Development in a virtual machine

[bitWISE]

So I just need to know if I'm being unreasonable here or if this is the dumbest idea you've ever heard too.

As most of you know, I write business software during my 9-5. A couple years ago we landed a client so massive that they dwarfed all our other clients combined. Rather than simply selling them our solution, our development team basically replaced the majority of their internal development team and our software has been slowly replacing their own. The fun part is that this means the client micromanages the shit out of our development team.

Well, the client hired a new development manager and he wants us to VPN to their offices 600 miles away and do all of our work in virtual desktops that will be maintained by him. Their VPN reroutes all network traffic through their servers so I'll be unable to access any of our in office things like oh idk fucking printers (not to mention that they use very strict web filtering). But coding in a virtual machine over a VPN with a solution that takes 3 minutes to build on an i7 with a sata3 SSD? Can you even get multiple monitors to work with a VM?

I'll have to fight rush hour traffic both directions just to remote into another office. Are they fucking kidding?

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

Say no.

[MKJ]

is this VPN or RDC?
cos if its RDC too than that kills all of your graphical rendering, including minimizing multiple windows at once and such.
I hate working from home for this very reason.
not sure if a multiple screen setup works too.

fuck that guy bro

[4days]

that does sound like some class-a fucktardery

does the new manager have an MBA? find more and more that MBAs go hand in hand with really terrible decision-making (and being a cunt).

[bitWISE]

Say no.

I tried to argue against it and was supposed to have a meeting with the guy but never got it. I didn't know how hard to push so I'll see how bad it is and probably request to be moved to another team in our office. All else fails, I'm sure I could find work with a friend.

is this VPN or RDC?
cos if its RDC too than that kills all of your graphical rendering, including minimizing multiple windows at once and such.
I hate working from home for this very reason.
not sure if a multiple screen setup works too.

fuck that guy bro

Yea, from what I'm hearing we remote desktop into our own personal VM after getting on their VPN. I hate it too. That's why we all have laptops in the office so we can work anywhere comfortably. Hell, I even tried running a local VM so I could do .NET dev work on a Macbook Pro and that was too painful.

[Deathshroud]

I'd at least argue for a less restrictive VPN, and require that the VPN not reroute all network traffic through itself.

On the occasion that I work from home, I use our VPN to remote into my work machine. Our VPN seems to only reroute traffic through itself when access network resources that lie under it.

I take it you must work for a consulting firm? It sounds like the client dictates how the devs work, which seems completely asinine. What reason do they have for making you work through VM's?

[SplEEb]

WOuldn't it make more sense if he just came to your office, then all the other bullshit. He could just pop in whenever he felt the need and you set him up with a little cubicle in the corner facing a wall.

[bitWISE]

I'd at least argue for a less restrictive VPN, and require that the VPN not reroute all network traffic through itself.

On the occasion that I work from home, I use our VPN to remote into my work machine. Our VPN seems to only reroute traffic through itself when access network resources that lie under it.

I take it you must work for a consulting firm? It sounds like the client dictates how the devs work, which seems completely asinine. What reason do they have for making you work through VM's?

Yea our own VPN works that way.

Nope. We're a family owned software company with a few products but we do heavy customization. In the case of this client we basically are just contractors. They wanted to drop development and focus on their core business but as you can imagine there is resistance.

[seremtan]

did this new dev manager give a rationale for this bizarre sounding plan? or does s/he consider him/herself above such things as explaining themselves?

[bitWISE]

The reasons I have heard are:

- The client is hiring six of their own developers and wants to consolidate us all
- They are branching off from our trunk entirely and placing their version of the code into TFS
- They want us all to be coding in VS 2012
- He wants to control the environments and tools being used
- If a developer needs more "power" it can be dynamically allocated

My guess is that they have the additional benefit of ensuring we have fewer distractions and keeping an eye on things.

[MKJ]

Why rdc for tfs? That makes no sense.

[obsidian]

Would be easier still if you just set up a VM in your office and have him connect to it to check on your status.

[Deathshroud]

From what I'm reading, it seems like the client is attempting to treat you as a dev working on a contractual basis. Why would your company benefit from you working under the umbrella of this 3rd party?

[4days]

Would be easier still if you just set up a VM in your office and have him connect to it to check on your status.

well that's just crazy talk.

[MKJ]

Would be easier still if you just set up a VM in your office and have him connect to it to check on your status.

Ikr

[losCHUNK]

Their new boss sounds like he's swinging bollocks, chop them off before they get too big

[Eraser]

All the technicalities don't actually matter all that much. Virtual or not. VPN or not. RDP or not. It all doesn't matter. The main issue here seems to be that a client of your company wishes to dictate how the development team on your company works. And that should be off limits. If they don't have any trust in the skills and qualities of your team, then they shouldn't bother in dealing with you and find someone else.

[Don Carlos]

Sounds shit mate

I use VRSA to connect to work from home and it works well as I am using my own machine. It isn't ninja quick despite having a 40mbit connection, but it works. If I had to log onto another machine through mine to work I'd refuse on the grounds that it would be counterproductive. But then I have a manager who listens to what I have to say where as your manager sounds like a douche.

[LawL]

It could be worse... you could be in your 50's, unemployed, broke and doing unpaid manual labour upon instruction from Gramps. Think of it that way.

[Eraser]

Or sit at home washing dishes and changing diapers, amirite?

[LawL]

You know it.