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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Asking for a Linux (or non-Windows) laptop during a job interview? (self.linux)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by flakpanzer to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Kind of unrelated but what do you like about MacOS and Linux versus Windows? I mean that in the way of things they share

I never really used a MacOS device for an extended period of time so when I did use one the differences between it and Windows/Linux really slowed me down and confused me.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (2 children)

As a Linux user, you can pretend the os x is just Linux. That's not true, but you can make it work with brew, some googling and your favourite ide / tech stack.

On the plus side, macs are less problematic to integrate with corporate software. You can run commercial software that's not available for Linux.

Windows is just Windows. A step back from either Linux or mac. Two steps backed when managed by corporate IT.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I use a Mac at work and it's actually amazing. Lots of stuff runs the same as in linux.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Right up until you try to use some standard Linux tool like sed and all the flags are wonky. Never understood that, is that something to do with MacOS's BSD ancestry? Idk.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Yep it's a BSD thing (and deviations down the line), but you can amend your $PATH so that the homebrew GNU variants take precedence. Obviously you'd only set this for your user/shell, otherwise it'd cause issues with system-wide tools that expect the macOS variants.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

As a Linux user, you can pretend the os x is just Linux. That’s not true, but you can make it work with brew, some googling and your favourite ide / tech stack.

You can, but it's still a miserable experience because the GUI is opinionated and its opinion is shit. I've been on that boat for three years now.