this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
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I'm interviewing for a software dev job currently (it's in the initial stages). If things work out, I'd absolutely prefer a work laptop with Linux installed (I personally use PopOS but any distro will do), a Mac will be second choice, but I absolutely cannot tolerate Windows, I abhor it, I hate it... (If all computers left on earth have Windows I'd either quit this field or just quit Earth).

Sometimes it's possible to tell if they use Windows or not, for example, jobs with dotnet/C# are most likely using windows, but not in my case.

Anyways, is it too weird to ask what kind of laptop they provide to their employees? And to also specifically ask for a Linux (or anything but windows) work laptop?

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[–] satanmat@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I would not ask at the interview.. I’d wait until after you’re hired…

I’m not a programmer; but a system administrator. 4 Linux and 250 windows 1 Mac; In our org. I’ve run off a MBP for 17 years now. And not had any push back when I requested it, just said I’d prefer a then 15” now 16” MBP.

Good luck

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I assume MBP is short for the Mac book pro. Anyway I personally wouldn't be the first person to want a Mac as they don't have all the great of virtualization support.

[–] satanmat@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Sorry yeah. MacBook Pro.

It does what I need to do my job. I’ve got all the terminal tools. SSH ping nmap. MS makes a great Remote Desktop app And the built in screen sharing works great for VNC. SO. YEAH

[–] ik5pvx@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

I told my would-be boss that if he wanted me to be productive I'd better have a Linux machine

[–] wwwgem@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If only asking the same thing for non-computer jobs would be accepted. I always have to use my personal laptop.

[–] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Even in an IT job I prefer using my own gear (laptop+keyboard+mouse). Corporate laptops (+ peripherals) almost always universally suck. Therfore I won't accept a job unless they have a decent BYOD scheme. At my current workplace for instance, most of our core apps are cloud-based already, and for the few legacy apps, we can access via Citrix; plus they also reimburse me (to an extent) for using my own laptop, which is nice. With my own gear, I can spec it however I want and use my own favorite apps, without needing to go thru approvals and red tape, and more importantly - I can use my own distro/DE of choice. Like, imagine if a company offered Linux laptops, but you were forced to use Ubuntu or something worse like Oracle Linux... So yea, BYOD FTW.

@flakpanzer@lemmy.world if I were you, I'd ask if BYOD is an option, and if so what their BYOD scheme is like. As a Linux person, it's always better to use your own gear, than whatever el cheapo locked-down system the company offers.

[–] andreas@lemmy.korfmann.xyz 2 points 9 months ago

Dell offers their Precision lineup of laptops with an option to ship with Linux (ubuntu) instead of Windows. As far as mainstream, enterprise support and driver updates go, you can't get any bigger than Dell. Lots of good deals to be had on eBay for these machines too, they're built like tanks and driver issues are never a thing.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

FWIW I get along pretty well with a virtualbox vm running on my employer provided windows machine. Performance is good and virtualbox even supports multiple displays pretty well.

You do need to square things with corporate IT and security though. Some places really lock their systems down. I'd ask about how "developer friendly" their security policies are.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Virtual box is very slow compared to something more native. I prefer KVM on Linux if I can get it and I'm pretty sure Hyper-V is going to be faster even though it is a tremendous pain in the ***

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago

VirtualBox performs just fine for me and I'm not exactly light on how I use it. I have a development environment with multiple IntelliJ instances running, and Oracle database running in Docker, etc. And the desktop integration is much better than Hyper-V. KVM is not an option if the host is Windows.

With VirtualBox I can run full screen with multiple monitors - aside from the Windows Key being caught by Windows it's nearly complete immersion to the Linux desktop. I can then switch to "window mode" if I need to do anything from Windows. And even in "windowed mode" I still have multiple monitors (it does one window for each).

Raw performance isn't everything. The user experience here is much better than what the hypervisors provide.

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