6 ms·

I don't know how to phrase this more politely, but why do you feel entitled to use a company-issued device for personal use to the point of re-partitioning and

I don't know how to phrase this more politely, but why do you feel entitled to use a company-issued device for personal use to the point of re-partitioning and installing an unstable OS?

mistyvales 3y ago
Oh, you're totally not wrong. I have a bit of leeway with admin rights so I decided it was worth doing. I do understand it is not MY laptop though..
wetpaws 3y ago
It's corporate device, not corporate os.
- stouset 3y ago
  I’m generally with you here, but in this specific case the GP’s stated purpose in doing so is to enable doing personal activities on their work device. I think that’s the part I personally balk at a bit (and what I suspect GP was getting at), not necessarily the act of installing whatever you want on the device. Mixing work and personal like that seems a priori a bad idea. In many cases, work can even seize your device from you for legal reasons. Yes, you can keep the personal activities separate on an encrypted partion and otherwise walled off from the work bits. But this all just limits some of the possible downsides and doesn’t make it a good idea.
- theshrike79 3y ago
  Part of the "corporate device" is the fact that they can ensure its security. Would you be comfortable letting Bob in Accounting use her own computer, the one she uses to do payroll for the whole company? The same Bob who clicks every link in every email and installs every executable possible. The same Bob who doesn't remember passwords and has the payroll system password on a post-it note next to his display and uses auto-login on his computer because typing the password every morning is too much of a hassle. Or would you rather have some "corporate spyware" on there doing basic sanity checks for malware, weird access patterns, enforcing a password policy and automatic locking when idle?
  - Hamuko 3y ago
    >Or would you rather have some "corporate spyware" on there doing basic sanity checks for malware, weird access patterns, enforcing a password policy and automatic locking when idle? The problem with these corporate spywares is that they're designed for the Bobs of the world and I do not consider myself a Bob. When my employer was implementing one of these management nannies to enforce password policies, it would've rejected my password because it didn't have a number in it. However, mine was significantly longer than the minimum, so my password has like 25% more entropy than the minimum mandated. If my employer trusts me enough to let me set up new AWS environments and secure our production databases, maybe they could trust me to secure my work laptop too. Different courses for different horses.
    - theshrike79 3y ago
      Yeah, these are the standard big corp problems. I've been in situations where programmers are forced under the same rules as random office workers. Like no admin permissions on their own laptop. If you need to install something, you had to call IT and they'd give you an admin account that was active for 30 minutes or something. It was extremely fun when I had to test multiple applications and had to do this process many times a day :D
      - mistyvales 3y ago
        Nevermind the fact that corporate mandated password changes every three months usually is pointless because the vast majority just change their password from "Password1" to "Password2" etc. Not very hard for a bad actor to identify.
WolfeReader 3y ago
I installed Linux over my company's preferred OS years ago. They still haven't noticed/cared. I'll probably do it again.
- hef19898 3y ago
  And then people wonder why corporate IT security is really bad sometimes...
  - oceanplexian 3y ago
    I’m gonna guess that 99% of the time a company gets hacked because the CFO gets caught downloading porn from a sketchy website on his Windows machine. Not because of some nerds running linux.
  - WolfeReader 3y ago
    My corporate IT doesn't let us use ad blockers, password managers, incognito windows, or GPG. It's rules like that, which motivate me to carve my own path to actual security. I've seen security breaches happen, and it's not the self-motivated users who cause them. It's the casual users who leave their computer unlocked, or go on social media with the same one browser they're using for work, or who click links in email without checking the source.
    - boston_clone 3y ago
      > It's the casual users who […] go on social media with the same one browser they're using for work this sounds like personal use, though. I do appreciate your perspective, and am sorry that your IT dept has no sense of security. Disallowing password managers and ad blockers honestly sounds like a good sign to gtfo and find a more competent org, or dig in and drive some serious change from the inside.
      - WolfeReader 3y ago
        I like both of those options you're suggesting :)
andyferris 3y ago
From what I've seen this isn't "entitlement" - it can be that the employer is aware and OK with you treating their computer as your own (and you can always simply ask). Often such companies allow BYOD. Similarly people might not want two phones, or two cars - so this could be seen as a perk. The policy can be "just format it before you hand it back". I see this assumption that people are being sneaky by using company devices for private matters on HN quite frequently, but it really doesn't gel with my experience.
- boston_clone 3y ago
  the parent comment I replied to said: > I […] installed Asahi on my work Macbook for the simple reason that I don't want to do anything personal on the Mac OS partition
8note 3y ago
Simple reasons would include weight and volume. A laptop takes physical space that I am paying for, not the company, unless the company is paying some slim percentage of my rent. Why does the company feel entitled to have me store its stuff? Theres a policy that you can't leave the laptop at the office.
zaptheimpaler 3y ago
if there is no harm to the employer then what exactly is the problem? the complete Mac bootchain with all its security stays intact, Asahi is entirely separate and OP is not using it for work. at that point there is no risk to the company, its just economical use of a computer.

