraform and Azure CLI works well. I’m midway in my setup of Neovim and have it working with PowerShell and Bicep as well as an assortment of other LSP’s. Additional tools such as JetBrains Rider, Draw.io and Obsidian with Excalidraw are native and so is LibreOffice. For the few workloads I can’t run natively (basically Visual Studio and Office) I have a VM.
The major issue I have found in a lot of workplaces with Windows since forever, disregarding the increasing mess in Windows 11, has been group policy lockdowns. IT tend to look at everyone including devs as office workers (assuming Office is the most advanced tools needed), meaning no admin access and blocked apps.
I'm in a lot of the same landscape as you, currently running a mac but ubuntu/fedora with gnome is looking at me from behind the corner. What's blocking me at this time is client IT policies, in order to access stuff in their network it has to be their device and they don't ship linux so. Next year it is.
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.
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.
Yes you are right, usually linux users that are not in IT have no choice but using bad microsoft computers (or Apple for designers/upper upper management) when they are employees.
But if you are general manager, or an independant contractor, you do whatever you want, and I have been on Debian, Void since 3 years now and it is just great.
People complain that "your files are not compatible" (i.e.: their excel version can not open a moderately complex xlsx file), and you use stupidly dumb webapp for Outlook and Teams, but otherwise if you don't need to commit for a specific software (built for windows or mac, like Adobe suite, 2D or 3D CAD softwares, some kind of old school ERP or CRM), you are all good. Basically everything done by management staff can be done using LibreOffice.
The "cloud revolution" at least has given us this good result : you can have basic business utilities solved through a webclient, hence GNU/Linux OS is ok to work with.
Yup. Use Windows at work mostly and Linux at home. My job isn't my life.
Yeah. After a period of unemployment and having used windows 10 at my previous job I came home after using 11 and told my wife "damn bitch you live like this?" about it
In my previous job and my job at the bike shop, yes. But I don't really care, its issues aren't my problem.
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.
I use Linux at work, but need a VM with Win for Office. And no, LibreOffice is not an option.
I'm constantly looking for a way to convert the entire office. At the moment, it's 'how to replace Revit' and I found Bonsai but the 2d drawing elements are still being developed. If anyone has any suggestions on BIM software that can use IFC files, I would be most thankful.
Other than that, I'll bet our IT company will advise against using Linux because they won't know how to use it.
I use Windows at work and it reminds me of how much I love Linux.
I think it's certainly possible for us to move away from Windows and Mac, but convincing people isn't easy. The end users would be easiest to convince because most of them are just using the limited array of applications required for the business and don't much care what's under the hood. The people who really need convincing are the reat of local IT support and maybe vendors.
I think the path to broader business adoption of Linux runs through IT support.
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.
I'm the IT admin, so I can run whatever I want. As long as the work gets done, I could even run TempleOS on my machine. 😀
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.
If a company is particular about me using Windows for work, I'll be particular about choosing a company that uses Linux for work. But I'm in a unique/privileged position in this regard; my job involves making it easier for people to use Linux for business or personal use.
Good luck on that job search.
I have the option to use WSL at work, it's not perfect but it's so much better than having to code on a glorified web browser.
Yeah.
Thank the gods for Modern Windows Terminal, VSCode and PowerShell.
Now if only someone at Microsoft makes the Virtual Desktop Switching not be slow as balls and makes the Tabs in Explorer suck less, it starts to resemble a sane environment.
No. I would never allow them to force me to use Windows
In the past I mostly got to persuade them to allow me to use Linux. In one, however, they got me a macbook, so I resorted to living in the VM most of the time. I had to use xcode for some of the Mac development, but for the rest, I was masochistic enough to be able to withstand living in a VM. Though that mac was Intel based, now ARM ones would likely not perform as good to justify it. Asahi doesn't work on newer ARM Macs AFAIK.
If I was forced to use windows at any job I would find another job.
Was macos at work, now Linux dev machine. Its a big up.
To be honest, all those are web apps now shrug. Zoom, slack, teams, docs, sheets, , all open in the browser. So IDC what the OS is for them. Linux Zero-Touch deployments are still in progress IMHO so I get why they arent here yet for a lot offices, but we are closer now than ever (thanks atomic OSs!).
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.
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 use Mac at work :). Most of my group uses Mac with a few using windows. There have been some people who have tried using fedora but the support for some enterprise apps is just not there. But I do get to manage around 100 RHEL systems. So I still get plenty of linux time at work.
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'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.
Yes, but it's okay. I have low expectations.
My computer at work runs windows. But I bought a cheap KVM switch and use my Linux laptop for all my personal web browsing and slacking off.
My company is semi-large. Big enough that their IT dept semi-supports linux. My manager didn't know about it, but after being at the company for a year using windows, I finally found the right desktop team that hooked me up with a massive document on how to install linux following corporate policy. So, now I'm rocking Ubuntu. Not in my top 10 choices, but a far cry better than the Windows 11 rollout the company warned us of.
