I have to use Windows at work. It’s genuinely horrifying.
Every time I open Word - and I mean EVERY. TIME. - I have to dismiss a box inviting me to ask Copilot to do my work for me.
I KNOW that I could bung Debian on that PC and wring SO MUCH MORE performance out of it, but noooooo, I’ve got to use SlopOS, because our IT guys don’t know the first damn thing about Linux.
our IT guys don’t know the first damn thing about Linux.
Well yeah, they went to Microslop school to get Microslop certs so they can work with other people’s Microslop infrastructure and spit out words like “iNdUsTrY sTaNdArD” if you even hint at coloring outside the lines. Lol
Of the two of them, one used to work for IBM, but that was some years ago, so his up to date knowledge is barebones at best. His world is Windows. Give him XP or 7 and he’d be well away I imagine. The other lad is mostly about the infrastructure and networking, but again, has only ever used Windows. So that’s their comfort zone. And then there’s the boss’s son who administrates things remotely, rarely answers any emails in a satisfactory way, and refuses to give admin access away, even to the other two.
To be fair, the computer policies here were non existent until a few months ago, when landing a huge contract meant having to actually comply with cybersecurity requirements. So until that point I used first my old Mac mini, because I was more at home with macOS than Windows, then a tiny Dell Optiplex that I put Kubuntu on. No one gave a shit and that suited me just fine. In fact, I was given to understand that I’d be left alone when all the new PCs with Win11 were rolled out, largely because, until that point, mine was the only one running actual up-to-date software, while everyone else was on Win10.
BuT It cOmEs wItH OfFiCiAl sUpPoRt pErFoRmEd bY A FrEeLaNcEr oN A FoRuM WhO CoPiEs yOuR QuEsTiOn iNtO An lLm aNd, sEcUrItY UpDaTeS Of hAlF An hOuR EvErY FiVe mInUtEs, So mUsT Be gOoD RiGhT?
There is the old adage “Nobody got fired for going with Microsoft”, and it is real.
If you, as an IT guy recommend Linux, and some exec has a problem with his laptop (which they would have had no matter what OS is running on it) it WILL be your fault because you changed something.
Likewise, I’m lucky enough that they didn’t disable the mslop store => installed librewolf and put a huge amount of blocklists on there (including copilot, I know it’s just the browser but fuck it.)
Everything else is frustrating.
Open outlook, it opens, closes, opens again for no apparent reason. If you rightclick a dialog open and you look around in it, you can’t do two actions. Even though it’s still there after the first.
The start menu is slow as shit and power hungry. And absurdly large (even if you “clean it up”)
Wtf is this thing anyway? I’d rather even have Vista. There I said it.
Yep. Most of the past couple of months have been spent poking and prodding at the boundaries to see what I can get away with, and I can install a bunch of stuff via winget.
I’ve even taught myself how to jump to my server at home using SSH via my VPS so I can access stuff even without being allowed Tailscale.
I wish I could, but I don’t have the admin rights necessary to activate it.
Fortunately we’re a reasonably small firm, so I may be able to make an argument for it. And in the meantime, I have a dashboard server running Debian onto which I have also installed a bunch of useful tools that I can either get to with my browser, or SSH into.
I have to use Windows at work. It’s genuinely horrifying.
Every time I open Word - and I mean EVERY. TIME. - I have to dismiss a box inviting me to ask Copilot to do my work for me.
I KNOW that I could bung Debian on that PC and wring SO MUCH MORE performance out of it, but noooooo, I’ve got to use SlopOS, because our IT guys don’t know the first damn thing about Linux.
Well yeah, they went to Microslop school to get Microslop certs so they can work with other people’s Microslop infrastructure and spit out words like “iNdUsTrY sTaNdArD” if you even hint at coloring outside the lines. Lol
Bold of you to assume they have any certs.
Of the two of them, one used to work for IBM, but that was some years ago, so his up to date knowledge is barebones at best. His world is Windows. Give him XP or 7 and he’d be well away I imagine. The other lad is mostly about the infrastructure and networking, but again, has only ever used Windows. So that’s their comfort zone. And then there’s the boss’s son who administrates things remotely, rarely answers any emails in a satisfactory way, and refuses to give admin access away, even to the other two.
To be fair, the computer policies here were non existent until a few months ago, when landing a huge contract meant having to actually comply with cybersecurity requirements. So until that point I used first my old Mac mini, because I was more at home with macOS than Windows, then a tiny Dell Optiplex that I put Kubuntu on. No one gave a shit and that suited me just fine. In fact, I was given to understand that I’d be left alone when all the new PCs with Win11 were rolled out, largely because, until that point, mine was the only one running actual up-to-date software, while everyone else was on Win10.
But here we now are. And so it goes.
BuT It cOmEs wItH OfFiCiAl sUpPoRt pErFoRmEd bY A FrEeLaNcEr oN A FoRuM WhO CoPiEs yOuR QuEsTiOn iNtO An lLm aNd, sEcUrItY UpDaTeS Of hAlF An hOuR EvErY FiVe mInUtEs, So mUsT Be gOoD RiGhT?
There is the old adage “Nobody got fired for going with Microsoft”, and it is real.
If you, as an IT guy recommend Linux, and some exec has a problem with his laptop (which they would have had no matter what OS is running on it) it WILL be your fault because you changed something.
Unless you’re in game development, or any other industry they invade lol.
Never go with Microsoft to a secondary location. Never get in Microsoft’s car. Don’t even talk to Microsoft.
Likewise, I’m lucky enough that they didn’t disable the mslop store => installed librewolf and put a huge amount of blocklists on there (including copilot, I know it’s just the browser but fuck it.)
Everything else is frustrating.
Open outlook, it opens, closes, opens again for no apparent reason. If you rightclick a dialog open and you look around in it, you can’t do two actions. Even though it’s still there after the first. The start menu is slow as shit and power hungry. And absurdly large (even if you “clean it up”)
Wtf is this thing anyway? I’d rather even have Vista. There I said it.
Yep. Most of the past couple of months have been spent poking and prodding at the boundaries to see what I can get away with, and I can install a bunch of stuff via winget.
I’ve even taught myself how to jump to my server at home using SSH via my VPS so I can access stuff even without being allowed Tailscale.
In a way it’s quite fun. A small way.
WSL.
Leave Windows on it, but turn it into a de facto bootloader for a functional OS. IT gets to keep their bullshit jobs; you get to use a functional OS.
I wish I could, but I don’t have the admin rights necessary to activate it.
Fortunately we’re a reasonably small firm, so I may be able to make an argument for it. And in the meantime, I have a dashboard server running Debian onto which I have also installed a bunch of useful tools that I can either get to with my browser, or SSH into.
Same :(
Stay strong.
Linux is non-compliant with SCCM and group policy.