How is that ironic? He even acknowledges himself that he learned this way from moving to Google, and acknowledges that they are the exception not the rule:

> "I remember years ago, when I joined Google, I looked at the personal technology that Google gave to its people. Google allowed people to use whatever they thought was relevant to them, when everyone else gave people a black laptop and a BlackBerry and said, “You are going to do it our way."

Yup. IT in big corps really needs to change. I have - beside the Windows Update - the "Your IT department (...)" update, coming daily. Most of the time, it's a new wallpaper, which I have to disable via register tweaks.

The example you gave - the pain of sysadmins using the Windows desktop - is perfect. But let me add a different one: the big corp where I work decided that iOS apps were needed. I can't even begin the describe how long and cumbersome the process of acquiring a Mac was! It was so ridiculous that we used personal devices for a time, and then a Hackintosh.

I suffer this fate every day. It is made worse by being locked down so hard I can't even use PowerShell. All I have is Notepad++ for development, searching, mass text manipulation...

How come you are not looking for a new job then?

It's one thing having to use Windows for development. I've done it, you can work around lots of issues with Cygwin and other separate tools that enhances the development unfriendliness of Windows. If you are developping in Java, it's even less of an issue as Java itself and most of its IDEs are cross-platform.

But being so locked down that the only thing to do development with is Notepad++ (you can't even run vim or emacs?), that's actually so far beyond that even a complete non-tech person should be able to see that this is harmful to your productivity.

I started less than a month ago, and it pays really well. I will stick it out and hope to convince management to let me have admin rights to my machine.

You don't need admin rights.

What you do need is a reasonable set of tools to be installed and a quick (under an hour) way to get items installed or updated.

What about a VM ?

Approach it from the tools use, do people use pads and pens or do they use Word?

The bigger the company the more difficult this is. Where I worked our workstations were locked down and required a package request to install software. In addition, they would not bother packaging a new tool if it served the same purpose of other tools; i.e. text editors. Doesn't matter if you prefer Vim/emacs/Sublime Text 2/Notepad++, we already have a license for a text editor you've never heard of before.

Depending on the company's hardware VM performance could be a real issue. You'd be surprised how many developer jobs are done on old Windows XP boxes. Big companies typically do upgrades in multiyear cycles.

You only need a writable folder in your local PC to install portable versions of almost everything you need.

Assuming the portables are downloadable from a whitelisted website. Or that your USB ports aren't configured to encrypt anything you insert. McAfee, I'm looking right at your ugly endpoint encryption...

If the bios is not locked, you can boot from USB, copy any installer you need...

It's really easy to do if you need it.

I'm assuming you haven't had the joy of working with McAfee Ednpoint Protection. When you insert a USB device, it automatically encrypts it. Our BIOS are locked down to prevent anyone from monkeying with the desktops. Same with notebooks. Hell, we even encrypt CDR/DVD disks that are writeable...

Now that sounds nightmarish.

I would quit or require a very high payment.

You can't have outstanding performance with those tools, so I'm not sure whether you have your chances. It's a dilbertesque situation where employees can't perform well and the management self-reproduces with the least innovative people.

You made your account with your choice of name just to post this comment?