“Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees,” David Gelles and Richard Waters report for The Financial Times.
“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,” Gelles and Waters report. “‘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.”
Gelles and Waters report, “New hires are now given the option of using Apple’s Mac computers or PCs running the Linux operating system.”
MacDailyNews Take: Why limit employees to PCs running Linux when Macs can run Linux, too (not to mention Microsoft’s horrid Windows)? Smart employers offer employees the world’s only unlimited personal computers, Apple Macs, which can run Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows natively and/or via fast virtualization. Apple Macs run the world’s largest software library.
Gelles and Waters report, “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.”
MacDailyNews Take: No, ya think?
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What we wrote back when Google got hacked:
“Why are the so-called geniuses at Google using the world’s worst browser? If you’re going to test for IE, test the POS in a safe, segregated manner; don’t use it for business.” – MacDailyNews Take, January 15, 2010
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
Related article:
China attack on Google exploited Microsoft Internet Explorer flaw – January 15, 2010
This is a move to force the use of Chrome and Android in house
Does this mean that the Chinese will now have to buy Macs in order to learn how to hack into Google? Yey, more Mac sales!
These guys are Geniuses, it took them only 10 years and perhaps the largest secuirity breach in history, to figure that out.
Brilliant, and this is supposed to be a “smart” company.
Bozos
Even Micro$ucks learned their lesson a long time ago:
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/application-development/2003/08/27/microsoft-hides-behind-linux-for-protection-39115920/
MDN shame on you. “Why limit employees to PCs running Linux “
Because you can take all those old PCs that are running Windows and reboot them into Linux at little cost…. and quite quickly.
Just a thought,
en
Does Google know that OS 10.7 is the end of the line for Mac? Maybe they do and it’s good enough for as long as it lasts – which may be not long considering Apple’s accelerated conversion to a mobile device company where they don’t need a superior OS or the hardware to run it.
Maybe Google is planning on taking Apple’s space in computing – 10% of that market, after all, is a lot of customers.
Good news article, but I thought there was a feud between Apple and Google?
Google is trying to kiss up to Apple now for all the bad things they did
“Does Google know that OS 10.7 is the end of the line for Mac? “
Are you baiting for flames? On which planet did you hear this info?
OK, let me bite. Apple is not going to kill one of its cash cows (desktop). Even if 10.7 is the last ‘cat’, it most certainly doesn’t mean them abandoning desktop computing. It simply means that multi-touch OS will be the OS of the future for all, from tiny iPod, all the way to the 30″ multi-touch, keyboard-less, mouse-less iMac (and for those ready to pounce with “Gorilla Arm Syndrome” retorts, no, the multi-touch iMac will NOT be sitting upright; it will be sitting flat on your desk, the way your notepad sits when you’re writing on it).
actually, I hope a lot of them do choose Linux – that will keep their hardware prices down and further fuel development of Linux and BSD Unix which form the core of OS X, my favorite operating system – we need to keep in mind that Apple is riding on the backs of many open source programming projects including BSD Unix, Apache, CUPS printing, etc. We need those projects to continue. If everyone goes to Mac, those projects will not be as viable as Linux programmers and BSD Unix programmers typically use Linux and/or BSD Unix to contribute to those projects – i.e. they do not use Mac OS X because they do not program in Obj-C which is the most common use of Apple’s X Code – please don’t flame me for this!
The only people in Google that would hate this are…
1. Finance/Accounting
2. HR
3. Business/Sales
As far as I know, the engineering, Law, tech, execs… all use their own reporting systems that do not require windows. The people not happy are those that have been trained on one system at their previous job/ uni …
@ How Long,
Amen. The Mac is dead. If it ain’t mobile, Cupertino couldn’t care less. Enjoy your Macs while you can.
I used to be a Linux user until OS X 10.3. Back in the PPC days there were no problems (at least for myself) using Linux because the hardware had divers. With the Intel transition there have been Broadcom chips for wireless that are notoriously known for not bein Linux friendly. Everytime I decide to boot into Linux on my laptop (Macbook Pro 4,1), I have to use a wired connection to the network.
I know there will be no change of wireless hardware because Apple doesn’t really pander to the Linux crowd.
Just my meaningless $0.02.
@ploogman
won’t flame you, what you said made sense to me, even though its all greek to me ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
This is a bit skewed reporting. Google has always, or at least for a very long time, allowed employees to choose either Mac OS, Linux or Windows. Now it appears they are removing the option of Windows–they are not just suddenly switching to Macs/Linux, as those were always options, and pretty much everyone I know at Google uses, and has always used, a Mac.
Does this mean OSX will now become a target for hackers, cause I don’t want to have to waste money or cycles on anti-malware crap for my Mac.
@jimSydAus…
If those people do truly *need* to run Windows software to get their jobs done, it can be easily run on Macs via emulation software such as Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion.
There is absolutely *no need* to ever be using a generic box with a Windows OS. None. Zip, zero, nada.
As MDN has stated as nauseum: Macs have the largest software library in the world, of which, software originally written for the Windows OS is a subset.
Any company that needs the most highly secure OS possible need to look no further than Mac OS X.
@ploogman Apple bought CUPS.
This is priceless:
It would have made more people upset if they banned Macs rather than Windows
It looks like the Chicken Littles are out in force today. Oh, noessss!!!!111!! The sky is falling!!!1!
Ballmer should be showing up anytime now with a truck load of chairs.
johnahan,
Apple didn’t buy CUPS. They hired the main dude on that open source project. It is still open source. Apple just heavily modifies CUPS for its own use like it does with the Darwin kernel.
This is good news, so why did MDN’s take have such a negative slant? Is it because MDN thinks Mac users are all supposed to follow the “hate Google” meme now?
Until we hear a rumor that there is a way to program iPad/iPhone OpenGL without a Mac, or that Apple’s billion dollar cloud runs on Linux or some non-Mac environment, I don’t know how you can imagine it away, unless you are thinking a new class of desktop without supporting Xcode and such. There will be major consumer desktop interface changes I’m sure, but to say that the Mac is going away without explaining is like saying Snow Leopard is a Mac but the Lisa isn’t.
Yeah, I was wondering that too, this is great news and MDN is downplaying it with a negative slant.
C’mon MDN you can do better than that, just for once give credit where credit is due. Way to go Google!