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Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

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Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#261

Post by dijit »

Xylakant wrote: post #29
ericbarrett wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Device management becomes much more complicated when you have multiple OSes, though. Unless your company is small enough that self-management remains viable, you have to hire for both Windows and Mac administration experience, and/or shell out a pretty penny for cross-platform "enterprise" device management software.

They do allow linux though, and I have yet to find a competent device management software that supports Mac, Windows and Linux at the same time (or even Mac and Linux). I‘d be happy to hear recommendations.

What are you looking for?

Managing Linux at scale is extremely easy as you can leverage basically all the tooling that sysadmins use(d) for management of infrastructure fleets.

You can even get a pretty GUI if it’s saltstack enterprise.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#262

Post by trelane »

nunez wrote: post #222
jchw wrote: post #18

This is not actually that unusual; in fact, if I'm not misremembering, Google also does not generally allow Windows, aside from some limited, less privileged stuff.

Yep; you basically cannot fully enforce a moratorium on Windows without seriously pissing off finance (Excel on Mac is a joke, and Excel Online can't run macros, which is 98% of the value behind Excel)

in what way is excel on Mac a joke? I don't use Excel (greatly prefer to own my data, so use LibreOffice) so I really have no idea. :)

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#263

Post by trelane »

nisegami wrote: post #220

A company forbidding the use of Windows (and more broadly Microsoft products/services) would be a huge green flag to me. I don't even care why. I would miss VS Code though.

Allowing (especially encouraging?) Linux is a huge green flag for me. I personally don't care if they also allow others to use other OSes. If the company can support the systems and they can interoperate with me, it's fine with me.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#264

Post by azangru »

unnouinceput wrote: post #238
azangru wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft has a lot of bad stuff coming their way, for good reason. There are several good things that are currently coming out of microsoft: - vscode - typescript - github - npm - edge (at the moment, microsoft at least as strong supporter of PWAs as Google; and possibly even stronger) Windows is probably not one of them.

- github was acquired, not their "invention" - edge and chrome are same stuff under the hood. Firefox is better.

> Firefox is better.

Firefox refuses to implement project Fugu's apis. For me, this makes Blink-based browsers better.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#265

Post by oneplane »

Beltalowda wrote: post #253
oneplane wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But why fix something that isn't broken? Because this can be a form of brokenness. Someone would be hired for their aptitude and probably not because of something they have already repeated over and over (unless we include factory work). The ability to adapt and create (and be creative) is usually not described as such in SWE work, but a lot of the actual work does include that. That said, if a job has a match base…

I like doing useful things; switching tools merely because a corporate policy says so is not useful (whether there are good or bad reasons for that policy is besides the point here).

> is not useful

Says who? I think (as a devil's advocate) it's very useful that people are interchangeable, and that tools are similar enough to allow people to collaborate.

I also think that if (imaginary percentages used) a 10% reduction in productivity because a worker can't use their most bestest tool ever is worth it if it means I can get 40 of those workers for the same price as 10 workers that are proficient in that very special choice of tool. You can pretty much exchange any of those with management overhead or policy requirements (be it by law or otherwise).

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#266

Post by mmcnl »

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…

On top of that, the justification seems more like a baseless rant, citing only one blog post as a source. Ranting engineers should not make business decisions.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#267

Post by mmcnl »

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…

You are absolutely right.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#268

Post by j-bos »

lbotos wrote: post #252
ironmagma wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the downsides of the culture?

- Transparency is amazing, but it doesn't always mean clarity. We try really hard to say "why not just what" but you won't always have or easily get all of the context because there is possibly a lot of context. - Async is really hard for new folks to adopt to, and it can be hard for people to adopt to "you will be measured on your results, not hours worked." - I think we've done a really decent job of navigating an…

What would you recommend to a new, but competent web developer interested in someday working at gitlab?

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#269

Post by nisegami »

gls2ro wrote: post #230
nisegami wrote: post #220

A company forbidding the use of Windows (and more broadly Microsoft products/services) would be a huge green flag to me. I don't even care why. I would miss VS Code though.

VS Code works on both MacOS and Linux See https://code.visualstudio.com/download

That was concerning my bit in parentheses: "more broadly Microsoft products/services".

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#270

Post by jeffwask »

jupp0r wrote: post #198
jeffwask wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft Windows with AzureAd and Intune provides a suite of tools for managing your fleet of laptops at little to no additional cost. It's honestly so much for free that running any other suite of laptops becomes arduous and expensive. It all just works out of the box and it's easy to bolt things on. The viruses and malware argument is ludicrous if you do any amount of end point protection. Apple is a walled garden…

You are missing an important point: engineers want to use the tools that work best for them. They don’t care much about the things they can’t see. Taking a job with a super restrictive IT environment that would prevent me from doing my job effectively would be a deterrent to work for that company. I know many people who feel similar to this. The opportunity cost of not being able to hire those people or giving them o…

Tell me you haven't used Windows in a decade without telling me you haven't used Windows in a decade
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