Arthur C Clarke was one of my heroes. I started reading ACC when I was still at school, the impression he left on me has not only helped me cultivate a scientific temperament but also helped me see humanity as one people. The sheer excitement of reading a ACC story playing out on a global or bigger stage was more than enough to lift you up from whatever your current set of mundane problems are and make you feel part of something bigger. Thanks ACC for all the times you made me feel special.
At the startup I work at, we just let developers come in with their own laptops - I would be very surprised if I am hiring an experienced programmer and they don't already have a super customized laptop that they swear by. It didn't make sense to buy brand new hardware/software for folks who already have a wonderful setup on their machine.
Of course then there was this guy who didn't want to do official work on his personal laptop. We offered to buy him a laptop of his own choice (we specified a max price of course). He got a HP something (doesn't like Mac's) and runs some version of linux on it.
Likewise we have no artificial restrictions on software they use - say editors, jabber chat clients, mail clients etc etc, as long it all works well.
As long as the programmers are hacking away in an env that can run our stack well we have no problems with what they run. Keeps the programmers happy.
You did not start a company in 6 years. You have been giving excuses (probably valid) for most advice that people here are giving you. Don't suffer anymore. Call IBM and ask for a job, show them you know more shit about this than all of them put together. If you get hired atleast you will be working on something you really like and also get credit for that.