Approved Hardware And Software

SparkFabrik is primarily a web-development company, dwelling in the realm of FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software). We are strictly tied to the Unix world, either in philosophy, technics or mindset.

For this reason, our employees and team members must work with a Unix flavor as their primary operating system.

Server side (in environments other than local), we heavily rely on Ubuntu Server, mostly as a base for dockerized services. People without decent-to-deep knowledge of Unix won't be allowed to work hands-on in those environments.

Personal computers

We are pretty open to each preference, as long as it respects those principles:

• Your PC must be reliable
• It needs an i7 and 8+ GB of RAM to build our projects at a decent speed
• The Vendor has to provide top-notch support (say Apple Care or Dell warranty) OR you should have a backup
• If it is not a MacBook Pro, it must be a PC certified for Ubuntu Desktop OS (14.04 LTS and 15.10 are currently allowed) - Again, Dell is the favorite choice
• The PC must be able to make a video call on Google Meet or Zoom, with good audio, which means among the other: no fans noise, a decent mic, and a webcam. A supported headset is great!

The company generally provides PCs for employees, matching those requirements.
Full-time contributors generally use their PC but can request a company PC if they are in the need or prefer to use their own out of those constraints.

Mobile devices (laptops) are preferable for all remote workers. You can work on more than a PC as long as all of them respect those requirements.

Personal use of the company's hardware

We passionately advocate using Company's hardware for personal use, most of all if this is learning new stuff, experimenting with geeky things, etc.
We just ask that:

• The PC is kept with extreme care
• The OS remains functional for work

OSs and seniority

We eagerly prefer for junior employees or contributors to have a MacBook Pro or equivalent, so that it works out of the box. Seniors who can afford mangling with their OS can choose Ubuntu as the primary OS, keeping in mind that making sure it works is their responsibility (read, if you want to upgrade Ubuntu don't do it during working hours and be sure you can work the next day if something breaks!)

Other Linux distros are generally not allowed. We can talk about this if you are a real ninja and you can guarantee your system is working, no matter what!

We happen to provide junior devs with Ubuntu-certified Dell machines, as long as they don't work remotely and they don't use the computer for their stuff putting OS integrity at the stake.