I don't know how to phrase this more politely, but why do you feel entitled to use a company-issued device for personal use to the point of re-partitioning and installing an unstable OS?

mistyvales 3y ago

Oh, you're totally not wrong. I have a bit of leeway with admin rights so I decided it was worth doing. I do understand it is not MY laptop though..

wetpaws 3y ago

It's corporate device, not corporate os.

stouset 3y ago
I’m generally with you here, but in this specific case the GP’s stated purpose in doing so is to enable doing personal activities on their work device. I think that’s the part I personally balk at a bit (and what I suspect GP was getting at), not necessarily the act of installing whatever you want on the device. Mixing work and personal like that seems a priori a bad idea. In many cases, work can even seize your device from you for legal reasons. Yes, you can keep the personal activities separate on an encrypted partion and otherwise walled off from the work bits. But this all just limits some of the possible downsides and doesn’t make it a good idea.
theshrike79 3y ago
Part of the "corporate device" is the fact that they can ensure its security. Would you be comfortable letting Bob in Accounting use her own computer, the one she uses to do payroll for the whole company? The same Bob who clicks every link in every email and installs every executable possible. The same Bob who doesn't remember passwords and has the payroll system password on a post-it note next to his display and uses auto-login on his computer because typing the password every morning is too much of a hassle. Or would you rather have some "corporate spyware" on there doing basic sanity checks for malware, weird access patterns, enforcing a password policy and automatic locking when idle?
- Hamuko 3y ago
  >Or would you rather have some "corporate spyware" on there doing basic sanity checks for malware, weird access patterns, enforcing a password policy and automatic locking when idle? The problem with these corporate spywares is that they're designed for the Bobs of the world and I do not consider myself a Bob. When my employer was implementing one of these management nannies to enforce password policies, it would've rejected my password because it didn't have a number in it. However, mine was significantly longer than the minimum, so my password has like 25% more entropy than the minimum mandated. If my employer trusts me enough to let me set up new AWS environments and secure our production databases, maybe they could trust me to secure my work laptop too. Different courses for different horses.
  - theshrike79 3y ago
    Yeah, these are the standard big corp problems. I've been in situations where programmers are forced under the same rules as random office workers. Like no admin permissions on their own laptop. If you need to install something, you had to call IT and they'd give you an admin account that was active for 30 minutes or something. It was extremely fun when I had to test multiple applications and had to do this process many times a day :D
    - mistyvales 3y ago
      Nevermind the fact that corporate mandated password changes every three months usually is pointless because the vast majority just change their password from "Password1" to "Password2" etc. Not very hard for a bad actor to identify.

WolfeReader 3y ago

I installed Linux over my company's preferred OS years ago. They still haven't noticed/cared. I'll probably do it again.

hef19898 3y ago
And then people wonder why corporate IT security is really bad sometimes...
- oceanplexian 3y ago
  I’m gonna guess that 99% of the time a company gets hacked because the CFO gets caught downloading porn from a sketchy website on his Windows machine. Not because of some nerds running linux.
- WolfeReader 3y ago
  My corporate IT doesn't let us use ad blockers, password managers, incognito windows, or GPG. It's rules like that, which motivate me to carve my own path to actual security. I've seen security breaches happen, and it's not the self-motivated users who cause them. It's the casual users who leave their computer unlocked, or go on social media with the same one browser they're using for work, or who click links in email without checking the source.
  - boston_clone 3y ago
    > It's the casual users who […] go on social media with the same one browser they're using for work this sounds like personal use, though. I do appreciate your perspective, and am sorry that your IT dept has no sense of security. Disallowing password managers and ad blockers honestly sounds like a good sign to gtfo and find a more competent org, or dig in and drive some serious change from the inside.
    - WolfeReader 3y ago
      I like both of those options you're suggesting :)

andyferris 3y ago

From what I've seen this isn't "entitlement" - it can be that the employer is aware and OK with you treating their computer as your own (and you can always simply ask). Often such companies allow BYOD. Similarly people might not want two phones, or two cars - so this could be seen as a perk. The policy can be "just format it before you hand it back". I see this assumption that people are being sneaky by using company devices for private matters on HN quite frequently, but it really doesn't gel with my experience.

boston_clone 3y ago
the parent comment I replied to said: > I […] installed Asahi on my work Macbook for the simple reason that I don't want to do anything personal on the Mac OS partition

8note 3y ago

Simple reasons would include weight and volume. A laptop takes physical space that I am paying for, not the company, unless the company is paying some slim percentage of my rent. Why does the company feel entitled to have me store its stuff? Theres a policy that you can't leave the laptop at the office.

zaptheimpaler 3y ago

if there is no harm to the employer then what exactly is the problem? the complete Mac bootchain with all its security stays intact, Asahi is entirely separate and OP is not using it for work. at that point there is no risk to the company, its just economical use of a computer.