Being Forced to Say Goodbye
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My company's buyout has been completed, and their IT team is in the final stages of gutting our old systems and moving us on to all their infra.
Sadly, this means all my Linux and FOSS implementations I've worked on for the last year are getting shutdown and ripped out this week. (They're all 100% Microsoft and proprietary junk at the new company)
I know it's dumb to feel sad about computers and software getting shutdown, but it feels sucky to see all my hours of hard work getting trashed without a second thought.
That's the nature of a corpo takeover though. Just wanted to let off some steam to some folks here who I know would understand.
FOSS forever!
foss forever, brother
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Their loss!
Yeah, I had some cool Ansible integrations, Docker containers running internal infrastructure monitoring, OSTicket FOSS ticketing system, Open Project for project management, Tailscale for secure remote access, etc.
Oh well, I got a bunch of great experience building it, and I can still use that stuff on my own infrastructure at home.
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My company's buyout has been completed, and their IT team is in the final stages of gutting our old systems and moving us on to all their infra.
Sadly, this means all my Linux and FOSS implementations I've worked on for the last year are getting shutdown and ripped out this week. (They're all 100% Microsoft and proprietary junk at the new company)
I know it's dumb to feel sad about computers and software getting shutdown, but it feels sucky to see all my hours of hard work getting trashed without a second thought.
That's the nature of a corpo takeover though. Just wanted to let off some steam to some folks here who I know would understand.
FOSS forever!
I’m sorry, friend.
If any of those deployments included code you or your team wrote, I highly encourage archiving it in VCS somewhere, even if only internally.
Also do a formal write up of all the deployments and why each tech choice was made.
Your hard won knowledge and skills should be preserved somewhere.
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Yeah, I had some cool Ansible integrations, Docker containers running internal infrastructure monitoring, OSTicket FOSS ticketing system, Open Project for project management, Tailscale for secure remote access, etc.
Oh well, I got a bunch of great experience building it, and I can still use that stuff on my own infrastructure at home.
And at your next job, at an employer who sees the value of FOSS and a nerd with strong Linux-fu!
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You put lots of time and effort in. Now it will be discarded due to decisions of others.
Sad and/or disappointed feelings are normal.
Take care of yourself.
I think we (as an industry) need to be honest to ourselves and admit that pretty much everything we're building is temporary. And not in a philosophical sense. 90% of the code I wrote in my about 10 years of professional work is probably gone by now - sometimes replaced by myself. In another ten years, chances are not a single line of code will have survived.
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My company's buyout has been completed, and their IT team is in the final stages of gutting our old systems and moving us on to all their infra.
Sadly, this means all my Linux and FOSS implementations I've worked on for the last year are getting shutdown and ripped out this week. (They're all 100% Microsoft and proprietary junk at the new company)
I know it's dumb to feel sad about computers and software getting shutdown, but it feels sucky to see all my hours of hard work getting trashed without a second thought.
That's the nature of a corpo takeover though. Just wanted to let off some steam to some folks here who I know would understand.
FOSS forever!
Now be prepared for windows nagging you to update everyday
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I think we (as an industry) need to be honest to ourselves and admit that pretty much everything we're building is temporary. And not in a philosophical sense. 90% of the code I wrote in my about 10 years of professional work is probably gone by now - sometimes replaced by myself. In another ten years, chances are not a single line of code will have survived.
Everything is temporary, except for that 25 year old system that's keeping everything running and can't be replaced because nobody knows how or why it works just that if you touch it everything falls over.
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Everything is temporary, except for that 25 year old system that's keeping everything running and can't be replaced because nobody knows how or why it works just that if you touch it everything falls over.
Even that is pretty temporary.
If you build a house, there's a good chance, it will survive for decades or even centuries. The house I currently live in survived two world wars and heavy bombardment in one of them. I don't think any software will manage that.
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I’m sorry, friend.
If any of those deployments included code you or your team wrote, I highly encourage archiving it in VCS somewhere, even if only internally.
Also do a formal write up of all the deployments and why each tech choice was made.
Your hard won knowledge and skills should be preserved somewhere.
Got everything saved already. They are wiping my Linux laptop Wednesday and putting Windows 11 on it. Looking forward to my sleek and fast Thinkpad to get much slower and clunkier.
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foss forever, brother
Absolutely
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Absolutely feel you, kinda similar situation at work atm. What frustrates me the most is that none of the IT personnel understands my frustration because most are not in that kind of IT community and don't share the ideas behind all that. Just here to earn a dollar, whatever system we're working on. No intrinsic desire to make the world better or at least more secure, none of that. Just robots and bureaucrats.
Yeah, the corporate style has already taken over. None of the new IT guys are mean or nasty, but they just don't care about FOSS. It doesn't even register with them.
Talking about all my integrations is just met with blank stares and, "Linux huh? I remember learning a bit about that 10 years ago in tech school."
It's just not even on their radar.
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it feels sucky to see all my hours of hard work getting trashed without a second thought.
I'm an electronic security installer. You know how many times I've done stuff like install a complete 40+ camera CCTV system at a new store under construction only to be back at the same store a year later ripping it all out when it goes out of business? I know what that feels like.
Worst is when you come around for a regular store equipment refresh and recognize something you installed at that store ten years ago and start feeling real old...
Good luck wherever life takes you now.
