This may very well be some of the stranger news to start a sudo-Monday: A couple of Google employees have come forward, stating that Google is apparently banning Microsoft’s Windows OS from any and all Google-owned computers.
Almost immediately, people will focus on Google’s Chrome OS interests as the reasoning. Though, the sources claim it is Windows’ rampant security problems that are the cause for the grief, even going as far as to blame Windows’s lax security for the recent China/Google hackfest that’s been carried out…
Per FT.com:
Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees.
The directive to move to other operating systems began in earnest in January, after Google’s Chinese operations were hacked, and could effectively end the use of Windows at Google, which employs more than 10,000 workers internationally.
“We’re not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort,” said one Google employee.
“Many people have been moved away from [Windows] PCs, mostly towards Mac OS, following the China hacking attacks,” said another.
New hires are now given the option of using Apple’s Mac computers or PCs running the Linux operating system. “Linux is open source and we feel good about it,” said one employee. “Microsoft we don’t feel so good about.”
The alternatives for now are supposedly Apple’s Mac OS X and Linux — specific distros however were not disclosed. Oddly enough, Chrome OS wasn’t mentioned as an option yet. I’d expect even some sort of beta build to be available for company use, no?
Bold words for sure. Expect Microsoft to release something not too long into the future as they don’t really take kindly to people (or other multi-billion dollar corporations) pointing out Windows’ constantly tested security.
This will definitely be something worth following. Stay tuned…
