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’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 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.
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.
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.
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.
No. I would never allow them to force me to use Windows
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.
OnlyOffice usually plays nicer with microtrash formats.
Keep your eye open for opportunities to advocate for Linux in the workplace, change will come.
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.
No. We are a proper engineering company.
As an engineer, piss off with this pretentious crap.
LOL, spotted the “windows engineer”.
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.
Yeah, have fun making stuff when the device you’re using to do so is actively fighting you
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.
Web dev, Linux at home and work. Works fine for my scenario.
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?
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’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.
