[pbreit]

First, one of the best things you can do is let each developer choose their machines and give them a generous budget. Not only will that likely lead to the most productivity but it also puts the employee control as well as discourages complaints.

I don't have Java/Tomcat experience but have yet to run into a situation where a MacBook Pro was an inadequate development machine. I also don't understand "we're too big for Amazon".