Asking for a Linux (or non-Windows) laptop during a job interview?
Asking for a Linux (or non-Windows) laptop during a job interview?
I'm interviewing for a software dev job currently (it's in the initial stages). If things work out, I'd absolutely prefer a work laptop with Linux installed (I personally use PopOS but any distro will do), a Mac will be second choice, but I absolutely cannot tolerate Windows, I abhor it, I hate it... (If all computers left on earth have Windows I'd either quit this field or just quit Earth).
Sometimes it's possible to tell if they use Windows or not, for example, jobs with dotnet/C# are most likely using windows, but not in my case.
Anyways, is it too weird to ask what kind of laptop they provide to their employees? And to also specifically ask for a Linux (or anything but windows) work laptop?
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I wouldn’t work a windows exclusive job, it’s a deal breaker for me, so I’d definitely ask. I work in an all Mac shop that does enterprise cloud architecture.
@carl_dungeon @flakpanzer Personally an apple job would be even lower on my list than a Windows job (which is already a deal-breaker to me)
Agreed. The average Windows laptop has three critical redeeming qualities, over a similar Mac:
- Ease of live booting into Linux
- Ease of dual booting into Linux
- Ease of reimaging to Linux
If you value getting paid I’d highly suggest not tampering with any computer that isn’t yours.
Or at least WSL so you're testing on a LinuxKernel.
Yeah. Joking aside, WSL wins over Mac, for me. It's not perfect, but it's closer.
@MajorHavoc Plus it can even be quite ecologically good, the parts are not serialized so you cannot replace them yourself, it almost feels as if you own it (especially once you own the software on it)
Why? Having used all three, currently using all three in some capacity...I'd put them in order of Linux, Mac, then windows. At least with Mac you have a *nix like system with things like zsh, coreutils, homebrew, and iterm2. You can even set up tiling window managers.
Not to mention they are fantastic pieces of hardware and if you are doing any dev work with AI/ml the metal cores are sweet.