I started unplugging the Ethernet cable when I leave for work so IT can’t do any behind the scenes when I’m away.

Speaking as an IT guy, don't do this. Its not your computer, and it's our job to manage it. If you don't like the company's policies go work somewhere else. This is how you get my boss to call your boss into a meeting.

I've been thinking about swapping my work laptop to Linux too.

The difference is I'm in IT and I know what all things I need to put on my computer to make it compliant with all our policies and all the software I need to do my job.

I've been experimenting by running some Linux VMs with all the EDR, patching, and logging software we need. But by the time I'm doing all that, there's really no point in using Linux except for the CLI which WSL has been great for that.

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.

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

I've had Linux on my work desktop for the past twenty years.

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". :[

Yes, the company OS policy doesn't specify which OS to use as long as it actively supported and the security tooling can be installed.

Protip: don't ask, just do it.

Convince?

Im a software dev. If you don't use linux or macos youre a weirdo

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 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.

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".

Yea, but at a small company (~15 workers). It took a few weeks of back and forth because I didn't have a real work-related reason to switch.

As an engineer, yes. I managed to get a pilot program off the ground at my last company. As a recently public company with a lot of IT debt, the biggest challenge was around making those devices compliant with security and IT processes, and easy for IT to provision and monitor.

It helped that I made an effort to build good connections into IT and IT leadership. The clincher was a clear proposed timeline, a commitment that it would not require any additional workload from IT, and that we wouldn't expand it without their sign off.

Unfortunately, layoffs meant I couldn't roll it out beyond the initial group, and when a second round of layoffs came around I took the opportunity to leave. I haven't been looking much yet, but "allows Linux" is one of the criteria I'm measuring companies against.

I've worked in a few offices but never in an I.T. role.

Never been allowed to switch web browser, so a whole new operating system is out of the question. But I did ask once at a previous job, to get shot down.

Only place I've seen desktop Linux irl has been my own bedroom.

I used to work at a place where it was just a small operation of us three in the IT dept. helpdesk goon me, network engineer, and IT boss. I wanted more experience on Linux in a corporate environment. IT boss saw this as a learning opportunity and gave the green light so I switch my machine over.

Then network guy switched. IT boss thought this was fine too. “We learn some lessons the hard way” he mused.

This lasted several weeks and we had basically no issues. We were actually more productive than he was. He eventually was getting frustrated this little experiment of his wasn’t going the way he wanted and mandated we “had to use windows because our customers were using windows.”

We switched back. Everything went back to shit but it was familiar shit so he was fine with it.

I brought in an old surface pro X and used it. Technically still complying and it did help us figure out some issues some of our other ARM based customers had. Any it worked better than the shitty dells we were given.

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.

working at a research institute, nobody set any restrictions for what os i install. there are guidelines, but only to make sure that people keep their os secure. i’m using fedora, my boss uses mint, a colleague uses macos. everyone is free (as long as it’s within a somewhat tight budget)

In a large organization, IT team/Organization policy will never allow to let you use Linux as your OS unless it is required for project or mandated by client.

With ransomware attacks on ever rise, IT will always try to control all aspects of your office laptop/desktop. As they think they got it sorted for Windows, they will fight tooth and nail if you ever submit it ticket to get your OS replaced with Linux without project requirements.

In my view, as long as I'm allowed to install whatever on my personal devices even while working from home, I'm fine.

Office devices aren't really my property. For me, Windows during office hours, and Linux thereafter.

To me it's the opposite, my boss (and owner of the company) is frustrated that we cannot install linux due to some technical requirements. It is possible to change that, but this will require reshaping of the entire work process

Most places I've been at have only OS restrictions when the corporate IT doesn't support it. To be honest, while not perfect, WSL on Windows is great.

That’s really dependent on how your work manages user workstations. If your employer is big enough to have managed endpoints, you’ll need to convince your IT department, not just your boss. They’ll have to be able to officially support it (compatibility, updates, security, legal, etc.) and that also requires approval from higher ups.

I can't even install Rust...

Didn't need to, our developers work on Linux because that's what their tooling uses.

Granted it's either Ubuntu LTS or RHEL because of compliance, but they make it work. Unfortunately Linux is a second-class citizen to central IT, so when they make changes, they don't really consider Linux users, they're on their own.

Fun story, started at a new company as a software engineer. Default device is windows, with maybe a mac if you specifically ask for it/have a need for it.

However, turns out the person in charge of IT is super chill and lets you install what you want on your on risk. Fair deal as I am not developing super critical infrastructure.

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 did, in my previous and curret job...e very happy camper