[rebekah-aimee]

But then all your programmers have private offices, which has been thoroughly established as dramatically important to productivity, as well as a bargaining chip in recruiting the best people.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FieldGuidetoDeveloper... (Kind of old, but still applicable.)

Supplying an allowance to rent somewhere with a good workspace or set up an office is still mostly cheaper than renting an inner-city space with private offices... and then you don't have issues with VCs thinking you're burning their money unnecessarily.

[gohrt]

Does Microsoft have the best people? Or does massive pay and moonshot projects outweigh a private office for most of the best?

[slededit]

That really depends on the time period and specific team within Microsoft. Working on Excel in the mid-90s (where Joel worked as a PM) is a significantly different experience than being on the windows installer team today.