I am going to ask if I may use linux for work. We are using windows but there is nothing that couldn’t be done on linux. Privately, I am mainly a fedora user but I’d be happy with any OS and DE or wm. What do I need to look out for when I suggest an OS? What does a computer/ linux/DE need in order to be ready for enterprise workstation? Will I only have a user and no sudo rights? May I install all flatpak apps? Does the admin have to be able to remote ssh?

  • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    if it’s a large enough company, expect them to have systems administrators (sometimes called systems engineers nowadays) to exert control over their windows systems using either active directory or azure iam policies.

    there are multiple ways to get a linux system to comply with those policies; but that doesn’t matter since they’ll make the case to management that the extra operational costs of either getting your system to become compliant or providing you with support will hurt the budget and/or suck up extra bandwidth for support.

    your best bet in such cases are to offer written agreements that you will never seek out IT’s help and you will take full responsibility if you’re not able to get your work done because your linux system and provide a plan written down for each eventuality you can think of when your linux system doesn’t work as expected.

    i would also expect your manager to reject your request despite these efforts unless you’re a highly enough paid individual contributor or have a special enough relationship with upper management.

  • sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    Most startups I’ve applied to are Linux friendly.

    I currently work for a fortune 100 and managed to get a Linux machine purchased as a “lab” machine.

    I’m fully in control. IT doesn’t even know it exists. I’m not allowed on the corporate network, but I managed to get some internal corporate access through another department’s lab network (IT sanctioned) that has a VPN with a few routes to things like ticketing, time cards, and our internal wiki. Most of the stuff I need to do my job is in AWS and we are allowed to add home IPs to the security groups.

    IT still gives me a MacBook. I use it like once every 6 months.

    nixos-unstable is the only thing I will use currently.

    I’m running bleeding edge stuff like the latest kernel, Hyprland nightly, my own “shell” built from Gnome components and lots of custom stuff using GJS (Gnome JavaScript).

    If you get one, and you are free to do whatever on it, encrypt your drives like your job depends on it. I have a memorized passphrase, pin protected hardware key, and a key in TPM. No biometrics.

    As far as other nice things to have:

    • VPN: https://www.infradead.org/openconnect/ supports some common enterprise VPNs.
    • Communication tools (Teams, WebEx, Zoom, Slack, etc.). I tend to have access to 90% of what I need. My team is thankfully accommodating for the couple features I have issues with. Make sure you test things like Screen Sharing especially in Wayland if you use it.
    • VM: If you can get a corporate licensed image to run a corporate licensed version of Office, I recommend it. Office365 for web is missing a few features and often renders differently from native.
    • Password Manager and encrypt everything. System is encrypted as previously stated. My home volume (BTRFS) is encrypted with a different key/passphrase. My work’s sensitive files are encrypted yet again using rclone with different keys. I try to minimize attack surfaces by unlocking only what I need when I need it.
    • Backups. I use rclone to backup to our corporate OneDrive. Nixos is immutable and I have it setup with impermanence where every reboot is like a fresh install if I didn’t codify it my nixos-config which is tracked in git. I persist a few cache and setting directories in my home directory, but not much. I can restore my setup in like 20 minutes if I ever lost my machine.
    • Virtual mic and camera for noise suppression and blurring for communication tools that don’t have it built in.
    • Evolution EWS works okay as an Exchange email client. I had to hunt some weird settings like tenant ID to get it to work. I’ve been using Webmail or Outlook in a VM more often though as of late.

    I work in software dev as FYI. For the few issues I have, my team has more issues getting stuff working consistently on macOS for our project. I used that as a justification when requesting the laptop: my dev environment should closely match our runtime environment. Most of that is moot now since we use Nix flakes in our repos for local dev envs.

  • PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    Linux VM with 90% of cpu and memory. Use it for almost everything. Have it configured as NAT so it can share the vpn connection from the host laptop.

  • llothar@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    In my previous job I ran my main laptop with Linux. Pain points:

    • MS Teams liked to crash on screen sharing
    • o365 email and calendar works best on Evolution, but still is not perfect
    • meeting rooms often had special usb dongle to connect to the screen. That never worked on Linux.

    Overall it was glorious.

  • h0bbl3s@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I’d suggest one of the fedora atomic installs, maybe even get a couple renewed Thinkpads all set up, one with kde and one with gnome and let them play with them for a few days. I was the only engineer in my company that ran Linux and the bosses only concession was that I carry a windows PC too when he was onsite with me so he’d understand what I was doing, but he provided a nice one for me so I never complained.

  • DigitalDilemma@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    How it’s set up depends on your business needs. We have a few hundred, and ow they’re set up and managed is defined by a dozen or so groups. Base image to deploy, then ansible and config management to set up the roles.

    Users are generally authorised via AD using sssd. Some have very specific Groups which have normal user access and occasionally sudo privs for specific commands. SSH, RDP or physical access.

    Our sysadmins have local users with root privs, but most administration is done at scale using ansible or Uyuni.

    Like everything, least privilege is the best way. AD allows us to quickly control access if someone leaves or is compromised, but it could equally be done with any central LDAP system and groups.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    While I have to maintain an old Windows 7 box to run some ancient software on it, I do most of my development work on a Linux machine. I use LibreOffice to read and write documents, use Inkscape for drawings in my documntation, but first and foremost, my main IDE is Linux native (although a Windows port does exist).

  • wuphysics87@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission. And forgiveness meaning “I didn’t realize I couldn’t do that”

    • slazer2au@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      This is horrific advice in this context.

      As much as I would love to turf windows and jump to Linux I know that internal policy is you will be fired because you are breaking company policy and threatening company certifications and compliance.

      • wuphysics87@lemmy.ml
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        5 months ago

        Thanks for balancing the comment. You’re correct. For many, if not most jobs, my comment isn’t good advice.

        But if you ask, they will say no. If you do it anyway they could appreciate it. At my current and former jobs it ranges anywhere from a slap on the wrist to praise for creative use of resources.

        I got caught by IT running Linux on four 15 year old optiplexes I found. They were unhappy, but were floored that they were running so well, and the fact that I was making use of something that was effectively trash. They let me keep them.

        I was offering that perspective.