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"Hey can you remove MDM from this Macbook so I can install Linux?"

Is there no MDM for Linux clients? How do the big tech companies with Linux developer machines (Google, Facebook, etc) manage their inventory? Do they roll their own MDM?

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IT departments can mandate tools like ninjaone and kolide, which let them run queries across the fleet of devices, and (as I understand it) basically gives them root-level remote code execution.

The corporate VPN (or equivalent) can then perform 'posture checking' requiring that the tools be installed and working before connecting to the corporate network.

Obviously, 99% of Linux users have root on their device so nothing stops them wiping it and installing something new from scratch. But then they'll fail the posture checks until the device is returned to the approved setup.

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Kolide admin provides a web UI for osquery so you can query things. It allows remote osquery queries but not remote code execution. You generally pair it with CrowdStrike Falcon.

Kolide does a spot check like "is falcon sensor running" but if the user logs in, has the session token created, and then disables whatever the session token would still be valid.

Also Kolide doesn't actually count as an MDM. Has a bunch of missing features. I recently evaluated it.

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Almost everything, and that's already three generations behind.
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I don't really need USB-C displays or Thunderbolt for my use case. The touch ID is easily replaced with a Yubikey.

Everything else just works. What is the problem?

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Sounds great for you! What about everyone else?

Many people prefer to get new devices so that they can be covered by Apple Care. That completely removes Linux as an option because Asahi Linux never supports any of the recent models.

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Many people don't care about Linux support in the first place. Generally these two groups are overlapping.
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"Buy this computer, it's several generations behind and a bunch of stuff doesn't work" is not a ringing endorsement, even if it does work well enough for you.
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I still do all my work on an M1 MBP ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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That’s wonderful for you and apple.
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What does Apple gain from this scenario?

Just to add, I also do my work from an M1 MacBook that I crammed Asahi onto. I got it used for a few hundred dollars last year and it's a perfectly fine experience (for me).

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Same. If not for the required hardware refresh in our company I would have used it until it broke.
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USB display support was demoed at a conference at the end of last year.
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We’re already almost halfway through this year. A demo half a year ago isn’t shipped. This is like when Apple demos something at WWDC that doesn’t ship until 9 months later in spring the following year.
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