3 ms·

These days it isn't as big a deal, but back then until about 2010 the more expensive machine really made a huge difference. In a time where most people were st

These days it isn't as big a deal, but back then until about 2010 the more expensive machine really made a huge difference. In a time where most people were still running pentium 4s, we had quad core machines to develop on. Compiling was 4x faster than the average computer sold. These days a 3 year old computer really doesn't make that much difference.

bluedino 10y ago
Spent a whopping $300 each to max out the RAM (16GB) and get an SSD for each of the 3 developers we had. Improved their productivity so much. It previously took almost 2 minutes just to open a project.
wishinghand 10y ago
16gb of RAM minimum is important. SSD hard drives as well. A big monitor or multiple ones if you're into that thing. Ergonomic mice/keyboards if you need them.
- slededit 10y ago
  That's still around $1000 or so for a decent machine. When Joel first wrote that it would have been more like $3,000. A $3,000 machine is probably overkill for most developers now - as evidenced by the fact most sacrifice performance and get laptops willingly.
  - mturmon 10y ago
    Just for yucks, I took a look at some old purchase orders for Sun engineering workstations (single-user). They used to sit on everyone's desk at a well-funded engineering outfit. I saw an Ultra/1 (170MHz) for about $15K in 1996, and a Ultra 60 (360 MHz, 1GB RAM) for $19.8K in 1998. It's gotten a lot cheaper.
  - wishinghand 10y ago
    Unless it's a struggling startup, I'd still expect a good $3-4k for developer comforts, unless it's something I already owned (like my favorite ergonomic mouse).
chadgeidel 10y ago
And yet I just left a job with a 4 year old "desktop class" computer with a "spinning rust" HDD and 8GB of RAM. Something that 4 years ago would have been deployed in a call center. Did I mention I didn't have local admin as a .NET web developer? This was a company that prided itself on its "progressiveness".
- PaulHoule 10y ago
  Programmers don't leave companies, they leave computers!
  - chadgeidel 10y ago
    You jest, but IMHO the state of a developer workstation (computer, desk, chair, room) speaks volumes about the organization.

bluedino 10y ago

Spent a whopping $300 each to max out the RAM (16GB) and get an SSD for each of the 3 developers we had. Improved their productivity so much. It previously took almost 2 minutes just to open a project.

wishinghand 10y ago

16gb of RAM minimum is important. SSD hard drives as well. A big monitor or multiple ones if you're into that thing. Ergonomic mice/keyboards if you need them.

slededit 10y ago
That's still around $1000 or so for a decent machine. When Joel first wrote that it would have been more like $3,000. A $3,000 machine is probably overkill for most developers now - as evidenced by the fact most sacrifice performance and get laptops willingly.
- mturmon 10y ago
  Just for yucks, I took a look at some old purchase orders for Sun engineering workstations (single-user). They used to sit on everyone's desk at a well-funded engineering outfit. I saw an Ultra/1 (170MHz) for about $15K in 1996, and a Ultra 60 (360 MHz, 1GB RAM) for $19.8K in 1998. It's gotten a lot cheaper.
- wishinghand 10y ago
  Unless it's a struggling startup, I'd still expect a good $3-4k for developer comforts, unless it's something I already owned (like my favorite ergonomic mouse).

chadgeidel 10y ago

And yet I just left a job with a 4 year old "desktop class" computer with a "spinning rust" HDD and 8GB of RAM. Something that 4 years ago would have been deployed in a call center. Did I mention I didn't have local admin as a .NET web developer? This was a company that prided itself on its "progressiveness".

PaulHoule 10y ago
Programmers don't leave companies, they leave computers!
- chadgeidel 10y ago
  You jest, but IMHO the state of a developer workstation (computer, desk, chair, room) speaks volumes about the organization.