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!
Your feelings are valid, that blows.
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My job title is "Linux System Administrator". I'd quit if they tried to make me drop Linux.
I think I'm a cloud engineer, so I can't use the same reasoning as you; but when I started at my company, I was given the option of either a Linux laptop with root or a Mac laptop. Obviously I selected Linux, but about a year later they started retiring all Linux laptops. The reason for this, I was told, is because the IT department didn't know how to manage Linux laptops but they were familiar with Jamf. They did let us keep root on them, though.
I still miss using that laptop for work. The good news is, since they never implemented mandatory RTO policies, the company moved to a much smaller office. In doing so, they needed to reduce inventory, so they gave away the old laptops (sans drives) to their employees. I now own the same laptop (or a very similar one)!
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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).
But it's also difficult to prove you didn't make it similarly 2 times. Just do some name changing, reordering and some slight changes and you should be golden.
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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).
Please be careful when copying anything that could be considered your employer’s intellectual property
Very unlikely $NEW_EMPLOYER will run all your ideas past $OLD_EMPLOYER to see if it's their code...
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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!
That's very unfortunate but hopefully you developed skills that will help you in your future career.
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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!
Weres crowd strike windows shitting the bed when u need it
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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!
Back in the 1990s I developed an app over the course of 6 years, first 3 in C/DOS then we ported that to C++/Borland/Win95 and continued developing it for another 3 years. I was the only coder, we had a dedicated tester / documentation specialist and the algorithms lead who was more of an idea guy than any hands-on code work.
We got bought out. Buyers "needed it in native Win32 because of the depth of the talent pool." Whatever, I'm here to help if they want it during porting. Buyers estimated 2 developers could port it in about 2-3 months. Yeah, o.k. Never asked for help, but at 6 months in they had expanded the dev team to 6 guys and were still struggling and looking to hire more. Ultimately they reduced scope a little and called it "ready to use" in Win32 after about 15 months. Glad they got it "maintainable" by switching to that Win32 dev environment with such a deep talent pool to hire from, they easily spent more man hours on the port than we spent developing it in the first place.
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Your feelings are valid, that blows.
Thank you
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That's very unfortunate but hopefully you developed skills that will help you in your future career.
For sure, I've learned a ton in the last year. Hopefully I can land a Linux focused job this year and get away from Windows support once and for all.
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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 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.
Sadly, something we all have to get used to. Everything we do is ephemeral and the next guy will likely have better/different ideas on how to do things.
Basically everything I've ever built has been torn down or somehow bastardized eventually.
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My job title is "Linux System Administrator". I'd quit if they tried to make me drop Linux.
I tried to push back, but they are a much larger company and they made it clear that I would be playing by their rules, not mine.
I was thinking of quitting immediately, but at least in my region of the country, the IT market is really rough right now, so I can't afford to be out of work for months.
I won't last long here though. They are half owned by a private equity firm, so they run everything based on the bottom line. Their IT team is understaffed, underpaid, and they are always looking for excuses to lay folks off or fire them. Their turnover rate is pretty high, burnout is rife.
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I think I'm a cloud engineer, so I can't use the same reasoning as you; but when I started at my company, I was given the option of either a Linux laptop with root or a Mac laptop. Obviously I selected Linux, but about a year later they started retiring all Linux laptops. The reason for this, I was told, is because the IT department didn't know how to manage Linux laptops but they were familiar with Jamf. They did let us keep root on them, though.
I still miss using that laptop for work. The good news is, since they never implemented mandatory RTO policies, the company moved to a much smaller office. In doing so, they needed to reduce inventory, so they gave away the old laptops (sans drives) to their employees. I now own the same laptop (or a very similar one)!
My work laptop has Debian on it with the Plasma DE, I love it so much. Everything is snappy and clean, set up and tuned perfectly to my preferences.
It's getting wiped in a few days. I requested to keep it as a personal device if I wiped it, they denied that request. I even offered to buy it back from the company, but still no.
At least I get to keep it instead of using their bulky, crappy HPs, but replacing my sleek Debian system with Windows 11 feels so wrong.
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Looking actively. I haven't lost my job (yet) I cut my teeth in IT on supporting Microsoft products, so I still have relevant skills for the new corpo's IT, but it already stinks of the big corporate style.
Super inefficient processes, stuck in their ways, everything has to get bumped around to 3-4 different departments before getting approved, etc.
And cLoWd EvErYtHiNg! So we are hardcore vendor locked with Microsoft, there isn't a chance of me getting them to try using anything FOSS as an alternative.
At least my home lab is 100% Linux and FOSS, same with all my personal computers. I'm having even more fun than usual going home after work and playing with my tech.
And one small upside is they are giving me all the old computers from my current company, so I have a huge pile of towers that I can referb and sell, or use for more home lab testing.
I feel you so much on this. Bet your work was really cool.
What cool FOSS things would you do first if this take-over company allowed you to?
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It's natural to feel sad seeing your work undone. Start searching for a new gig and do the best you can to not have an emotional response to the stuff you dislike; that'll only make you exhausted and burned out.
I'm sorry your job got worse. Try to find where you can be happy again.
Thank you
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That's not dumb.
It's devastating.
I'm not a linux user due to multiple of reasons and I'm sad about it.
I'd be very sad if I was able to make it to the other side and then get taken backThank you
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it sucks that they teach us our code will live forever, so watch out for introducing bugs....
then the companies go under, designs change and you waste your life leaving behind nothing.
Yeah, it's rough. I am trying to look on the bright side, that I learned a lot that will help my career going forward, and what I did implement worked very well and helped make a few people's lives easier.
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I get it. I've just been through a merger and the new head software delivery has plans on rewriting everything in their tech stack. He is in for an absolute fucking ride when he realises that such a rewrite will not take a year but 5 to 10 and will incapacitate our department for the entire time. In a rapidly evolving market. It is 3 decades of continuous and rapid feature expansions he's trying to unroll.
It's not FOSS though, so I'm not as invested in it, I'm just here to see him either fail utterly or get kicked due to his cognitive dissonance that'll cost our department in the tens or hundreds of millions.
Oof, that's rough. My spouse is a software engineer and has been through a similar thing recently.
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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.
Already backed up securely and anonymously
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I tried to push back, but they are a much larger company and they made it clear that I would be playing by their rules, not mine.
I was thinking of quitting immediately, but at least in my region of the country, the IT market is really rough right now, so I can't afford to be out of work for months.
I won't last long here though. They are half owned by a private equity firm, so they run everything based on the bottom line. Their IT team is understaffed, underpaid, and they are always looking for excuses to lay folks off or fire them. Their turnover rate is pretty high, burnout is rife.
Start job hunting now. By the sound of it they are one of those PE firms that zombie walk every acquisition into mediocrity.
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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).
I am careful, but not concerned. The new company's IT doesn't give a damn about anything that I set up or implemented. Their reactions when I was describing my work and job role before the buyout was essentially, "Aww, the cute little sysadmin was making scripts and using Linux, isn't that sweet."
As far as they're concerned, all the old hardware and software are e-waste and are being scrapped. They are ripping out everything, literally. From our phone system, to our physical devices, to our firewalls, network switches, Active Directory, and file server.
They are replacing every single part of our infrastructure. Everything I built is useless in their eyes.
