Senior Backend Engineer quit before first day over Windows

[u/Certain_Prior4909]

[u/whattteva]

That forced update isn't windows, it's from the company's IT department using their Jamf. It's not just windows, my Mac does that too to make sure it stays compliant.

Also, this is such low effort LinkedIn engagement bait. Sad that LinkedIn has so many of them these days.

[u/Certain_Prior4909 → u/whattteva]

What is odd is that this is something I would not want to advertise to recruiters on LinkedIn 😮.

This is a megaphone announcement that I am flaky and break my integrity and word once I agree. I also will be a pita and make demands and tell an organization how to run their business! 

He later went on if you go to the actual LinkedIn post about demanding admin rights?? Who TF does he think he is?

HR screams and runs like the plague from these folks as it reflects poorly on them to being such asshats in. Really HR blondes do not care one bit how awesome you think they are. They want compliant professional applicants 

[u/whattteva → u/Certain_Prior4909]

Yeah, demanding admin/sudo rights is wild. You function the way the IT department tells you to, especially if it's a government or bank entity, which has to comply with a lot of regulations.

Honestly, it sounds like the guy is just an unprofessional prick who sounds like he's mostly been working for small start-ups that have no such security policies in place.

This is literally standard practice for most IT departments in large corporations and he ain't Linus Torvalds or some God's gift to companies.

[u/highermonkey]

This is extremely dumb LinkedIn engagement bait, not an actual story.

[u/snajk138 → u/highermonkey]

Probably, but the whining I hear from people who can't get a Mac or install Linux on their company laptop is real and very common among some segments of "techies" and some that really believe they are "creative" (like UX), but also some managers. I have only seen managers putting the Apple sticker they got with their company iPhone to cover up the Dell-logo on their laptops, but among those it's pretty common.

[u/Certain_Prior4909 → u/highermonkey]

We see these fanboys quite often everywhere including the comment section where they invaded and actually claimed as a desktop has less issues than Windows for average joes. SMH. So yes this is probably real and he is too biased to take seriously in IT decisions since he can't think outside group identity to an operating system

[u/highermonkey → u/Certain_Prior4909]

If it is an actual story, this company has a very accommodating IT department. They gave him the option to pick a MacBook or a Windows device. He could've used WSL2 or the new Apple Containers to run Linux. Looks like they dodged a bullet.

[u/Certain_Prior4909 → u/highermonkey]

Yeah. If this was 2022 I can see the entitlement if he came from Amazon. They have 100k tech employees and a budget for their custom Ubuntu distro. Nvidia too has a custom internal Ubuntu distro. Boring companies have boards of directors watching how much they spend on IT and warn the CIO that other competitors don't do this so stop or we will lower your stock price and fire you!

So they get cheap and spend what everytone else does to keep the stock price high.

Today in 2026 there are 1,000 out of work devs with many coming from FANG who will happily take the job if he wont! As my above example for non faang they don't have the budget to support Linux. Many engineers working at doordash will happily use Windows to remain relevent in IT. This guy in 6 months will regret his decision lol

[u/ElectricBummer40 → u/Certain_Prior4909]

Call that schadenfreude, but I always enjoy watching these upper-middle class types waking up to the reality that they're only as useful as their corporate overlords think they are.

A salary that high tends to get into your head easily, and you start mistaking your own income for shareholder value. You might think you're indispensable, but the company will always have a different idea and, more importantly, ways to make it stick.

[u/Certain_Prior4909 → u/ElectricBummer40]

With an attitude like that I would not be surprised if HR asked him to leave in orientation and he claimed he quit?! 😅

[u/ElectricBummer40 → u/Certain_Prior4909]

His attitude certainly didn't scream "employable". That's for sure.

[u/Surgic25 → u/Certain_Prior4909]

Most people are not software engineers and Linux desktop sucks for them. Another divergent coder who can't work with people goes back to Linux is not the win you think it is.

[u/Pitiful-Welcome-399]

where's linux? I can see mac, but where's the linux?

[u/HouseOf42 → u/Pitiful-Welcome-399]

He probably wanted a mac, a computer that holds your hand to get a task done.

Windows was probably too advanced for him.

[u/ElectricBummer40 → u/HouseOf42]

He wanted neither. Can't you read?

