In a message dated: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 19:46:58 EDT
"Bayard R. Coolidge" said:
>But, I do believe that when an employer issues you a piece of gear, they
>have the right to tell you what you can/will run on it and have the
>expectation that you will follow that edict. The flip side of that They are
>accepting the responsibility for making that Business Decision, and if a virus
>comes in and wipes out their vital records or whatever, tough - it's THEIR
>problem, and they have only themselves to blame. Setting yourself up to be fired
>for "damaging" company equipment is just plain stupid, particularly in this
>job market.
So, if you're an auto-mechanic with your own set of tools, willing to
take responsibility for replacing them if they get lost/stolen, you
should be force to use the Wal*Mart brand screwdriver set that the
auto-dealer has on-site "because they said so"? The fact that you
can do the job twice as fast and more efficient using your own tools
and supporting yourself should not play into the equation? You
should automatically accept that every time you need to change a tire
rim, that you're going to have to go get another pneumtatic wrench
because you just blew out the Wal*Mart special rather than using your
own heavy-duty, professional grade tool? Sorry, I don't buy that one.
> But, I do believe that when an employer issues you a piece of gear, they
> have the right to tell you what you can/will run on it and have the
> expectation that you will follow that edict
Ahh, that's a totally different story! No one ever said the piece of
gear in question was "issued". It was simply stated that someone was
"forced to use Windows". Someone else made the comment about a lab
system shared among several others which required Windows. IMO, that
falls under the "special application clause" I mentioned earlier.
Now, I concede that I too made the assumption we were discussing a
single user's desktop system used soley by that one individual.
Obviously there are many varied situations where one could find
themselves "forced to use Windows". I was speaking of the most
common one; that of the office desktop which is not shared.
In this scenario, there is no reason why you couldn't replace Windows
for Linux without anyone a) noticing, or b) probably even caring.
For that matter, I've seen one individual go so far as to bring in
his own laptop and use that for all his business and work
requirements and completely ignore the "corporate desktop" which was
"issued"[1] to him. He chose to run Linux on his laptop. No one
noticed or cared that he was running Linux, not using the gear issued
to him, or even that he was not using the official
corporate supported mail client.
[1] Ironically, the "issued" PC was also running Linux :)
>>>>> On Sat, 6 Jul 2002, "Ben" == Ben Boulanger wrote:
Ben> IT departments in certain companies (ones I've worked for)
Ben> simply have no tolerance for things they can't control, and
Ben> really, I don't blame them.
I don't blame them for not liking it, however, they're not going to
know whether your running Linux or Windows unless they try to connect
to the exact IP address you're using at the time. And, unless you're
causing a problem on the network, they're going to be so busy
elsewhere fighting fires, a well-behaved Linux box isn't going to get
noticed.
I'll also argue that it is physically impossible to control
everything in a corporate environment from IT point of view. I know,
I've tried and failed for over 10 years, and I've seen others try and
fail over an even longer period of time.
>>>>> On Sat, 6 Jul 2002, "Ben" == Ben Boulanger wrote:
Ben> Imagine you not having root on a production system you're
Ben> supposed to be responsible for.
Again, wouldn't happen. If I'm responsible for it, I own it. If I
don't own it, I'm not responsible for it. End of story. I may
happen to help or guide the person who is responsible for the system,
but ultimately, I won't be held responsible for it.
--
Seeya,
Paul
----
It may look like I'm just sitting here doing nothing,
but I'm really actively waiting for all my problems to go away.
If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!
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