A few weeks ago I was casually reading r/linux and I bumped into the AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread of this kernel.org sysadmin called Konstantin Ryabitsev.
Somewhere deep down he's asked what he works on and he replies with this gem - I wanted to quote it because it's amazing how spot on it is (also makes me very very jealous):
Sysadmin staff is given a budget to spend on their preferred hardware. To a sysadmin, their laptop is like their second pair of hands, so forcing them to use this or that brand is just wrong.
I've been around various big corporations and, for the most part, I see the same attitude: the requirements of highly technical people (be it sysadmins, network admins etc.) are completely ignored. They are lumped together into the same pool of low-end laptops as everybody else. Even getting admin rights is sometimes a struggle and has to be carefully worded and argumented.
For those that think a laptop with a 5400 rpm spinny-drive, 3.3 gigs of RAM (because 32bit Windows is all the rage nowadays) and a sprawling 1366x768 resolution screen is enough, I would like to say one thing: IT ISN'T.
It looks like the software development industry fares a lot better (it's their core business) and start-ups/young tech companies understood the need for using the proper tools for the job. It's a shame that all the well established dinosaurs (see what I did here?) completely obliterate the statistics through their outdated policies and the setting of very low expectations.
There's no obvious solution to this, so unfortunately this is just a rant - I dislike complaining about something without offering a viable solution, so you won't see too many of these posts.
And, as always, thanks for reading.