> It’s funny how many people can’t edit text on any machine but their own. I tend to interview people on a laptop running Ubuntu, and I open gedit for them to u

> It’s funny how many people can’t edit text on any machine but their own. I tend to interview people on a laptop running Ubuntu, and I open gedit for them to use, with the offer that they can use any other Unix editor they like. Most can barely navigate gedit, and it’s stupid simple. No, it's not funny. Accessibility is important, what if, for example, the person is used to a different keyboard layout? I would always encourage people to use their own machine and setup. If a programmer is uncomfortable on a different machine that might just stress them out and ruin the interview. Also, you could be missing out on some hidden skills. I could show off some ninja moves in sublime text or emacs, or in my customised shell, but I'm pretty sure I'd suck on a fresh ubuntu in Gedit. I agree that most programmers should be able to ssh into a server and edit a file without any issue, but that's different from completing a programming task. It's like testing if a tennis player can ace a serve with a golf club.