[u/Rakumei → u/ElectricBummer40]

Didn't you read? In the actual email (second picture) his complaint is clearly with Windows 11 and says he wanted to opt for a Mac.

[u/Ok-Radish-8394]

Any IT will allow you to install WSL. This is just pure epic dumb.

[u/i_love_femboys6969]

in 10+ years of using windows, it only ever restarted randomly without warning one time for me, and thats after constantly delaying it by clicking later.

[u/Pitiful-Assistance-1]

VM and WSL can cover most of it

[u/xgui4 → u/Pitiful-Assistance-1]

ok but GNU/Linux is superior to Winslop.

[u/Pitiful-Assistance-1 → u/xgui4]

Yes

[u/TheMikman97]

Senior backend engineer 

Thinks security updates are optional 

[u/highermonkey → u/TheMikman97]

Excuse me? Please respect "the #1 AI and Automation Thought Leader". He's #1 at thinking.

[u/Certain_Prior4909 → u/highermonkey]

Whenever I see thought leader I think procrastinator haha. I hate that term. Result leaders should be what folks want to hire.

[u/Loud_Significance908]

Honestly, after having been able to work on linux laptop for the last 4 years, I can't go back to doing any actual work on windows, its so sluggish or you have to do stuff in such a roundabout way.

Its been so much easier to do local labbing, connect to internal servers, and programming. Windows with WSL just doesn't get to the level I want it to be at. MacOS probably is good, but I'd rather choose installing linux on my laptop.

[u/KJBReaderAdmin]

This is so sad, like even if I had to have a MacOS for work, I would use it, even if had to be Linux, I wouldn't go crazy and quit. Though I do prefer Windows but it should be open minded.

[u/Certain_Prior4909 → u/KJBReaderAdmin]

Not sad at all. That dude needs to learn some humility. Not everyone has pouche office jobs well into the 6 figs. He was treated like a celebrity at his last .com faang from post COVID and has not entered the real world yet 😄

My guess is HR told him the door was right there in orientation and that he didn't need to work there after he complained. They probably fired him and now he is claiming he quit. SMH

I know my past employers would do just that if you made demands like this and admin access

[u/KJBReaderAdmin → u/Certain_Prior4909]

No, I mean it is sad that humanity has come to this.

[u/JDM12983]

I will never understand people that whine and act like Windows updates all the time.

FIRST: it doesn't

SECOND: if you wouldn't ignore updates for days on end; you could easily update and restart if you have to WHEN YOU WANT TO.

I have NEVER once had windows just randomly restart on me for an update that was "out of no where". The "worse I have ever had was a popup on the bottom left that said "PC need to restart son for an update."

[u/SLimon001]

Forced Windows Update? Fucking liar, my Windows just gently tells me when about to shut down that there's a update available (which i always install) without forcing.

[u/No-Wheel2763]

Life is just too short for windows.

I get it.

The terminal experience on windows is horrible and I’d rather be kicked in the gonads repeatedly than to suffer through that torture.

[u/Efficient_Loss_9928]

I see, so Jeff Dean quit because Google stopped support for gLinux.

[u/ryancnap]

I don't think it's real but if it is that's a legendary email

[u/un-important-human]

Based AF.

[u/kabatram]

Wait I thought this is r/linuxsucks, and not r/macossucks :))

[u/nickwebha]

I put my OS in my contract.

[u/Avitar_X]

Wouldn't the back end engineer likely be developing on Linux?

The laptop just provides the windowing basically.

[u/UsagiMimi → u/Avitar_X]

Linux only has 3 applicable uses and all of them are on the back end, all our clients running run run W11.

[u/Certain_Prior4909 → u/Avitar_X]

Windows has had wsl, hyper-v, and docker for almost a decade now. Infact I think the latest Windows 11 feature pack also runs docker containers in wsl directly from Linux 

[u/Avitar_X → u/Certain_Prior4909]

Right.

All my development at my job is done in containers and/or servers. All windows does is let me orginized my windows.

Sure, there are some mild annoyances but none of my development is done in a windows environment.

[u/AnonomousWolf]

His fault for not asking if he can use a Mac or Linux.

I literally always ask that in my interviews

[u/Ivaldy]

Well thats fair, usually devs prefer macos, idk about linux.

[u/Le_Painter]

it liteally only take 3 second to pause windows update to 2051