| Hi Edgar,
As in many other contexts, it’s important to keep the big picture in mind. As a grad student, is your goal to learn about your field, to do interesting work/research, and to eventually graduate? Or is it to defend your ideals and use the software you like? If it’s the second, by all means the software you use should be a central consideration (to the point of looking for other places of study, as suggested in your original post). But if it’s the first (as it should, IMO), then the central considerations change: is your professor good/nice/competent (insert your own criteria here)? Does she foster your work/research in productive ways? Does she give you good challenges and research topics? Only you can answer those questions.
You can always compromise. Not all of us get to use only the tools we like all day long. In my case, I like my job very much, despite the fact that I have to use tools like Exchange, Sharepoint and Jira. But at home, during my free time, I get to code and use whatever tools I want (e.g. Emacs, org-mode, Elvish, Hammerspoon). I get to use some of them at work too, but I am aware that I have to stick to the accepted standards of communication and collaboration with others.
From what you say, the tools your advisor uses are the recognized/accepted ones for doing the work. You could try to challenge this status quo, given enough time and energy. But again, think about what your goals are. You have to choose your battles. In any case, after you graduate, you can go on an be much more selective about (or even, define yourself) the tools with which you work.
As a former grad student myself, I can give you two pieces of wisdom I received over the years, one from my Ph.D. advisor, and one from one of my colleagues. Both express the same feeling:
- “You may think now that getting your Ph.D. is the goal, but it’s only the beginning. The Ph.D. only opens the door for whatever you want to do next”
- “The goal of a Ph.D. is to finish it”
All the best,
—Diego
On 2018-05-18 07:12, S. Champailler wrote: Be aware that free software is politcally loaded. It's just not a
matter of having the right or best tools, it' sometimes a question of
ideal, that is something that is *very* hard to negociate about...
Moreover, if the people you work with use, say Word, it's pretty tough
to bring in, say Latex. Because you'll disrupt the organisation of the
team.
In the case of emacs, though, things are easier : it's made to work
with text files and that is quite compatible with any other
proprietary software. You won't affect anybody's job with that.
Here at my job, I don't control any of the software I use (I have to
use Oracle, Windows, Skype), but I can choose the software that *I*
use for myself. So it's a balance.
Changing other's mind, or methods is super hard, what you experience
is just the normal. It'd be nice to know why your advisor rejects free
software equivalents (lack of features ? fear of legal battles ?
organisational ...)
Stefan
Merci, Stefan. I have tried to understand her point, and I can dissect it into: 1. She does not see the advantage of having to learn how to use anything else. It works well for her, why change and waste time on doing it? 2. She likes and is used to the "features" of the software (today, I discovered that one of these is the so-called "track changes"; I swear I have tried to introduce her to Git, not that she cares). 3. I think that she is used to the interface. 4. She says (and I have no reason to question) that the whole department uses the proprietary software that she uses. It is an imposition to others (including her) to ask them to use something different. It is only when we have to collaborate directly that the issue arises. I guess that it's a similar situation as you are having (programming? she does not care, I can do whatever I want; publication abstract? she wants a DOCX or DOC). What I find unfathomable is that I can produce the format that she needs (even with style) with free software (thanks community!), but what I perceive as her reluctance to my software (or just plain miscommunication) prevents her from informing me or me understanding what exactly it is that she considers important. In other words, she does not seem to want to deal with it in any way. I'm sorry, I didn't want to make this very long. I hope that I explained myself. The count goes like this (so that everyone knows that I am listening, the count is by far the least important): - Yield partially (1) :: You will have to work with proprietary software in some way, but not always. - There is no escape (1) :: You will have to work with proprietary software ------------------------------------------------- ONLY AT VFEmail! - Use our Metadata Mitigator to keep your email out of the NSA's hands! $24.95 ONETIME Lifetime accounts with Privacy Features! 15GB disk! No bandwidth quotas! Commercial and Bulk Mail Options!
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