A company that forces certain operating system upon its employees may not have right priorities or IT budget. Not dealbreaker but it would make me a little reluctant even if they are forcing my preferred OS.
Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?
11–20 of 92 posts
Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?
#12Of course. macOS or nothing. I'd accept Linux but hard no for the garbage that is Windows.
Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?
#13I have worked in a "Windows-shop" once and found it very painful. But it depends I guess. If you have to stay inside some company approved IDE all day and only touch code then it could work, but if it requires setting up the build system too then I would pass.
Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?
#14Yes, it's a deal breaker. I started at a large technical organisation over a decade ago and was well entrenched in using a Mac laptop. But in the support team, the default laptop was a Windows laptop. "Oh, only solution architects and so on are entitled to Mac laptops". But they allowed me to bring my own device.
So I brought my own laptop, had it re-imaged and I became the most productive employee not only in the local team but also the global team in terms of support tickets and resolution of issues. I could do tasks so much more efficiently - for me - on a Mac than in Windows.
12 months later the policy changed and support engineers could choose.
I guess the difference is I have enough experience to know that using a certain device, my productivity will be much higher than struggling in with a non optimal operating system.
Tenure also plays a part. When you're starting out as an intern or a junior associate, "you get what you get and you don't get upset" and have to make do with whatever the standard is. As a staff engineer, you can throw your weight around a bit more. :)
Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?
#15MacOS, Linux or BSD requirements are all fine with me.
I would never accept working on Windows.
It's like working with my hands tied behind my back.
Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?
#16Of course. macOS or nothing. I'd accept Linux but hard no for the garbage that is Windows.
It is funny but it is the other way for me. I'll accept linux, but I don't want to have anything to do with Apple
Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?
#17At my current job, they claim to support both Linux and Mac, but literally everyone else was on Mac, and they shipped me a Mac laptop before even asking my preference.
I should have insisted on Linux instead. 3 years in, and I still cannot stand macos.
Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?
#18In a Herzberg sense...
For office tools and videoconference: primary OS is a hygiene factor
For software/hardware development: primary OS is not a factor (VMs feature heavily)
Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?
#19Nope. My tools work on all three platforms. They all suck pretty hard these days, just in different ways, so what's the difference, really?
Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?
#20One of the earliest interviews I had was at this When I asked about what tools they use they said "We do our work on using Windows, but we deploy to Linux. I asked if it would be okay if I used Linux, they said we all us Windows unless there is a compelling reason.
I thought to myself, hmm you deploy to Linux, but you don't want anyone using it for development... but I didn't really press any further or make much of it at that point in the interview.
But never did get an job offer from them. Worked out for all parties involved I suppose.
But at this point, I'd ask what tools they use and if they enforce any tools or things like that during the interview, as part of my standard set of questions.