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This is another reason not to do dual-boot, but to just use Linux. Here's a good litmus test for a company we're considering joining: do at least their enginee
by neilv 2y ago
This is another reason not to do dual-boot, but to just use Linux.
Here's a good litmus test for a company we're considering joining: do at least their engineers (if not their PowerPoint+Excel biz people) use Linux for their laptops, not only for their servers? If they do use Linux, I'm just going to assert that they're likely more clueful than average.
Similar with startup hiring. Two options for this: (1) give a resume-screening boost to people who seem to have bought into Linux; or (2) announce in your job posts that the company pragmatically uses Linux for everything, to attract people who see that as clueful, and scare away a lot of others.
(Unfortunately, #2 also alienates some mostly-clueful people who really like Macs, and maybe even some clueful people who, through some cruel accident of history and gaming rigs, only know how to do Windows.)
(Actually, even more than Linux, I suspect that a startup using a BSD would probably be more technically clueful than the average Linux shop. Because some fringe tech seems to attracts the smartest and/or best-motivated techies disproportionately. But I'd say Linux is a sweeter spot overall for more startups.)
- orev 2y agoThis is a terrible way to evaluate companies/people, and it comes off as a “Linux person” who refuses to understand why companies use Windows. The fact is that Windows has leagues more control features (Group Policy, etc.) than Linux does, and those features are required for any kind of sane management of an IT landscape, and are also required in many industries for compliance reasons. And no, Ansible etc. is not the same thing. The better way to evaluate is to discuss why they chose that tool for any particular job. Linux is often the right answer for servers, and Windows often the right answer for end user computers. But there may be cases where a specific case is better suited to a different tool.
- neilv 2y ago> and it comes off as a “Linux person” who refuses to understand why companies use Windows. One comment in, and I think the litmus test is already working well.
- axus 2y agoThis seems like a good chance for me to learn. What software do the Linux people planning the budget and schedule for a big project use?
- Kokouane 2y agoIt's high overhead, but having a VM just for Excel isn't that insane. Performance differences these days are negligible, and if you are just using Excel I doubt it's that much of a problem. There is also Google Sheets. For planning, Jira is king and available as a web app.
- tourmalinetaco 2y agoWhy do you need specifically Excel? Why not literally any native sheet application, most of which can save to .xlsx?
- yttribium 2y agoLarge chunks of the world economy run on specifically Excel.
- talldayo 2y agoGoogle Sheets and Airtable, from what I've seen.
- QuadmasterXLII 2y agoI mean the funnies answer would be emacs
- ASalazarMX 2y agoMaybe even a reverse litmus test. You can't go full-Linux and ignore Windows, otherwise you'll become illiterate in the most used consumer desktop OS after a few years when Microsoft messes it up even more :P Becoming a Linux user is great, becoming a Linux/Windows/Mac/TempleOS/etc. zealot is not.
- OJFord 2y agoGP said their engineers; I absolutely sympathise with not wanting to work somewhere with mandatory Windows, I might forget to ask, but I can't/am unwilling to work like that. MacOS I can get by with, but in web software engineering at least I would say Windows is unusual, and being someone who 'refuses to understand why' a company would force its engineers to use Windows is not going to be that restrictive for someone in that industry. It's my primary tool really, and it affects all the others!
- Der_Einzige 2y agoI should do this with Amiga so I get actual software chads instead of r/unixporn arch Linux ricers.
- kelnos 2y agoI think that's a pretty weak heuristic, and you'd be venting yourself the chance to work at quite a few excellent places to work if you poo-pooed them because the developers don't all run Linux. For me, though, if they won't let me run Linux, then I won't work for them.
- pete762 2y agoYour litmus test fails simply because John Carmack prefers Windows.
- t0bia_s 2y agoYou cannot switch to linux if your work is done in proprietary software, ie Adobe.