Google has had their fair share of press between Apple bashing, Android yapping, and TV flapping antics. While they’ve made great strides in web and mobile technologies, that doesn’t mean they’re still reeling from other, recent events. Remember when Google’s Chinese operations were hacked? Google blames the insecurities of Microsoft’s Windows as part of the problem.
As Google builds their own operating systems, they’ll slowly be phasing out Windows as they implement their own technologies. In the meantime, some employees are reportedly touting MacBooks due to the safety of the OS X platform.
Financial Times reports,
“In early January, some new hires were still being allowed to install Windows on their laptops, but it was not an option for their desktop computers. Google would not comment on its current policy.
[…] In addition to being a semi-formal policy, employees themselves have grown more concerned about security since the China attacks. “Particularly since the China scare, a lot of people here are using Macs for security,” said one employee.”
Google is concerned about the integrity of their company, and many employees don’t feel safe using Windows in the enterprise environment. Practically, Google is a big company that is going to face cyber attacks; average Windows customers (the Best Buy average Joe guy) shouldn’t worry as much about security as his PC won’t be a target for mischief. And let us not forget that architecturally, Windows Vista & 7 are technically more secure than OS X. Then again, some would argue Conficker rewrites the whole notion of Windows security in general.
“The hacking in China hastened the move. “Before the security, there was a directive by the company to try to run things on Google products,” said the employee. “It was a long time coming.”
The move created mild discontent among some Google employees, appreciative of the choice in operating systems granted to them - an unusual feature in large companies. But many employees were relieved they could still use Macs and Linux. “It would have made more people upset if they banned Macs rather than Windows,” he added.”
What’s interesting is that Google takes great strides to throw ‘potshots’ at Apple, yet employees are seemingly happy using their products. Though employees may not be allowed to use Apple computers forever as Google phases in their own products, I think they’ll stick around for a while. Macs happen to be excellent computers for when you’re developing Android applications. Unlike Windows or a traditional Linux distribution, development tools on the Mac, “Just work.” Google even says so in their documentation.
Whether you’re a hardcore Windows user, Apple fanatic, or Linux geek, a company like Google putting the ban hammer on Windows is pretty damning to Microsoft. Because admit it, they just got owned by The Internet itself, if you believe Google is already there that is.
