[xenonite]

A hammer is not always the best tool.

Edit: what did you mean by "a set" of standardized toosl? Like the set {Windows 10, Linux of some distribution, macOS 10.15, iOS, Android}?

Even then, what if some app does not work on Windows 10? Or what if you need a 32 bit app running on macOS?

[AmericanChopper]

But if your 10,000 employees each need a hammer, getting them all the same one, from the same vendor, with the same support contract might just make sense.

Edit to your edit: whatever particular sets of tools the business needs. Whether it’s laptops, thin clients, operating systems, IDEs, ticketing systems...

> Even then, what if some app does not work on Windows 10?

If your business had standardized on Windows 10, then you’d hope checking whether things worked on Windows 10 would be part of their procurement process.

> Or what if you need a 32 bit app running on macOS?

You choose something else. Like any business running MacOS would have to do.

[xenonite]

And then there are some with very small or very big hands. Would you give them a different hammer, or would you criticize their subpar performance?

[AmericanChopper]

I’d probably just pick a better analogy. If the job can be done on the operating system provided, then it can be done equally well by anybody using that operating system. No need to grow bigger hands.

[xenonite]

The analogy is perfect in my opinion.

Like the body, everyone's brain is different.

[AmericanChopper]

If you’re working from the premise that your brain is only suited to work with one operating system, then you’re really only harming yourself, by shutting down any opportunities you may otherwise have open to you.

Small organisations have the luxury of letting people choose their tools more freely. As they grow, they tend to have to restrict this more. Not just because they might have to support the tools you choose to use, but because they absolutely will have to support how your choices work with all the other tools they have in the organisation. At scale, this starts to get out of hand pretty quickly, and the only way you can provide a good working experience is by adding constraints to the tools used.

On top of that, some organisations have regulations and compliance requirements to meet that make it even harder. If your basic procurement pipeline includes $10,000 of vendor due diligence, then you don’t want to just give everybody free reign to use anything they feel like. If those choices introduce additional ongoing compliance costs, then you want to control that even more so.

You could ignore all of that, and focus only on how it affects you. But there’s good reasons that organisations do that sort of thing.

[krapht]

I would ask what's going on that couldn't be solved with cygwin or virtual box.

[xenonite]

This largely depends on the job. Some tasks can even be done with a locked down iPad, some not at all.