Google has reportedly decided that Windows is just too much of a security risk, and is dumping the Microsoft operating system.
According to the Financial Times, it’s moving all its 20,000 employees worldwide onto either the Apple Mac OS, Linux or its own Chrome operating system.
Google believes the vulnerability of Windows was a major contributor to the Chinese hacking attacks on Google and other companies earlier this year, and has been working to phase Windows out ever since.
Anyone that wants to stay with Windows will have to make a jolly good case. “Getting a new Windows machine now requires CIO approval,” one employee told the paper.
It doesn’t sound as if Chrome will be particularly popular amongst staff, who apparently favour the Mac. “It would have made more people upset if they banned Macs rather than Windows,” one staffer said.
But it may form the first step towards a stronger push to make employees use Chrome.
The move will be a nice boost for Linux, but is unlikely to frighten Microsoft too much, which currently holds about 80 percent of the PC operating system market – the reason it’s most targeted by hackers.
