I've had good results in the past running a fairly complex VOIP + webapp call center from entirely custom code based on PXE boot and Linux. (Lots of universitie

I've had good results in the past running a fairly complex VOIP + webapp call center from entirely custom code based on PXE boot and Linux. (Lots of universities used to use this in their labs, I don't know if it's still common these days.) This would also work for developers. You can trial it quite simply. All you have to do is have user login network mount a home dir and you are in business. In general laptops cost quite a bit, break lots, and people want to take them home which creates issues. I think a lot of companies just give developers laptops now. However, it can be quite nice for the developer to have "not at work = down time" as an option, larger screens and keyboards are generally smiled upon, and desktops are WAY CHEAPER. You can even go 100% diskless. PXE is usually centrally supplied kernel vs. individual developer compiled kernel, though, which can be annoying if people want funky features. However, you can do this diskless as a default and just say those who want to sidestep the system can boot from an external SSD.