I believe Joel gets some of his ideas about workspace arrangements from the book "Peopleware" by DeMarco and Lister.

In the book, they don't necessarily argue for an individual private office for every programmer, but argue that a quality work environment has enormous benefits. Interruptions cause huge problems, and random noise can be distracting as well. A door that shuts is one of the most important parts of being able to reduce interruptions and random noise.

A personal office isn't mandatory in order to make progress along those lines. The book actually suggests that you set aside a space for a small group of people (1-4), with furniture that can be easily rearranged.

edit: Just a another comment on the article...

BDUF Big Design Up Front: I think it might be a mistake to assume Joel's arguments in favor of software specifications imply BDUF. A specification is a fluid thing. It helps ease communication between all parties throughout the development process, and lets you save time figuring out some kinds of problems.

Peopleware is a great book. Well worth a read by anyone who has a "desk" job, including those lone wannabees sitting at home with their laptop. http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/pw.html

I disagree with his idea that you should not have a private office.

Granted, I don't currently have an office job, but given that a phone call or knock on my door will rip me straight out of the flow, I can't imagine even being able to get in it in the first place in a room with half a dozen other people all madly typing away, making noises, and moving around in my peripheral vision.

With laptops and no PHBs why even make a decision?

I really like both. When doing work that is highly collaborative it's nice to have everyone in spitting distance. When I have have no need for discussion with others I love my solitary hackathons. The most productive times I've had were moving back and forth between the two environments freely.

The funny thing is that standard cubicles are well-suited to making it difficult for you to do that.

Cubicles are neither private, nor collaborative. Cubicles create social barriers between you and your neighbors, yet do little to block the flow of noise in the environment. There's no real privacy, yet no sense that collaboration is encouraged.

Agreed. I'm not a big fan of laptops, but having various work areas that one can move between would be ideal.

I wonder how much joelonsoftware contributes to his companies success. The blog is something one couldn't easily mimic, as few people can write as well.

Yeah he talks about that in Founders at Work.

After all those schemes he tried that were mentioned in the article, he says one of the biggest reasons for his companies' success has been his blog.

I'd guess around 99.99%

I think his backup plan paid off. He has a privately held profitable company.