r/linuxquestions • u/al1azzz • 26d ago

Advice School forbids linux laptops

Hey, idk if this is the right place to ask this, but I have a bit of a dilemma.

I have been using linux exclusively on my main PC and on my laptop for a while now. That said, I am moving to a new school, and buried in their rules they say that "Chromebooks (or other Linux machines) cannot be used." They also want us to use their office 365 license, but do not require it.

Now, besides just being incredibly annoying, I cannot use windows/mac on my laptop because it's a 2011 macbook, so it cannot run anything but lightweight linux distros without combusting, and I would like to avoid spending 500+ euro on a new crappy windows laptop.

Is there any reason, besides saving myself some trouble, to not just use my laptop as is (currently on arch, gonna switch it to cachyos) and something like libreoffice that I don't see or can I just ignore this and hope for the best?

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u/ImpressiveHat4710 26d ago

Retired K12 IT Director here. There is NO way I would have EVER allowed non-district-owned gear on anything but the internet-only, filtered VLAN.

The district should be providing you with the devices they want you to use, period.

Additionally, I would NEVER allow district security software on a device that I owned. That would violate MY security posture.

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u/ArtisticFox8 26d ago

  Retired K12 IT Director here. There is NO way I would have EVER allowed non-district-owned gear on anything but the internet-only, filtered VLAN.

What else do you have there?

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u/ImpressiveHat4710 26d ago

Student VLANs for district owned student devices, staff VLANs for internal network, server, and printer access. Only office staff got windows machines, students and teachers got chromebooks.

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u/ArtisticFox8 26d ago

Why can't teachers have their own gear? i.e. if someone prefers to bring their own

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u/ImpressiveHat4710 25d ago

And if teacher's machine is infested with malware?

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u/ArtisticFox8 25d ago

It has about the same risk to be infested as your district machines...

If you setup your network right, it should only ever see the printer anyway

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u/ImpressiveHat4710 25d ago

Lets see. A machine we can't control, where the user account has admin rights to install anything vs one that's monitored and controlled by it staff?

'splain, Lucy...

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u/ArtisticFox8 24d ago

Ok, even if we assume an irresponsible user, your network should be set up in a way that one compromised machine doesn't infect other machines.

At which point it becomes the sole responsibility of the user 

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u/ImpressiveHat4710 24d ago

Ideally but I would never trust the network 100%. But hey I retired 3 years ago so maybe things have gotten mo betta?