Well, Google has taken the next step in its world domination plan, banning Microsoft Windows from internal use.Employees will be given the choice between Apple’s Mac OS and Linux.
Adding insult to injury, Google is also publicly citing Windows security problems for the decision and blaming Windows vulnerabilities for the China hacking incident.
So that’s 20,000 Windows licenses that won’t be sold and renewed at Google in future years.
Given that Google is in the process of introducing a competitive platform and operating system (Android/Chrome), this move isn’t surprising. The important question for Microsoft is whether other companies will follow suit.
David Gelles and Richard Waters, FT:
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.”
So if one of the biggest companies on the planet has decided to abandon windows should the rest of not follow suite?
The simple answer is no. There are a lot of issues with any operating system, and your other software needs should decide which one you use. If you must use Microsoft office (as opposed to prefer) then stay with windows. You may also be constrained by your choice of accounting package.
You also may not have access to the numbers of techs which google has to look after your non windows networks. Here in New Zealand it is harder to find a linux guru than someone to look after your windows systems.
So moving in this way is not a cost reduction exercise.
Just five years ago this move may have been an option, for a large company (there were options like Novell and Red Hat linux) but not for a small business.
Now with the rapid increase in the number and quality of web based on cross platform applications it is now viable. But still not easy.
And that, I believe, is part of what this is really about. Google has a preference for Apple systems as almost every google announcement is made with a mac in evidence. But it also has a big preference for open source and Linux. Specifically its own version of linux which will be a base platform much like the Android OS. Its real purpose is to create a seamless connection and experience between the desktop and the web. A web which will be populated by apps provided by google and its partners.
When that happens then Microsoft does need to worry about the small business users and some enterprise.
The only thing which could go wrong is trust. Google need to tread very carefully on that issue and learn the lessons of the past. Both from the Hate M$ days and more recently Facebook.
If we dont trust the provider of the cloud we wont play. We will stay with Windows.
Simple.
