Honestly (and probably naïvely), what exactly is it that Windows can do that you couldn’t do on another OS? Why would a school need to force such a retarded requirement?
As someone who has been dealing with exactly this issue with my new employer’s enterprise ICT department, I have some insight to share.
When you have thousands and thousands of laptops that you need to manage, it becomes a burden for the in-house IT department, so they often farm it out to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). This is particularly common for organisations like schools and hospitals that often don’t even have an in-house IT department. The MSP will install policies and management software on the laptops to ensure the OS is up to date, the antivirus is not disabled, the VPN is configured correctly, passwords are changed regularly, etc.
Yes of course there are linux-native solutions for each of these things, but the MSP doesn’t support it, doesn’t offer that service. To keep their service prices affordable for enterprise organisations, MSPs usually hire the lowest cost technicians and support staff. These poor underpaid staff probably have never even heard of Linux. The MSP can increase their marketable value by advertising the certifications they’ve attained. The certifications are provided by Microsoft and are related to Microsoft software and systems.
If you have a small fleet of devices and an in-house IT team that has a bunch of Linux enthusiasts, and a user base who drives demand, then it is possible to support Linux. But it requires a lot of effort and dedication. My old employer did that. They had a fleet of around 5,500 devices (a mix of desktops and laptops), mostly Windows, approx 500 of them were macbooks, and about 50 were Linux. Some of these were users who needed to use software that is available only on Linux, some were like me who are simply more productive and efficient using a linux-based OS. But maintaining, administering and supporting those 50 Linux devices took around 20% of the time of the IT department. That’s massively disproportionate to the number of Linux users.
Not long after I left there, the new CTO put an end to that, they saw and easy cost saving by simply refusing to allow users to have any OS other than Windows.
Ease of management and surveillance (most such tools marketed at schools are Windows only), first class integration into active directory for user and computer account management, hardware agnostic (rules out macos), and it’s already integrated into the IT team’s systems and processes so switching would be a major effort.
I do have a few other pet peewees too for Linux, despite having that on my ThinkPad.
GDB is pretty uncomfortable to use.
The only usable GDB GUI is a glorified webpage by none other, than Micro$lop.
Some low-level API (sound, input, etc.) are absolutely dogshit compared to their Windows counterparts (still haven’t found anything on how to specify to ALSA if I want to open a device other that default, and how exactly, just found a massive issue with Evdev, etc.).
Want something better than those? jUsT USe sDl, except SDL is kind of dogshit under Windows (DirectInput/XInput + DirectAudio instead of newer APIs), could not get its audio system working at all as people were instead suggesting me to use MP3 player DLLs instead of writing my own audio solutions, etc.
VS Code is far from the best GDB GUI; in fact I would confidently say that everything about running and debugging in VS Code has been the biggest pain I have ever experienced. even with its recent decade of inattention from the community, Eclipse CDT is miles better than this thing. i’d wager that even Qt Creator is better than it
Anyways, JetBrains recently made CLion free for non-commercial, so that’s what you should use. it is obviously better than VS Code
If my school didn’t absolutely require windows I would be fully Linux at this point.
Honestly (and probably naïvely), what exactly is it that Windows can do that you couldn’t do on another OS? Why would a school need to force such a retarded requirement?
As someone who has been dealing with exactly this issue with my new employer’s enterprise ICT department, I have some insight to share.
When you have thousands and thousands of laptops that you need to manage, it becomes a burden for the in-house IT department, so they often farm it out to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). This is particularly common for organisations like schools and hospitals that often don’t even have an in-house IT department. The MSP will install policies and management software on the laptops to ensure the OS is up to date, the antivirus is not disabled, the VPN is configured correctly, passwords are changed regularly, etc.
Yes of course there are linux-native solutions for each of these things, but the MSP doesn’t support it, doesn’t offer that service. To keep their service prices affordable for enterprise organisations, MSPs usually hire the lowest cost technicians and support staff. These poor underpaid staff probably have never even heard of Linux. The MSP can increase their marketable value by advertising the certifications they’ve attained. The certifications are provided by Microsoft and are related to Microsoft software and systems.
If you have a small fleet of devices and an in-house IT team that has a bunch of Linux enthusiasts, and a user base who drives demand, then it is possible to support Linux. But it requires a lot of effort and dedication. My old employer did that. They had a fleet of around 5,500 devices (a mix of desktops and laptops), mostly Windows, approx 500 of them were macbooks, and about 50 were Linux. Some of these were users who needed to use software that is available only on Linux, some were like me who are simply more productive and efficient using a linux-based OS. But maintaining, administering and supporting those 50 Linux devices took around 20% of the time of the IT department. That’s massively disproportionate to the number of Linux users.
Not long after I left there, the new CTO put an end to that, they saw and easy cost saving by simply refusing to allow users to have any OS other than Windows.
Ease of management and surveillance (most such tools marketed at schools are Windows only), first class integration into active directory for user and computer account management, hardware agnostic (rules out macos), and it’s already integrated into the IT team’s systems and processes so switching would be a major effort.
Run kernel level anticheat like EA Javelin.
I assume there’s an implicit /s here 😅
I do have a few other pet peewees too for Linux, despite having that on my ThinkPad.
default, and how exactly, just found a massive issue with Evdev, etc.).VS Code is far from the best GDB GUI; in fact I would confidently say that everything about running and debugging in VS Code has been the biggest pain I have ever experienced. even with its recent decade of inattention from the community, Eclipse CDT is miles better than this thing. i’d wager that even Qt Creator is better than it
Anyways, JetBrains recently made CLion free for non-commercial, so that’s what you should use. it is obviously better than VS Code