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Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

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Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#141

Post by jdmg94 »

horsawlarway wrote: post #51
salzig wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gitlab is essentially a website, and Microsoft Edge is just Chrome. I think there isn't any reason to test on windows anymore.

Developing "essentially a website" is my full time job - if you genuinely don't think there are differences between platforms, you aren't paying attention. The browser is wired into the OS in real ways, and they matter. Everything from "How does the os manage passwords" or "how are system notifications presented" or "How much screen real estate do I have have on a given window size (scrollbars...)" to subtle differen…

I've been making software for almost 10 years and password manager/notifications/responsiveness is not dependent on the platform that's why we have web standards.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#142

Post by Xylakant »

muttled wrote: post #131
Xylakant wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I‘m a bit surprised that they care about the cost so much - the Dell laptops and the Apple Laptops come in at a price point of 2000 - 3000 USD and the Dell they specifically recommend for Linux use comes with Windows Pro preinstalled. The price difference to the equivalent Linux version is around 70USD. That‘s a negligible difference, especially when you start comparing to the employees wage (It‘s probably about 1 ho…

Most places I've worked at (Windows shops largely) had management tools that worked well on Windows but not as well on other devices. The IT staff was skilled largely in Windows, as well. The biggest argument against other OS options was that we simply did not have the tools and experience to effectively manage the other options. It's a valid argument, and seemed disingenuous to take digs at the other OS options when…

I entirely agree - supporting multiple operating systems is effort at every level and from a certain size on, you need people with dedicated knowledge of each OS. But if that’s the problem, make that point instead of finding excuses.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#143

Post by CSSer »

jchw wrote: post #25
horsawlarway wrote: post #9

I'm no fan of Windows myself, but I find this a fairly bad policy. If nothing else - what's not used is not tested. And if you expect any real population of users to be using Windows machines with your products, you should have developers/PMs/QA/support interacting with your products using Windows machines. I see this as: We're saving a bit of money and making ITs life easier, and in exchange users will get a worse p…

I mean, Gitlab is a web platform. It's pretty easy to test how it's going to work on different platforms without needing full machines. Heck, you can even just get Microsoft Edge binaries on macOS and Linux if you want to test Edge. But failing that, VMs are pretty sufficient.

The binary is still platform specific. Chrome, for example, does not render identical select element menus across platforms and certain select style rules are interpreted differently across said platforms.

I'll give you a point on VMs but it's cumbersome. There's a big difference between rolling to another machine or asking someone in the department who uses that machine every day and waiting for a VM to finish booting or using a service like Browserstack (and both cost $$ anyway).

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#144

Post by rsynnott »

gizmo wrote: post #16

The pretext for banning Windows is comically bad. Paying extra for Mac hardware is perfectly fine (no, encouraged!), but paying $100 or so to upgrade Windows Home to Windows Professional is prohibitively expensive? That's such a joke. I have no trouble with companies mandating one OS or the other. But when the justification for the policy is so bad it looks petty and ideological as opposed to the result of a level-he…

I would suspect that there's a valid reason (probably along the lines of "we are set up to remote manage a bunch of linux and macos machines, and our tools work on them; we don't want to add more overhead") but that the person writing the page didn't entirely understand the reason.

"Mac or linux, but not windows" is a somewhat common policy, or certainly used to be, and it's never about the cost _of the licenses_ (except for tiny companies, perhaps).

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#145

Post by Kwpolska »

dijit wrote: post #75
Xylakant wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most windows laptops today come with a license key baked into the BIOS. So no need to manage licenses here.

you're not really allowed to use those licenses in many contexts. Might be ok for a startup; but at Ubisoft we had to maintain a fleet of KMS infrastructure. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/...

Was your need to maintain KMS actually caused by a Microsoft requirement, or was it rather a cost saving and standarization measure?

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#146

Post by tpoacher »

chrisan wrote: post #102
politelemon wrote: post #54

> Due to Microsoft Windows' dominance in desktop operating systems, Windows is the platform most targetted by spyware, viruses, and ransomware. This is poor reasoning and a misunderstanding of how security works. Any org should be happy with any OS, as long as sufficient security controls for it exist. Anyone who oversees Windows estates, or works in desktop security, can tell you that they exist and are extensive, a…

> More tenuous reasoning - macOS is not 'free'. So very obtuse of them to word it this way. Windows has a cheaper license for HOME users who don't need Pro features of a business. It's not the other way. Definitely a c-level with an axe to grind.

They didnt. OP did.

The claim is Mac OS comes pre-installed but people don't claim money back for removing it, because it's considered part of the "Mac". With windows, people consider it an extra and claim back money for it.

At least that's what that explanation was about. They never said Mac OS is "free".

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#148

Post by sneak »

jaywalk wrote: post #98
politelemon wrote: post #54

> Due to Microsoft Windows' dominance in desktop operating systems, Windows is the platform most targetted by spyware, viruses, and ransomware. This is poor reasoning and a misunderstanding of how security works. Any org should be happy with any OS, as long as sufficient security controls for it exist. Anyone who oversees Windows estates, or works in desktop security, can tell you that they exist and are extensive, a…

I think there's a good bit of simple butthurt behind it as well, seeing as Microsoft owns their biggest (and far larger) competitor.

I mean, Windows has a ton of telemetry and spyware in it. It does not make any sense at all to run spyware from your largest competitor inside your competing business.

That's nothing to do with "butthurt".

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#149

Post by Kaze404 »

mickael-kerjean wrote: post #20
rubicks wrote: post #5

.

Me too, so many companies enforce windows only with no way to get a linux machine or a mac that it's great to see it playing differently, I can only hope things will change when a new generation who has never used windows will come in the workforce

I can't say I've never used Windows, but my first machine was Linux and I've been using it since then. This might happen sooner than you think :)

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#150

Post by Xylakant »

pessimizer wrote: post #133
Xylakant wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most windows laptops today come with a license key baked into the BIOS. So no need to manage licenses here.

I've worked at businesses who employed people full-time to manage Microsoft licensing.

Microsoft licensing goes way beyond Windows - there‘s the whole range of office software (which you can also license on Mac), then all the server software, etc., most of which should does not apply to Gitlab (unless they want to deploy on linux and switch to SQL Server as database, but I doubt that). And then, if you‘re big enough, you can negotiate corporate licensing to save money, which requires license management etc. I doubt any of this applies to Gitlab as they stand.
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