hi,
Am a freelance enterprise engineer,mostly work with enterprise.
I am already aware of the fact about security implications of allowing employees to use their personal electronics.
I would really appreciate if the client allows me to use my own laptop i.e personal linux laptop and connect to work network using their own vpn service which would still make the machine compatible with the security policy.
Unfortunately none of the clients i worked till date allowed this except one.
Is there any other specific reason for not allowing freelance engineer to use their own machine.
Ask HN: Why not permit use Linux laptop for work
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why not permit use Linux laptop for work
#2Their system, their rules. VPN alone doesn't make a system compliant, unless the client says so. Just as a random thing, imagine if you showed up with a machine that is running your own compiled kernel, with Spectre mitigations disabled. They would never see what hit them.
Re: Ask HN: Why not permit use Linux laptop for work
#3Maybe you’re working for the wrong clients. When I worked freelance it was expected that I would provide all necessary equipment myself. Access to servers and version control is usually by SSH, so it didn’t matter what OS I ran.
Also, using your own equipment is often a differentiator between contractors and employees, as is setting your own work schedule.
Re: Ask HN: Why not permit use Linux laptop for work
#4In my experience with large corporates they architect their environment for the Microsoft ecosystem - windows, AD, M365 apps and so on.
This means they only have to worry about making stuff work and be secure for windows clients. This means they can easily save time and money by saying “only use windows clients”.
Re: Ask HN: Why not permit use Linux laptop for work
#5In my experience with large corporates they architect their environment for the Microsoft ecosystem - windows, AD, M365 apps and so on. This means they only have to worry about making stuff work and be secure for windows clients. This means they can easily save time and money by saying “only use windows clients”.
> This means they can easily save time and money by saying “only use windows clients”.
That claim needs to be annually tested and verified by independent blue and red teams written up in an official report that measures overall org. productivity as claimed and in actual reality.
Re: Ask HN: Why not permit use Linux laptop for work
#6In my experience with large corporates they architect their environment for the Microsoft ecosystem - windows, AD, M365 apps and so on. This means they only have to worry about making stuff work and be secure for windows clients. This means they can easily save time and money by saying “only use windows clients”.
> This means they can easily save time and money by saying “only use windows clients”. That claim needs to be annually tested and verified by independent blue and red teams written up in an official report that measures overall org. productivity as claimed and in actual reality.
Who pays for the Red and Blue teams? Is their salary set by the amount (or lack) saved? What if the difference isn’t great? What hiring bar do you set for them (again, aligned with budget)?
What you’re saying makes 110% meritocratic sense, but there’s no way this would ever fly in a penny-pinching enterprise environment. There’s a reason that enterprise sales/support is a gigantic business constantly competing to win contracts.
Re: Ask HN: Why not permit use Linux laptop for work
#7In my experience with large corporates they architect their environment for the Microsoft ecosystem - windows, AD, M365 apps and so on. This means they only have to worry about making stuff work and be secure for windows clients. This means they can easily save time and money by saying “only use windows clients”.
> This means they can easily save time and money by saying “only use windows clients”. That claim needs to be annually tested and verified by independent blue and red teams written up in an official report that measures overall org. productivity as claimed and in actual reality.
It's not about "productivity" but paperwork compliance, those old school companies live and die by the certifications and Microsoft has tons of rubber stamping of anything you would want which makes them happy.
Nobody in those old style companies are ever evaluating tech on it's merits.
There's always better solutions, sometimes even much cheaper in some categories but they really want the stamps.
Re: Ask HN: Why not permit use Linux laptop for work
#8Because you are a risk on their network.
Using their equipment they can ensure you are on isolated network if you have no updates applied and can push those updates to you. They can push security configurations, like restricting what office apps can or cannot do. Ensuring AV is configured to their liking. Configure logging so if you ever get owned, they can trace it back from where it came and what it did. They can ensure you are on some proxy server. They can alert you if your host accesses known bad site. They can run background penetration tests if necessary.
And so on.
MS world has the tools to do that. Supporting Linux in that kind of enterprise would need significant additional investment.
Re: Ask HN: Why not permit use Linux laptop for work
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This means they can easily save time and money by saying “only use windows clients”. That claim needs to be annually tested and verified by independent blue and red teams written up in an official report that measures overall org. productivity as claimed and in actual reality.
It's not about "productivity" but paperwork compliance, those old school companies live and die by the certifications and Microsoft has tons of rubber stamping of anything you would want which makes them happy. Nobody in those old style companies are ever evaluating tech on it's merits. There's always better solutions, sometimes even much cheaper in some categories but they really want the stamps.
..or just companies that are serious about preventing data leaks and have some traceability to identify when or what happens in case of breach.
Re: Ask HN: Why not permit use Linux laptop for work
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not about "productivity" but paperwork compliance, those old school companies live and die by the certifications and Microsoft has tons of rubber stamping of anything you would want which makes them happy. Nobody in those old style companies are ever evaluating tech on it's merits. There's always better solutions, sometimes even much cheaper in some categories but they really want the stamps.
..or just companies that are serious about preventing data leaks and have some traceability to identify when or what happens in case of breach.
Data leaks in those companies are not about the security of the data itself but about who can cover themselves in case of a leak.
If you can demonstrate all the compliance, that's an insurance when something happens, regardless of the actual security value it provides which is rarely evaluated anyways.
Companies working this way really aren't tech companies and they don't behave as such.