Honestly, between the MBP and a similarly priced Dell as a company laptop, i choose the MBP.
The battery is better, the screen is better, performance is better, etc
Dell doesn’t know how to make a laptop & windows sucks ass. Macos is so locked down by default that all the restrictions on a company laptop don’t change the user experience all that much.
In an ideal world, id love a debian thinkpad or framework. But we don’t live in an ideal world, so had to choose between the two worst possible options
I was able to buy my M1 MBP from my company for cheap and the laptop is amazing. Its like 4 years old now but it doesnt feel like its aged a day. Easy 6 hour battery life while doing heavy tasks and it performs like a beast. It’s faster than my desktop at many tasks such as compilation.
In an ideal world, id love a debian thinkpad or framework
Then make your world ideal. Pester your boss or the IT guys with articles showing how Linux is better than Windows at security or dev work. Show them how Linux isn’t prone to the same security concerns. Show them articles or examples about how you could do your work with a Linux install.
Maybe this works for a small-medium business, but for large enterprises (i work for a massive tech company) it doesn’t work like that.
Corporate devices are bought through enterprise service agreements, which have to go through the lawyers as well as the procurement team. Although you could get a contract from Lenovo for the actual devices, a Linux distro would have no service agreement, so that would kill it right there (+ legal would probably flag the risk of malicious code being injected into the OS, i.e. xz). Ignoring thag, devices that are onboarded need to be able to fit into existing device management solutions (ABM/MDM, EDR, DLP, AD, etc etc).
And before any of that, there would be some survey that goes out to determine how many employees would realistically make the switch. For Linux, that number would likely be so low that the business teams would decide it isn’t worth a discussion because of low business impact & user desire (not to mention that now the IT teams also need to be skilled up to support it).
I couldn’t even get a FOSS browser extension approved to be installed on my device, much less spur a movement for adding a whole new set of devices to the corporate inventory.
(Editing to add, i did talk to the IT guy and he said he wished he could give me one because he wants one too lol)
At least you have an option. I’d take a Macbook Pro/Ultra w/e over my Dell laptop any day. I’d prefer Linux but no to that too. Our company is Dell laptops and Windows only. That’s it. I’m sure our MDM software could work on Mac/Linux but every time I’ve asked they’ve said no.
Brutal, i worked in b4 consulting before. They had Macs but you basically had to know someone to fight for it on your behalf.
I feel your pain, i struggled with a dell craptop for years. I swear to god, those things are designed to be awful.
(Although, shortly before i left i saw the new ones they were handing out which had Ryzen CPUs and actually looked pretty decent, but idk how well they worked because i left obv)
Well m-series macs are decent spec and reliability wise, but repairability is a shitshow. I’d buy one if I could afford it (but I suspect the keyboard is terrible). Edit: Linux in a few years is possible.
That’s why the company buys it! I wouldn’t buy one personally either (I had a personal M1 Air but Pro is too much for me). The keyboard got improved a lot in 2019 or so, it was the 2016-2018 one that sucked ass.
If I resort to using a Mac I want someone to put me out of my misery.
Honestly, between the MBP and a similarly priced Dell as a company laptop, i choose the MBP.
The battery is better, the screen is better, performance is better, etc
Dell doesn’t know how to make a laptop & windows sucks ass. Macos is so locked down by default that all the restrictions on a company laptop don’t change the user experience all that much.
In an ideal world, id love a debian thinkpad or framework. But we don’t live in an ideal world, so had to choose between the two worst possible options
I was able to buy my M1 MBP from my company for cheap and the laptop is amazing. Its like 4 years old now but it doesnt feel like its aged a day. Easy 6 hour battery life while doing heavy tasks and it performs like a beast. It’s faster than my desktop at many tasks such as compilation.
M CPUs make me a believer in ARM and other non-x86 chips, but preferably RISC-V in the long term.
Then make your world ideal. Pester your boss or the IT guys with articles showing how Linux is better than Windows at security or dev work. Show them how Linux isn’t prone to the same security concerns. Show them articles or examples about how you could do your work with a Linux install.
Maybe this works for a small-medium business, but for large enterprises (i work for a massive tech company) it doesn’t work like that.
Corporate devices are bought through enterprise service agreements, which have to go through the lawyers as well as the procurement team. Although you could get a contract from Lenovo for the actual devices, a Linux distro would have no service agreement, so that would kill it right there (+ legal would probably flag the risk of malicious code being injected into the OS, i.e. xz). Ignoring thag, devices that are onboarded need to be able to fit into existing device management solutions (ABM/MDM, EDR, DLP, AD, etc etc).
And before any of that, there would be some survey that goes out to determine how many employees would realistically make the switch. For Linux, that number would likely be so low that the business teams would decide it isn’t worth a discussion because of low business impact & user desire (not to mention that now the IT teams also need to be skilled up to support it).
I couldn’t even get a FOSS browser extension approved to be installed on my device, much less spur a movement for adding a whole new set of devices to the corporate inventory.
(Editing to add, i did talk to the IT guy and he said he wished he could give me one because he wants one too lol)
redhat provides enterprise support for Linux.
my very large tech company heavily uses Linux (and I personally have both a Linux laptop AND desktop).
it’s not the easy path, but when it happens it is so nice
Ever heard of Red Hat?
At least you have an option. I’d take a Macbook Pro/Ultra w/e over my Dell laptop any day. I’d prefer Linux but no to that too. Our company is Dell laptops and Windows only. That’s it. I’m sure our MDM software could work on Mac/Linux but every time I’ve asked they’ve said no.
Brutal, i worked in b4 consulting before. They had Macs but you basically had to know someone to fight for it on your behalf.
I feel your pain, i struggled with a dell craptop for years. I swear to god, those things are designed to be awful.
(Although, shortly before i left i saw the new ones they were handing out which had Ryzen CPUs and actually looked pretty decent, but idk how well they worked because i left obv)
Mac user here.
Well m-series macs are decent spec and reliability wise, but repairability is a shitshow. I’d buy one if I could afford it (but I suspect the keyboard is terrible). Edit: Linux in a few years is possible.
That’s why the company buys it! I wouldn’t buy one personally either (I had a personal M1 Air but Pro is too much for me). The keyboard got improved a lot in 2019 or so, it was the 2016-2018 one that sucked ass.