This sounds like a pretty terrible culture you want to create. Why control what people do with your machines at all? (on separating email from development) It's

This sounds like a pretty terrible culture you want to create. Why control what people do with your machines at all? (on separating email from development) It's a completely arbitrary rule that makes no sense. Hackers tend to question those :) If you really want to make developers happy, give them a budget and let them buy a computer. Several people in the comments said they like Mac laptops. I personally love my Linux desktop machine with a good keyboard. Which is the point: we are all different, and have different preferences. If you don't trust your developers that much, at the very least let them configure their software the way they like. I'm sure your startup needs the coders to be productive. Don't prevent that.