My company’s buyout has been completed, and their IT team is in the final stages of gutting our old systems and moving us on to all their infra.
Sadly, this means all my Linux and FOSS implementations I’ve worked on for the last year are getting shut down and ripped out this week. (They’re all 100% Microsoft and proprietary junk at the new company)
I know it’s dumb to feel sad about computers and software getting shut down, but it feels sucky to see all my hours of hard work getting trashed without a second thought.
That’s the nature of a corpo takeover though. Just wanted to let off some steam to some folks here who I know would understand.
FOSS forever! ✊
Edit: Thanks, everybody so much for the kind words and advice!
Well… shit. My company just sold my department to another company. The phrase they use in the office is “a Microsoft shop”. We’re talking Windows, Teams, Azure and O365.
The transition is going to be shit. After the transition is over, it will be shit.
I might just operate my workflow entirely out of WSL2 out of spite.
Teams is its own plane of hell. Sorry to hear.
I feel simultaneously good and bad that the least modern team at my company is the Windows admin team. I hope they were embarrassed as shit when they were asked how that automated process I help them create 9 months ago was going and they said, “Uh, we’ll be rolling it out this quarter.” They’re constantly at least 2 steps behind our Linux admins.
I work at a “Microsoft Shop” in a division that was a previously acquired software developer that used an entirely linux based dev stack.
That stack is still all linux and we basically have to do all our work in WSL. It’s a pain.
This won’t be the last time, I’m afraid. At the end of the day, software developers build sandcastles.
If you want to build something that will outlast your company, make sure you also have a hobby or craft outside of computing.
At least you learned a lot along your journey, while getting paid for it. So it’s not entirely a waste of time.
I know it’s dumb to feel sad about computers and software getting shutdown, but it feels sucky to see all my hours of hard work getting trashed without a second thought.
Sadly, something we all have to get used to. Everything we do is ephemeral and the next guy will likely have better/different ideas on how to do things.
Basically everything I’ve ever built has been torn down or somehow bastardized eventually.
The next guy will likely have better/different ideas on how to do things. The extra fucked up part comes when the “new guys” purge all the people and systems that were already working and proven end up just circling around to more or less the old things. While of course acting like it was all their “ideas” after spending more money than was ever needed. The workers get fucked and the undervalued knowledge is lost (and the new workers also get fucked by being underpaid and overworked themselves). So fucking done with how much the wasteful executives giving themselves bonuses and keep cutting more and more corners.
Check your formatting
lol thanks. It must have somehow kept the quote format from another reply I made.
That sucks. I know what it’s like to feel like the only voice of reason when your company is shooting itself in the foot.
I see from other comments you’re already looking for a new job, which is a very good idea. From your description of this buyout, it seems very likely that you’re about 6 months to a year out from the layoff stage of the private equity playbook.
At the end of the day you’ll always have the experience you gained from building all that stuff. Perhaps you’ll get a chance to build it back even better somewhere else!
My job title is “Linux System Administrator”. I’d quit if they tried to make me drop Linux.
I tried to push back, but they are a much larger company and they made it clear that I would be playing by their rules, not mine.
I was thinking of quitting immediately, but at least in my region of the country, the IT market is really rough right now, so I can’t afford to be out of work for months.
I won’t last long here though. They are half owned by a private equity firm, so they run everything based on the bottom line. Their IT team is understaffed, underpaid, and they are always looking for excuses to lay folks off or fire them. Their turnover rate is pretty high, burnout is rife.
Start job hunting now. By the sound of it they are one of those PE firms that zombie walk every acquisition into mediocrity.
For sure, I’m on it already.
I know it’s rough. Trying to find a job that pays well and isn’t deep into proprietary stuff like SQL Server, C# and alike. Sadly this scenario is overwhelmingly the case, and until the crowdfunded and open source scenario get strong (they still aren’t) there isn’t too much of an option.
I’d argue that most mainstream FOSS is extremely strong. Something like 80% of servers and 60% of smartphones run Linux. Up until recently, Cloudflare was using Nginx for their entire CDN. The thing they replaced it with is technically also FOSS. Probably most computers in the world are using OpenSSL or GNUTLS.
I think the real “weakness” of FOSS is that they don’t have the money or the desire to schmooze corporate decision makers. They also don’t have sexy GUIs, but anyone could contribute that if they wanted.
Everything based on the bottom line
Using azure.
Pick one! I know why they’re a full Microsoft organisation, you’re already using office and exchange, so 365 makes sense, then teams makes sense, then may as well have some sharepoint storage, power platform is snazzy, and then oops we’re full azure hosted. I get why, it’s very convenient, has some good ecosystem integration benefits for the user and all the rest, but it certainly isn’t cheap.
Anyway, I’m sorry they’re kicking Linux and trashing years of hard work. That really sucks. Sadly new job time I think. But that’s easier said than done these days. Best of luck!
I think I’m a cloud engineer, so I can’t use the same reasoning as you; but when I started at my company, I was given the option of either a Linux laptop with root or a Mac laptop. Obviously I selected Linux, but about a year later they started retiring all Linux laptops. The reason for this, I was told, is because the IT department didn’t know how to manage Linux laptops but they were familiar with Jamf. They did let us keep root on them, though.
I still miss using that laptop for work. The good news is, since they never implemented mandatory RTO policies, the company moved to a much smaller office. In doing so, they needed to reduce inventory, so they gave away the old laptops (sans drives) to their employees. I now own the same laptop (or a very similar one)!
My work laptop is a Thinkpad running Debian with the Plasma DE, I love it so much. Everything is snappy and clean, set up and tuned perfectly to my preferences.
It’s getting wiped in a few days. I requested to keep it as a personal device if I wiped it, they denied that request. I even offered to buy it back from the company, but still no.
At least I get to keep it instead of using their bulky, crappy HPs, but replacing my sleek Debian system with Windows 11 feels so wrong.
In doing so, they needed to reduce inventory, so they gave away the old laptops (sans drives) to their employees. I now own the same laptop (or a very similar one)!
Yeah, IT fleet upgrades are a great way to snag some decent hardware for dirt cheap. My Plex server is running on an old HP EliteDesk that came from a cubicle. The hardware itself is often practically new, because corporate drones rarely do anything intensive enough to actually push the hardware. Just give it a quick spray with some canned air, and pop a new drive in.
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That’s unfortunate. Both for throwing out all of your work and replacing it with an objectively inferior solution with poor track record of long-term sustainability.
Start your own company :-)
I don’t think feeling sad in this situation is dumb at all
I’m with you in your pain Linux brother/sister… I’ll drink a pint in your name tonight
Thank you, I might join in spirit heh 👊
Your feelings are valid, that blows.
Thank you 👊
Weres crowd strike windows shitting the bed when u need it
Quit?
That’s a damn shame, I’m sorry! I hope you got to back up a few of your personal things, and if you didn’t at least you have a bunch of knowledge to take onto your next project
That’s not dumb. It’s devastating. I’m not a linux user due to multiple of reasons and I’m sad about it. I’d be very sad if I was able to make it to the other side and then get taken back
Thank you 👊
At the end of the day, they are just digital things. You had some great learning experiences with them. Now it’s time to put those skills to use, and learn what’s next that makes you happy.
