[sobjornstad]

I worked at a place like this and we had a software registry, where if you had installed something and it wasn't on the registry somebody would start sending you nasty emails. This kind of thing would happen all the time: maybe the Linux machines weren't in the scans, or anything that came with the OS was whitelisted.

But if you wanted to install it separately on a computer that didn't have it already, then you'd need to get it “approved.”

[godelski]

  > maybe the Linux machines weren't in the scans

Honest question, how would you actually detect this? I mean I understand using the package manager install (and that's easy for them to control) but building from source and doing a local install (i.e. no `sudo make install`)? Everything is a file. How would you differentiate without massive amounts of false positives?

[johnisgood]

Even if it is your own work computer?

[zabzonk]

if the computer is provided for work, by the company you work for, it is not "yours"

limitations on what you can install on such machines can be quite draconian, including forbidding anything that IT Security and similar departments may not like.

[johnisgood]

I meant the work laptop you are given through working as a SWE. Are you referring to jobs in IT?

And are you allowed to use your own personal computer (laptop)?

If not, and you have to work on what you have been given, why are people OK with it[1]? In the case of IT jobs?

I cannot imagine being productive without my OS, WM, IDE, configurations and whatnot.

I did work on a desktop in an office before, using their software and it was awful. I could have automated the whole damn thing at home. It was the tax office and obviously I understand why I cannot use their software at home, but for an IT job?

[1] Stupid question, people tolerate much more than this, incl. not getting paid for overtime, being worked to death without a break every day of the week, etc.

[zabzonk]

>I meant the work laptop you are given through working as a SWE.

Everywhere i've worked, i was not "given" a computer anymore than I was given a desk, a chair or a network connection. Perhaps "provided" would be better.

> And are you allowed to use your own personal computer (laptop)?

Never have been, and never have wanted to be.

>why are people OK with it

It's industry SOP, and people pay you to work that way.

> I cannot imagine being productive without my OS, WM, IDE, configurations and whatnot.

You need to improve your imaginative powers, and your technical knowledge.

[teo_zero]

I don't get where your surprise comes from. Of course companies have the last word on what tools you are allowed/obliged to use when you're on duty. Uniforms, vehicles, why not software?

[hulitu]

> I cannot imagine being productive without my OS, WM, IDE, configurations and whatnot.

This is a dream. I hate Windows but, everywhere I worked, Windows was the OS.

One has to adapt to feed a family.

[johnisgood]

I agree. Unfortunately so. That said, for SWE jobs, it sounds like a nightmare.