At a company I work for, they are doing various changes (and control) over the software we install as we transition to a larger company. I believe they are using Microsoft Intune so they can allow/deny what can be installed.
I have not updated my laptop (or got a new one) because I am concerned they will not allow me to install or continue to use Emacs. Honestly, I can vision how that conversation goes:-
[manager]: Hi, so what is Emacs
[me]: Emacs is a text editor I use daily and makes me efficient in my work
[manager]: OK. I would like us to start using Visual Studio Code with the new projects coming up
[me]: Why? The consumption models we are using has no VSCode support, anyway.
[manager]: It would just be good if we are all using the same tools
[me]: It should not matter what we use as long as we work with git and deployment. If someone else is great with a different text editor why force them to use something else?
[manager]: (Looks up emacs)
[manager]: I think its best we stopped using it because it is not supported by Microsoft and we need to be careful with the dangers of open source.
[me]: OK. Should we contact other IT departments to replace any open source tools they use?
[manager]: Its just emacs is not verified software for the business. I think you are complicating things a little (tries to belittle me)
[me]: Emacs is my daily driver! If it goes, I will hand in my resignation!
* Manager is not there to understand or reason.. he is just following orders from other IT departments. *
I worked briefly in public administration at one point in my career. I asked the admins the same thing, could I get Emacs installed on my machine. I got a bit concerned when the admin staff asked back: "What is Emacs?"
Start sending out your resume and reaching out to your network about other jobs.
Any company that anally controls every last software developers can install is a dead man walking. At least the software development part of the company.
Getting up to speed on new tools and new technologies is essential to the job of software development. Projects will grind to a halt and fail to deliver, but the management will never understand the InTune lockdown is the cause.
Thank you for your message. I appreciate you going out of your way and showing care for others - in this case my career.
I have updated my resume and looking.
I have a couple of years left in order to look after (what I now call) our legacy software, which we wrote, until we move over 100% with the new tools. It is dead end as a software engineer and don't intend to fall behind.
The company I work for is pretty much washing its hands and going with off-the-shelf solutions, instead.
We are transitioning into a role that's mostly extending a main business software internally and externally. Externally it is using Logic Apps or Power Automate or Power Apps, etc.
With this, the "core" tools we are using are no longer needed in the minds of upper management, which is why I am concerned changing laptops that are fully setup with Intune.
This is also why in my meetings with management they are subtly suggesting software well before we move onto these modern projects - as if I wont understand what they doing.
technically we are still developers but not the way we were originally hired, and I am confused how we are going to hire new staff in this area... and the type of skills we require.
With all the above, I can see them being difficult with Emacs and other software I use.
I scheduled my intune upgrade when I needed a week off for doing house moving stuff. I was told Emacs would work, didn't. Took them about a week before I could use it again.
Back in the day when i had a windows laptop for work you could just download the windows binary distribution of emacs and run that, has something changed?
This is what I do when I use Windows.
However, in recent years, I tend to use Emacs via WSL.
However, I believe Microsoft Intune is used within the Business to control what software can and cannot be installed. So my guess is Windows won't allow you to install via a typical .exe
I am not suggesting the above is 100% valid. I just don't want to get a new laptop and find out. Maybe I can still use Emacs via WSL... bypassing Intune????
At the end of the day, I understand Security is getting much more serious in recent years - and we even have a dedicated department - but controlling the software to install is crazy, especially for a development team.
Does Intune stop you from running any unapproved .exe's? Because IIRC Emacs can run as a "portable" executable that doesn't need to be installed in Program Files.
(I don't have any experience with Intune so pardon my ignorance.)
Depending on the job, you can likely be fired without cause anyway. You can pretend to not poke the bear, but in a place that plays power games like that, it doesn't really matter.
Presumably performance matters above all else (although it likely doesn't in such a place). If Emacs actually makes a meaningful difference, then just use it to do your work more efficiently.
You can run a batch/shell script, right? Of course you can. Would you ask for permission to write and run a script? If not (and presumably you wouldn't because that would be silly) then you shouldn't ask to run Emacs. You "own" both and take on all the "risk". There's really no difference.
But really, truly ask yourself, is whatever cause you're working towards (that is, the mission of the company) worth sacrificing your dignity for?
OMG. Don't let me even start here. Corporate IT cultures sometimes are so exhaustingly cretinous. With straight faces they'd perform "security theatre" that has nothing to do with security, but is still just so infuriatingly time-consuming and ignorant on even most basic things. Honestly, I am so thankful to Emacs for cultivating a hacker's mindset in me, otherwise I'd be so freaking burned out all the time if I didn't know how to bypass most of the nonsense they enforce on everyone. I even asked my IT guy once: "I don't get it, don't they realize that devs are just gonna play along with this bullshit maybe a couple of times and then they'll just fucking script a workaround? I for sure will...", and he was like: "I know, it is so stupid, but hey, I don't make these decisions here..."
I have not updated my laptop (or got a new one) because I am concerned they will not allow me to install or continue to use Emacs. Honestly, I can vision how that conversation goes:-
[manager]: Hi, so what is Emacs
[me]: Emacs is a text editor I use daily and makes me efficient in my work
[manager]: OK. I would like us to start using Visual Studio Code with the new projects coming up
[me]: Why? The consumption models we are using has no VSCode support, anyway.
[manager]: It would just be good if we are all using the same tools
[me]: It should not matter what we use as long as we work with git and deployment. If someone else is great with a different text editor why force them to use something else?
[manager]: (Looks up emacs)
[manager]: I think its best we stopped using it because it is not supported by Microsoft and we need to be careful with the dangers of open source.
[me]: OK. Should we contact other IT departments to replace any open source tools they use?
[manager]: Its just emacs is not verified software for the business. I think you are complicating things a little (tries to belittle me)
[me]: Emacs is my daily driver! If it goes, I will hand in my resignation!
* Manager is not there to understand or reason.. he is just following orders from other IT departments. *