[jan_g]

I once joined a company of couple of thousand employees (as software engineer). The interviewer assured me that employees can pick whichever laptop or PC they want. Ok, great, I thought, then asked for a Thinkpad.

A funny thing happened after I started to work - IT department was unable to procure me that laptop. After ~3 weeks they said that the company they order hardware from can't provide Thinkpads for the foreseeable future. So I've asked to just order from Amazon or similar. Nope, can't be done. My manager just shrugged and told me to ask for standard Dell laptop like everyone else in the company. Yeah, it arrived on my desk the next day. Later I found out that company works like that in many different areas. Lots of freedom and choices on a first glance, but once actually needing something, there was always only one way to have it done. Usually the most annoying and time consuming way.

So, the interviewer wasn't wrong in telling me that I can choose what I want, but the company makes sure everyone ends up with the same setup. Somewhat similar to Henry Ford's "you can pick any color as long as it's black".

[koheripbal]

I'd just like to comment as someone who's done sysadmin work - the nightmare security scenario for us definitely includes employees bringing their own unsecured hardware to the office and connecting it to the corporate network.

So many security issues with that - that it was never a reasonable request on your part.

Moreover, having also helped with support and procurement. BY FAR, the most efficient thing to do is get the exact same laptop model for everyone. Otherwise, the IT support team is constantly fighting with driver and support issues on different brands, models, bloatware-in-drivers - a new battle for each configuration.

One-size-fits-all laptops for the company makes 100% sense for a company.

[keeganpoppen]

man all those maverick companies that deign to allow developers to choose their laptops must be screwed, then... (xP)

as to non-engineering / technical staff, though i am general allowing people who care strongly about their setup (for good reasons, mind you), while having the vast majority of people (especially the ones ambivalent about setup who simply want the smoothest possible experience) on a constrained, non-fancy-whiz-bang-corporate-it-3000-or-whatever setup. i also freely acknowledge that there are extra costs to this mindset, and people are fee to assign their own values/prices/costs to these things as they see fit (all other things being equal).

[phyzome]

> So many security issues with that - that it was never a reasonable request on your part.

It's a reasonable request.

[GordonS]

Most enterprise-scale companies are like that, only using a single source for procurement of laptops, desktops and monitors, and making it impossible to buy IT yourself and expense it.

[chaosite]

Sure, that's common.

But they also don't lie about it.