BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) to work?

[Evil-Ernie]

Interesting article on the BBC news website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12181570)

If you could choose a PC for work would you go for the Linux option?

Me personally I would if I could, depends on the IT infrastructure at my workplace enabling me to practically use an alternative OS.

[kaldor]

Depends entirely on the job. If I needed Windows-only or certain programs, I'd just use the work computer.

[Johnsie]

Being the programmer at the company I work for I would be very reluctant to allow people to use their own hardware/software. I can see people bringing virus infected Windows XP machines in and causing all kinds of problems.

I have no problem with people using Linux distros, but letting unsecured systems onto our network is a big no-no.

[slackthumbz]

I bring my HP Mini (running ubuntu 10.10) to the office every day and work from it as well as my desktop machine (which runs debian). Thankfully our IT infrastructure is almost entirely linux based.

[Evil-Ernie]

Being the programmer at the company I work for I would be very reluctant to allow people to use their own hardware/software. I can see people bringing virus infected Windows XP machines in and causing all kinds of problems.

I have no problem with people using Linux distros, but letting unsecured systems onto our network is a big no-no.

I think that would be the problem, a savvy PC user would have no problem keeping their machine clean and knowing the do's and dont's of security. Unfortunately many places, like where I work have people that are hardly computer literate let alone being able to manage the security on their own system.

So there would have to be some kind of criteria of who is capable of BYOC and some kind of regular testing regime in place to ensure network security.

[ki4jgt]

I like the idea. Pretty soon the ITs will all be dismissed b/c they are no longer needed due to the fact that the company only has a wireless lan and then I'll be able to tap into everyone's computer on the network with just a few commands in the terminal. Come on people!!!

[ki4jgt]

I like the idea. Pretty soon the ITs will all be dismissed b/c they are no longer needed due to the fact that the company only has a wireless lan and then I'll be able to tap into everyone's computer on the network with just a few commands in the terminal. Come on people!!!

[Evil-Ernie]

Companies are starting to realise that there is alternatives to a bog standard desktop PC with Windows for all their employees. A lot of people only need to use email, word processing and spreadsheets, thats it! These people dont need massive processing power at their desk, a thin client would be perfect.

Id really like to see more homeworking out there. Ive seen the estate budgets for my workplace and I can tell you just having a desk in an office to put people is expensive. A lot of workers just dont need to be in the office, all it takes is some Desktop Virtualisation (like Citrix) and if the employee doesnt have a home PC, a laptop of some description.

There are implentation costs but the savings would be staggering and people can work where they like.

[Roasted]

I use a work issued computer that I run Ubuntu and XP on, however I very rarely touch the XP partition. Part of the reason I use Ubuntu isn't necessarily personal choice, but to run specific software that helps my job out significantly that is Linux based.

I am one of two Linux systems in a network of 2,000+ Windows machines.

[themarker0]

Yea i would uif linux had a solid backup program.

[eriktheblu]

As I much prefer Ubuntu over Windows, I would like to say yes.

Unfortunately, I have web programs that only work in IE, XFDL forms which can only be digitally signed in Windows (for now), and I haven't time to become proficient in another database program (at least not to the level I am with Access). Not a practical choice for me.

[Khakilang]

Not a very good idea. What if a employee left the company and take away all the information that he process? Or someone with knowledge to crack into the company server? Or infected with virus? Unless the company server are rock solid secure.

[3Miro]

I get to pick my OS at my job. All that we use the computers for is web and interfacing with the Linux servers. I did go for Linux of course.

You can also bring your own computer, however, if you are using Windows, you have to get an OK by the IT guys. He basically want an up-to-date AV and firewall running.

Bringing your own machine could be a security risk, however, anyone with a pen-drive can take data from the company anyway.

[ErikNJ]

Where I work the options are: Windows 7, OSX, or RHEL 5

[Roasted]

Yea i would uif linux had a solid backup program.

I thought there were quite a few...

[BbUiDgZ]

Yea i would uif linux had a solid backup program.
like symantec's backup exec?

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/3968/tumbleweed004gi3.gif

dd not work for you?

[eriktheblu]

...anyone with a pen-drive can take data from the company anyway.Depends on the security of the system (digital and physical)

I've personally seen USB disks denied at the OS level (not very effective), and USB ports filled with epoxy. Securing data against reasonable threats is quite possible.

[keithpeter]

Hello All

The bbc article mentions Citrix a lot and the idea of a thin client seeing a view of data that never leaves the data centre.

I work as a teacher and the idea of having full rich media learning materials running on some kind of application server with cheap tablet style clients perhaps running the Unity based Ubuntu seems great.

Edubuntu was a server-client system I recall. Any work going forward in that direction? Robust stuff on a central server with light clients?

[BrokenKingpin]

I write applications for Windows for a living, so it wouldn't really work out for me. I wish I could though.

I do bring in a Ubuntu netbook to work and use it for meetings and music at my desk.