We're using exclusively MacOS at work, with the exception of one windows device which is pretty quarantined from the rest. I would not accept a job offer from a windows-only company. My mental health is more important to me
Depends on your workplace and in which field you are.
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
I really hate windows but I dont find teams to be that bad. Outlook at all the 365 admin tools are far far worse. Luckily we're moving away towards google and atlassian.
If my company wants to use windows and pay for m$ services and deal with copilot. Who am I to stop them? The guys securing the desktop images need jobs too.
Right now I work as an administrator for a few Red Hat servers. Notebooks are still Windows though.
Luckily we have business assigned Windows laptops and most of my work is done through web apps so mainly I have Teams, Outlook and Edge open. That way I get to have minimal Windows annoyances.
Yes. There's no way my work would ever change.
They are trying to embrace ai slop, they sure as hell wont go away from win 11, that would take smarts.
Plus, cad, navisworks, revit, wont run on linux.
I use Linux on my own machine and my self host d stuff, but my wife has a Windows laptop and at work I am the windows admin. So I use all the windows there.
I've been out on medical disability since '21.
I dread this possibility when I try going back to work soon.
I knew as soon as I heard about Win10 having candy crush on the start menu that it would be the last Windows I ever installed. I had been meaning to switch for years before that (actually dabbled with a dual boot of Ubuntu back on whatever version number "Edgy Eft" was-- 5? 6?). I stayed mainly on Windows because I don't really think Wine or Proton was around yet (who knows maybe I just hadn't heard of it yet), but I did really like how non-Windows it was.
It was always in the back of my head and I knew my time was coming. Just had to get my system cleaned up (file wise) and ready to move over.
Then I ended up making a new build first so instead of moving I just never put Windows on this machine at all.
Anyway the last time I worked I still use Windows at home. So other than attempting to set up a printer on my sister's computer one time (which didn't work out because I was only there for about 20 minutes total and it had some wireless pairing to do but just wouldn't find whatever it was trying to find), I've never even touched 11. But the tiny bit I did see have me the same ick that moving from Win7 to 10 gave me. Things like how they fucked with the control panel and made a new, half-redundant settings app, had built-in cortana in the task bar, etc all bothered me.
But given that the awfulness that was 10 is longed for now, I really hope whatever job I get doesn't have to use Win11.
I have to use Windows at work, but I can use WSL on the developer laptop. Also I develop for/on Linux servers via ssh, so it's good that I know Linux from home.
I am very lucky that I never had to use windows at any full time job, nor even in full time education post 18.
As someone who works in software, I've been using macs at work for more than a decade. One job had Linux machines. One place had windows for developers and it was a shit show.
Apple isn't amazing but at least the terminal is sensible.
Yes, and I'm forced to bring Win11 home if I need to work remotely because they allegedly would need to install drivers (?) on and reconfigure their firewall for me to use the Linux Cisco VPN client? So it's too much work.
I have a small homelab and I've never had to install drivers to support another operating system connecting. I also don't have to pay a subscription for access points and can reconfigure them myself so maybe it's a Cisco thing.
that's correct at least for me. My issue is that we have old lab equipment that needs absolutely ancient software and drivers to work correctly and I have to support that to an extent. Me personally, my job could be done within a web browser.
I'm curious: why don't you virtualize? You can have any environment you want, you can run them on any machine, and are probably a lot easier to run backups etc. on.
The software support on some of our equipment is dubious at best and some of the instructors need to use it and most things are windows here. I would give it a shot if I was the lab supervisor but I'm not.
We have some gel cameras with an Olympus camera module. The last driver update for that brought Windows 7 support. We can get it running on 11 without too much issue.
I go around the problem by barely having to use a Computer at work. Pretty much the only thing I do with it is feed data into an online databank over a browser
Just mac. That used to be a flex.
Yeah, I only use that hot mess of an OS when I get paid to use it lmao
IT intern, yeah I am kinda forced to use Windows. I am also in charge of reformatting computers and installing OSs, so technically I could just sneak a little ventoy drive in and dual boot if I was a little sneaky about it, but I'm specifically grinding work contacts and don't wanna jeopardize that for any reason right now.
Linux or Mac shop in the past 3 places.
I'm lucky enough that my MD barely understands what a computer is, let alone gives a shit what we use to do our work. So I just said fuck it and put Kubuntu on mine. As long as I can do my work, no one cares how I do it.
I'll be the black sheep and say I actually quite like using windows at work. Not really enjoyment per say, but the software suites and accessibility is different in the business world, which is primarily built around Microsoft. Not that you can't do most of it with Linux and that Linux would do some things better, but I don't really have an issue with most of it.
Would I choose it for my home use? Definitely not. But I'd think that fitting a Linux cog in a Microsoft machine would create more negatives than positives. This is all subjective of course, and depending on you job, company, industry this could wildly not apply.
Don't get me wrong, I hate Microsoft. But their ecosystem isn't all bad.
When in the office, yes. But I use my desktop when working from home. The annoying part I have spent like two minutes trying to solve by installing Vivaldi, is Teams, 'cause now my picture is squashed for some reason on calls, while working perfectly in OBS and elsewhere.