Laptop for Linux Server admin?

Mikael Dez

Mikael Dez

Roadie
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393
I’ve been in IT since 2017, and a Mac admin/apple support guy for the last 4 years. In December I was hired as a Linux admin (same place/promotion). The last guy used a Mac, I’ve used a Mac (obviously), but I now wonder that when my laptop is due for refresh if I should ask for a ThinkPad and install RHEL to sort of dive in 💯

I just use a browser and terminal to ssh right now, managing rhel servers in VMware. Thoughts?
 
I did that a long time ago - more than 25 years ago.

It was a small company and my boss said, "as long as you can do your job, I don't care what OS you use".

But that made me my own desktop support! The normal IT staff didn't know a thing about Linux... So I had to figure out how to interface to the standard solutions they had implemented.

This was before RHEL even existed. But I was using RedHat Linux...
 
I run Linux for development at work and it’s overall the worst computing experience I’ve had professionally. It’s unstable, constantly drops hardware and peripherals.

All the engineers here use it. Everyone is miserable. We’re migrating back to Mac and Docker.
 
MAC is what most of the admins use at the corps I've worked for .

Thinkpads are reliable but my experience over the years of using them is that they are slower (less performant) than similar spec'd systems by just about any other manufacturer with the same CPU, memory and drive specs -even after Lenovo separated from IBM.
 
EOengineer said:
I run Linux for development at work and it’s overall the worst computing experience I’ve had professionally. It’s unstable, constantly drops hardware and peripherals.

All the engineers here use it. Everyone is miserable. We’re migrating back to Mac and Docker.
Click to expand...
What distro?

Linux is only the kernel.

Overall the distros I have used are extremely stable.

Maybe poor quality hardware?

I've run Linux servers that were not rebooted for several years...
 
mavrick102000 said:
MAC is what most of the admins use at the corps I've worked for .
Click to expand...

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I run Linux Mint and Oracle VirtualBox that lets me run Windows. I have used Macs before for development work but it’s a pain. If you are working in a ‘Nux environment then some flavor with an emulator for Win is prolly best. Otherwise, use what you like and run Linux in a VM or other emulator. Is Putty still a thing?
 
Mikael Dez said:
I’ve been in IT since 2017, and a Mac admin/apple support guy for the last 4 years. In December I was hired as a Linux admin (same place/promotion). The last guy used a Mac, I’ve used a Mac (obviously), but I now wonder that when my laptop is due for refresh if I should ask for a ThinkPad and install RHEL to sort of dive in 💯

I just use a browser and terminal to ssh right now, managing rhel servers in VMware. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
If it's a paid for by your work device, then get the device the company issues for your position. I don't use my own laptop at work for Linux support - it's forbidden to do so.

If they are getting you to do so, get them to pay for any software OS or App they deem suitable - and they install and support it (even if it's you!).

Red Hat costs real money - other Linux distros are free.
 
Aelred said:
If it's a paid for by your work device, then get the device the company issues for your position. I don't use my own laptop at work for Linux support - it's forbidden to do so.

If they are getting you to do so, get them to pay for any software OS or App they deem suitable - and they install and support it (even if it's you!).

Red Hat costs real money - other Linux distros are free.
Click to expand...
yeah hell no this isn’t my personal device. Personal device for me = MacBook! I was just kind of curious if there were any insights into managing a Linux environment from a Mac vs RHEL
 
Linux is totally fine, unless you’re also a M365 shop. Then it sucks with no real Teams/Office/Onedrive/etc options. Macs are just easier to deal with.
I’m currently running an EliteBook with Ubuntu, and either a Workstation VM locally, or VDI for Windows apps. Teams is annoying in a browser, but works well enough.
At home it’s all Mac and Linux though.

EDIT

Also, fuck RHEL and all RPM-based distros.
 
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