I've been a developer for over a decade, where I'm currently employed they have adopted low-partitions (lets be honest, no partitions). I can hear people twitch, breathe, randomly talk with others 3 isles down. Every developer has on headphones trying to ignore all the movement/talking around them, it's just a horrible setup. I find myself being less confident in my work, because I can't concentrate due to a all the distractions around, wearing headphones/earbuds is a nice work-around, but not a solution, I would like to not have my earbuds on 6+ hours a day.

While I see the advantages to open offices, not everyone works the same way, companies who want to maximize employee effectiveness should cater to both types of needs.