The large companies I've worked at don't even have the notion of letting you install your own OS. You ask the IT department for a workstation, they image you one and give it to you. That's it. If you're a senior developer with friends in the right places, you can get administrator access.

> You spent a _year_ at a place that made you sit at a fucking desk that doesn't fit you? My god.

Sounds pretty ridiculous when you put it that way, yes :) but after all, what do we expect them to do? Tell the office manager that her beautiful design had to be screwed with just because of some senior engineer doesn't fit there?