Sorry to hear that, sounds rough too! Thanks for the well wishes, I'm talking with a few different recruiters right now and applying to some positions.
Still have my job currently, but hopefully I can make the jump soon to a Linux environment.
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My company's buyout has been completed, and their IT team is in the final stages of gutting our old systems and moving us on to all their infra.
Sadly, this means all my Linux and FOSS implementations I've worked on for the last year are getting shutdown and ripped out this week. (They're all 100% Microsoft and proprietary junk at the new company)
I know it's dumb to feel sad about computers and software getting shutdown, but it feels sucky to see all my hours of hard work getting trashed without a second thought.
That's the nature of a corpo takeover though. Just wanted to let off some steam to some folks here who I know would understand.
FOSS forever!
Better start looking for a new job. That company might not be in business for too long, judging from the choices that they're making. Especially, if they work in the IT space.
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My company's buyout has been completed, and their IT team is in the final stages of gutting our old systems and moving us on to all their infra.
Sadly, this means all my Linux and FOSS implementations I've worked on for the last year are getting shutdown and ripped out this week. (They're all 100% Microsoft and proprietary junk at the new company)
I know it's dumb to feel sad about computers and software getting shutdown, but it feels sucky to see all my hours of hard work getting trashed without a second thought.
That's the nature of a corpo takeover though. Just wanted to let off some steam to some folks here who I know would understand.
FOSS forever!
I always feel like the features I’ve worked on become my coworkers or like pets. When a specific feature breaks often, I’ll think “damnit Frank! One of these days I’m going to patch that edge case once and for all!”
Then I patch Frank and he quiets down so I can focus on the next thing leadership wants.
You get to know these things and you put care into designing them (if you didn’t put care into them, you’d likely be a hack of an IT person). It’s always hard to see them go.
Sorry for your loss.
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I think we (as an industry) need to be honest to ourselves and admit that pretty much everything we're building is temporary. And not in a philosophical sense. 90% of the code I wrote in my about 10 years of professional work is probably gone by now - sometimes replaced by myself. In another ten years, chances are not a single line of code will have survived.
But there are different types of temporary. Temporary because the code got updated/upgraded or new and better software got implemented feels fine. It feels like your work was part of the never ending march of technical progress. Temporary because it gets ripped out if favor of a different, inferior suite hits hard.
If my code gets superseded by someone else's complete rewrite that is better, then I'm all for it. If my code gets thrown out because we're switching to a different, inferior system that is completely incompatible with my work, then that just hits like a ton of bricks.
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Absolutely feel you, kinda similar situation at work atm. What frustrates me the most is that none of the IT personnel understands my frustration because most are not in that kind of IT community and don't share the ideas behind all that. Just here to earn a dollar, whatever system we're working on. No intrinsic desire to make the world better or at least more secure, none of that. Just robots and bureaucrats.
My current work is going through this
They dropped an open system we used but the team managing the new one is so bureaucratic and disconnected from the people actually doing work it’s ridiculous.
They reject every proposal/change unless it’s 100% perfect. I had a project delayed by four weeks because I didn’t end single line docstrings with periods. They didn’t review the substance of the pr, they just commented on the docstrings and stopped as if the rest had no merit. It was two weeks between review cycles, so it took three cycles to actually fix what could have been one.
They blocked a 10 row lookup table because it wasn’t indexed and wouldn’t have suitable performance. That held me up for 2 weeks because they wanted me to profile it and document the lack of an index (it had no measurable impact, in case you were wondering).
That whole team is just clearly a make work program. They nitpick and bike shed on every issue. But they aggressively document all the make work they do so they look super busy and important to the execs.
I just want to get work done, but instead it’s a Sisyphean effort.
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My company's buyout has been completed, and their IT team is in the final stages of gutting our old systems and moving us on to all their infra.
Sadly, this means all my Linux and FOSS implementations I've worked on for the last year are getting shutdown and ripped out this week. (They're all 100% Microsoft and proprietary junk at the new company)
I know it's dumb to feel sad about computers and software getting shutdown, but it feels sucky to see all my hours of hard work getting trashed without a second thought.
That's the nature of a corpo takeover though. Just wanted to let off some steam to some folks here who I know would understand.
FOSS forever!
Hoard a copy of your work. Even if your new overlords are gutting and replacing it, ot might be useful elsewhere one day.
Source: Similar situation once upon a time. I am currently using on a daily basis what was once replaced in a different company.
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Everything is temporary, except for that 25 year old system that's keeping everything running and can't be replaced because nobody knows how or why it works just that if you touch it everything falls over.
25 years ago the system was setup as a quick temporary solution.
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Hoard a copy of your work. Even if your new overlords are gutting and replacing it, ot might be useful elsewhere one day.
Source: Similar situation once upon a time. I am currently using on a daily basis what was once replaced in a different company.
Please be careful when copying anything that could be considered your employer's intellectual property off of that employer's systems. And definitely be even more careful about using one employer's IP for a new employer (neither company would be pleased to discover this).
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Please be careful when copying anything that could be considered your employer's intellectual property off of that employer's systems. And definitely be even more careful about using one employer's IP for a new employer (neither company would be pleased to discover this).
True. In my particular case it's not an issue (because of a long and boring story I can'tbe arsed getting into), but shielding oneself as well as the employer from legal liability is important.
