On Fri, 15 Nov 2002 12:57:30 +0000 Squire Kevin Donnelly uttered the following:
On Friday 15 November 2002 11:34 am, Damon Register wrote:
On the work side, the Linux fight isn't going so well. My computer which is dual boot with Windows 95 and SuSE 8.0 is beginning to fail. My boss told me to put in an order for a new PC. I did that and specified SuSE 8.1. Management didn't say much about the dual Xeon 2.2 GHz processors but they said I will probably not get Linux. I was given a load of @#$%$# about how no one else in the company is going that way, Linux isn't supported, blah blah. With my recent experiences I am more convinced than ever that Linux is the way to go but the fight is going to be difficult here. Has anyone else in this list had this experience? Have you been able to win the fight? Any suggestions for me?
If I were you, I would do it by stealth. If you make a major fuss about getting SuSE, and then have any install/usage problems, you will have egg on face.
Just accept the PC, with Windows whatever on it, and then take your discs in from home and install SuSE on another partition. This means that you can continue using Windows while you iron out any problems. Once you have everything running the way you want, then start using Linux day-to-day. If you can do all your work with it, then that is the best advertisement for it, and I suspect you will then get queries from others at work who want to "try" it.
You COULD do this, but I wouldn't recommend it. I don't know how large the company is that you are working for, but there are reasons behind company rules. Not only could you end up looking stupid if you do something by stealth, you could end up getting fired. I DO run SuSE at home AND at work, but I am in charge of IT for my company. If you were in my company and I had a SOA (Standard Operating Environment) of Windows X/Office X/Custom App Y etc etc and you installed linux by stealth you would most definately NOT be in my good books. Regardless of any relative merits between various operation systems you are paid to be at work to do a job, and you should be provided with tools to do the job. Whether you (or I) think they are the appropriate tools has no bearing on the matter unless you are prepared to put the arguement to your boss and have him sign off on a change of toolset. I am glad you like SuSE (and Linux in General) and please continue to use it at home, but you would do youself (and linux) no good by "stealthily" installing it at work. You should convince your boss or your IT dept that linux is an alternative by legitimate means, not by going against their wishes. If you are fairly new to linux, you would be better served by running it yourself at home for a few months anyway to make sure you really know what you are talking about. I don't mean to flame you, but please look at it from the company point of view. When they provide the tools, they get to specify what they are. It would be like you getting given a company car, and deciding to spray paint it a different colour and change the engine, without authorisation. Before anyone replies to this, remember that I am I long time linux user (Since 1994 or 95), run a SuSE ftp mirror, and run an entirely SuSE network (Desktops and Servers) across several countries. I am not say don't use SuSE. Please Do! but do it without breaking rules :-) Cheers Peter Nixon - nix@susesecurity.com SuSE Security FAQ Maintainer http://www.susesecurity.com/faq/ "If you think cryptography will solve the problem, then you don't understand cryptography and you don't understand your problem."