In an ideal world, id love a debian thinkpad or framework
Then make your world ideal. Pester your boss or the IT guys with articles showing how Linux is better than Windows at security or dev work. Show them how Linux isn’t prone to the same security concerns. Show them articles or examples about how you could do your work with a Linux install.
Maybe this works for a small-medium business, but for large enterprises (i work for a massive tech company) it doesn’t work like that.
Corporate devices are bought through enterprise service agreements, which have to go through the lawyers as well as the procurement team. Although you could get a contract from Lenovo for the actual devices, a Linux distro would have no service agreement, so that would kill it right there (+ legal would probably flag the risk of malicious code being injected into the OS, i.e. xz). Ignoring thag, devices that are onboarded need to be able to fit into existing device management solutions (ABM/MDM, EDR, DLP, AD, etc etc).
And before any of that, there would be some survey that goes out to determine how many employees would realistically make the switch. For Linux, that number would likely be so low that the business teams would decide it isn’t worth a discussion because of low business impact & user desire (not to mention that now the IT teams also need to be skilled up to support it).
I couldn’t even get a FOSS browser extension approved to be installed on my device, much less spur a movement for adding a whole new set of devices to the corporate inventory.
(Editing to add, i did talk to the IT guy and he said he wished he could give me one because he wants one too lol)
As much as I would love to go over to a purely Linux system there just isn’t the support. I would not relish the prospect of trying to administer 5,000 laptops, and 300 desktops without the benefit of active directory user groups. Even with all of the messing about that Microsoft has done with Entra, it is still a far better mass device management platform than anything available on Linux and Apple haven’t even tried.
I guess you’re right, because I’ve never worked as an IT admin, or had the policy at multiple companies I’ve worked at changed to allow Linux devices for devs.
Then make your world ideal. Pester your boss or the IT guys with articles showing how Linux is better than Windows at security or dev work. Show them how Linux isn’t prone to the same security concerns. Show them articles or examples about how you could do your work with a Linux install.
Maybe this works for a small-medium business, but for large enterprises (i work for a massive tech company) it doesn’t work like that.
Corporate devices are bought through enterprise service agreements, which have to go through the lawyers as well as the procurement team. Although you could get a contract from Lenovo for the actual devices, a Linux distro would have no service agreement, so that would kill it right there (+ legal would probably flag the risk of malicious code being injected into the OS, i.e. xz). Ignoring thag, devices that are onboarded need to be able to fit into existing device management solutions (ABM/MDM, EDR, DLP, AD, etc etc).
And before any of that, there would be some survey that goes out to determine how many employees would realistically make the switch. For Linux, that number would likely be so low that the business teams would decide it isn’t worth a discussion because of low business impact & user desire (not to mention that now the IT teams also need to be skilled up to support it).
I couldn’t even get a FOSS browser extension approved to be installed on my device, much less spur a movement for adding a whole new set of devices to the corporate inventory.
(Editing to add, i did talk to the IT guy and he said he wished he could give me one because he wants one too lol)
Ever heard of Red Hat?
redhat provides enterprise support for Linux.
my very large tech company heavily uses Linux (and I personally have both a Linux laptop AND desktop).
it’s not the easy path, but when it happens it is so nice
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
As much as I would love to go over to a purely Linux system there just isn’t the support. I would not relish the prospect of trying to administer 5,000 laptops, and 300 desktops without the benefit of active directory user groups. Even with all of the messing about that Microsoft has done with Entra, it is still a far better mass device management platform than anything available on Linux and Apple haven’t even tried.
I guess you’re right, because I’ve never worked as an IT admin, or had the policy at multiple companies I’ve worked at changed to allow Linux devices for devs.