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Ask HN: How agnostic is Microsoft these days, really?
7 points by sockpuppet-uk on Sept 26, 2015 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments
I'm a Linux sysadmin who's recently been offered a job at a Mediterranean subsidiary in a customer-facing position.

In the early engagements, I was lulled with all sorts of stories about How Microsoft loves Linux and all, but halfway through the interview process one of the interviewers told me point blank that I have to dogfood Windows 10 (laptop and mobile) or "it would look bad".

Considering I was sought out precisely because I work on AWS using solely Linux AMIs, spent the past 3 years using a MacBook and prefer Android phones, this did not sit well with me, but I let it pass at the time.

Am now looking at a fairly good offer letter (slightly more than what I can make anywhere else in this part of the EU, at least) and wondering if I should accept it - not because of any ill will towards Microsoft (the buzz is good, and I was never one of the haters), but because I don't want to go through a culture clash - I had enough of those at Oracle, thank you.

Advice, anyone?




There was a time (like 3 years ago), almost all companies gave Windows 7 laptops to all employees. This is due to Active directory, Exchange, Calender applications. Now same companies are giving a choice between Macs and Windows.

So, don't fret much. Run a fedora VM using hyper-V client, and deal with it.


Instead of asking the internet, you should talk to your future manager and teammates. See what the dogfood requirements are. When I worked on Windows Phone, we were required to dogfood the phones but the rest of the company was not.




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