Google dumping Windows for Mac / Linux...

[mshan]

"We're not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort," said one Google employee.

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/05/31...ndows-mostly-to-mac-due-to-security-concerns/




🙂

 

[frostedflakes]

Interesting if true. Waiting for more sources to corroborate this, though. Kind of surprising that they'd drop Windows altogether just because of a security vulnerability in IE6. Would be easy enough to avoid this issue by using a newer version of IE, or an alternate browser (Chrome, for example, would be a fine choice).

 

[AdamK47]

Bull

 

[Ka0t1x]

Working at a 90&#37; Mac school district, most firewall rules will block you from 99% of threats, for the minor outbreaks (none since.. 10.3?), a simple image->drive will fix it in <20mins. I'd believe its true. They work mostly on open source projects to begin with, VMs will easily take care of the windows development.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

It was linked from Financial Times. Google would have released an update to say that they weren't by now, I would assume. Still waiting for Google to do that, but if it is true, then WOW.

 

[Emulex]

google has their own o/s but they'd need to test on mac/windows still.

 

[stlcardinals]

According to the Neowin article, the exploit used was IE6 running on Windows XP. They need to switch from Windows if they are not going to update their Windows machines.

 

[Kmax82]

I think this is a publicity stunt on Google's behalf. If Google could get rid of Windows, then it furthers the thinking that possibly other corporations could as well. And guess what, Google is making an OS! What a coinkydink? 😉

 

[mmntech]

So, is Microsoft now becoming the new Apple? The underdog of the computing world? Interesting.... :hmm:

 

[intogamer]

There is a video where Sergey Brin explains the creation of Google Chrome; they kept hitting limitations of the "browser" when developing gmail features..

Google needs to find revenue streams for teh stellar quarterly earnings, and because Microsoft, Apple, etc. (Mozilla, I guess?) moves too slow in the innovation department, they resort to "doing it their own way" and push innovation to what are now their competitors.

Eventually, Google will run out of options😛

 

[Zargon]

I think this is a publicity stunt on Google's behalf. If Google could get rid of Windows, then it furthers the thinking that possibly other corporations could as well. And guess what, Google is making an OS! What a coinkydink? 😉

this.

its a purposeful shot at MS

 

[Nothinman]

Makes sense to me since they don't have the same dependencies on Exchange and MS Office that a lot of companies to. I mean, why pay for Windows if you don't have to?

According to the Neowin article, the exploit used was IE6 running on Windows XP. They need to switch from Windows if they are not going to update their Windows machines.

And XP support goes out the window soon so their choice is either pay to upgrade all of those PCs to Win7 or drop Linux on them and not worry about it again. Given their environment, the choice seems obvious.

I think this is a publicity stunt on Google's behalf. If Google could get rid of Windows, then it furthers the thinking that possibly other corporations could as well. And guess what, Google is making an OS! What a coinkydink?

No doubt the rumor is just a play for attention, however, why do you think Google couldn't stop using Windows? One would hope that they're using their own mail and office software internally.

So, is Microsoft now becoming the new Apple? The underdog of the computing world? Interesting....

From a technical standpoint they've been the underdog for years, it's just now becoming more popular and feasible to migrate away from them with all of the "cloud computing" stuff taking off.

 

[stlcardinals]

And XP support goes out the window soon so their choice is either pay to upgrade all of those PCs to Win7 or drop Linux on them and not worry about it again. Given their environment, the choice seems obvious.

Notice I said update and not upgrade.😀

They at least could have been running the latest IE.

 

[ViRGE]

I'm genuinely surprised they went Mac + Linux rather than just Linux, since they do their own development of the latter. I suppose the artists must have threatened to revolt.

 

[accguy9009]

I think this is a publicity stunt on Google's behalf. If Google could get rid of Windows, then it furthers the thinking that possibly other corporations could as well. And guess what, Google is making an OS! What a coinkydink? 😉

One can reasonably conclude that you are thinking along the correct lines here. Once, if or when, google has their own workstation OS in the wild, I would not be surprised if they implemented a policy that all use of non "google OS" be limited to VM's unless approved by the CIO. Just my opinion.

 

[Kmax82]

No doubt the rumor is just a play for attention, however, why do you think Google couldn't stop using Windows? One would hope that they're using their own mail and office software internally.

I definitely think that it's easy NOT to use Windows.. I just think it helps them to fuel this story, since they'll want other people to think, "Hey! Google is an enterprise company and they don't use Windows.. maybe we can too!".. y'know?

I definitely agree on the cost differences between Linux and Windows and as long as you aren't doing any graphic work (that you need/want Illustrator/Photoshop, etc..), then you can easily get by with Open Source software.

Also, you have to have some ability to VM Windows for IE testing.. which I think is a big proponent of their Chrome campaigns.. the quicker they can get people off IE, the less testing they have to do with it, which is fine by me. 🙂

 

[TheStu]

I'm genuinely surprised they went Mac + Linux rather than just Linux, since they do their own development of the latter. I suppose the artists must have threatened to revolt.

I don't think there aren't that many artists at Google unfortunately. It has some of the smartest people in the industry there, but they are mostly engineering types, not designer types. I mean, come on they statistically analyzed 30+ shades of blue on the home page to see which was best. An artist would have probably just picked the right one off the bat.

 

[Nothinman]

Notice I said update and not upgrade.😀

They at least could have been running the latest IE.

Yea, I agree they shouldn't have been using IE6, but XP is in extended support already and that ends in 2014 so forced upgrading is inevitable. So why not take that time and money and put it into a more long-term solution like moving away from Windows completely?

I'm genuinely surprised they went Mac + Linux rather than just Linux, since they do their own development of the latter. I suppose the artists must have threatened to revolt.

As much as I love my Linux, in order to get support for certain things you need to be running a supported OS and in the desktop arena that's still a rarity. I'm sure they have people running Adobe CS and of the two supported OSes, OS X is the lesser evil.

I definitely think that it's easy NOT to use Windows.. I just think it helps them to fuel this story, since they'll want other people to think, "Hey! Google is an enterprise company and they don't use Windows.. maybe we can too!".. y'know?

Exactly, we've already had a number of these announcements from foreign gov't agencies and such but we still need more people to realize this.

And we also really need an Exchange competitor, forcing everyone to build their own out of individual components doesn't work. I believe Zimbra's supposed to be close but I haven't used it myself.

Also, you have to have some ability to VM Windows for IE testing.. which I think is a big proponent of their Chrome campaigns.. the quicker they can get people off IE, the less testing they have to do with it, which is fine by me.

But that still requires buying some Windows licenses for the VMs so while it saves hassle and support costs, it doesn't stop the upfront licensing costs.

 

[sourceninja]

I'm genuinely surprised they went Mac + Linux rather than just Linux, since they do their own development of the latter. I suppose the artists must have threatened to revolt.

From what I've read the developers have always had the choice to run mac, linux, or windows. They are just removing the windows option.

Honestly, most of the videos/demos/etc you see coming out of google are already done with osx, so I'm not surprised to see it as a choice.

 

[Ka0t1x]

From what I've read the developers have always had the choice to run mac, linux, or windows. They are just removing the windows option.

Honestly, most of the videos/demos/etc you see coming out of google are already done with osx, so I'm not surprised to see it as a choice.

This is exactly why its no surprise to me. 🙂