You can easily change the permissions in settings. This is a security feature.

What's the best ~15" Linux laptop to ask for as a new hire these days?

Really enjoying my Thinkpad x390, which is 13", but I'd easily go for a 15" version of this machine.

I had a 2016 Dell Xps 15" and both me and my coworker with the same machine had terrible issues with the keyboard randomly writing letters twice in a row. Also the on-board nvidia graphics card, while nice, was also a big power hog and that system had bad battery life until I turned it off. After a couple of years, the battery puffed up and started pushing up on the trackpad until it was unusable. Really soured me on Dell's build quality, and I can't recommend them at all, even though I admire their support for linux drivers.

Dell XPS 15, Thinkpads

XPS13 is very good for Linux but I don’t think I’d recommend an XPS15. Dell don’t sell them with Linux themselves.

You’d be better looking at the Precision line if you want a 15” Dell with Linux.

I think one of those or system76 will be my next personal laptop, but I hadn't seen any around the office yet (back when that was a possibility).

I haven't had an issue with Dell laptops.

Over many years, models, and indirectly hundreds of laptops (buying for teams, not myself) I'm pretty confident that Dells have a higher failure rate than many alternatives, but if you buy the higher tier support they are also more responsive than most. NB if you fall back on out of warranty and/or lower tier from them, support is not good.

> Mac OS is no longer any good for professional use, outside of media creation.

I agree, and I bet they will kick themselves for it in ~5 years time.

What makes it good at media creation? AFAICT almost all the major creation apps are cross platform. Further, there are entire media creation industries that are majority non-mac. CGI movie effects (Industrial Light & Magic, Sony Pictures, ...), CGI animation (Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney), Game Dev, VR, etc...

> What makes it good at media creation?

Technically, probably nothing unless you're tied to something like Final Cut. I like little things like obj (geometry), abc (geometry), and exr (image/textures) files can be previewed in Finder/Quickview out of the box. Quicktime is way better than what Windows offers by default (I miss Quicktime 7)--I'm not sure Windows can open Apple ProRes movies (a fairly common working format) without additional software.

ILM, Sony, Pixar, DreamWorks, and Disney aren't great examples since they all use Linux. For the few artists that need it, they have a second Windows or Mac box just for Photoshop. Because of their size they use Linux and a lot of in-house proprietary tools. There's like 10-30 companies in the world that work like this so it's not a great comparison for someone doing motion graphics bumpers for the web or making TV commercials--I would not recommend Linux for them.

Any "professional" who can't spend two minutes googling how to reset this doesn't deserve the title.

"Professional use" just means to use in your profession, not that they are claiming to be an IT expert.

In this case, it means they are typing Unix commands into a shell. That suggests that their profession involves IT.

I'd argue that fighting your tools is the _least_ acceptable in a professional setting.

Some people complain that microwaves kill cats instead of drying them, YMMV.