I agree it does depend on your development staff. If you are fortunate enough to have a talented development staff which are in high demand and they see this as a negative - I know I would - then some of them will look for a better arrangement. This might just be the straw that causes them to go out and get another job. I don't mind have my workstation standard to a certain extend but not to be able to install new programs. I think that is taking too much control away from the person who is using the machine. There are software packages which monitor which software gets installed onto computers. These packages can be used to ensure license compliance. I find that comprimise to be better than an explicitly locked down machine. I would rather have a policy that anyone who installs unlicensed software gets punished than having a rule that prevents people from installing software.
If on the other hand you have a bunch of developers who aren't in high demand then they will probably tolerate the situation but that doesn't mean that you will have the same level of productivity. You might just find that they spend more time learning skills that can get them out of that situation.
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I agree it does depend on your development staff. If you are fortunate enough to have a talented development staff which are in high demand and they see this as a negative - I know I would - then some of them will look for a better arrangement. This might just be the straw that causes them to go out and get another job. I don't mind have my workstation standard to a certain extend but not to be able to install new programs. I think that is taking too much control away from the person who is using the machine. There are software packages which monitor which software gets installed onto computers. These packages can be used to ensure license compliance. I find that comprimise to be better than an explicitly locked down machine. I would rather have a policy that anyone who installs unlicensed software gets punished than having a rule that prevents people from installing software. If on the other hand you have a bunch of developers who aren't in high demand then they will probably tolerate the situation but that doesn't mean that you will have the same level of productivity. You might just find that they spend more time learning skills that can get them out of that situation.