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Google Reportedly Ditching Windows
Reader awyeah notes a Financial Times report that Google is ditching the use of Windows internally. Some blogs have picked up the FT piece but so far there isn't any other independent reporting of the claim, which is based on comments from anonymous Googlers. One indication of possibly hasty reporting is the note that Google "employs more than 10,000 workers internationally," whereas it's easy enough to find official word that the total exceeds 20,000. "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. ... 'We're not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort,' said one Google employee. ... 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.' ... Employees wanting to stay on Windows required clearance from 'quite senior levels,' one employee said. 'Getting a new Windows machine now requires CIO approval,' said another employee."
Bullshit. That is excusifying.
Windows 7 runs 80% of XP viruses. So no, Windows 7 is not that different from XP. It needed to be different enough that it ran 0% of XP viruses.
We don't even have to look at Mac OS 9 versus Mac OS X. The current Mac OS "Snow Leopard" out-of-the-box can't run a single Mac app built before 2006. You have to install the optional emulator to run apps that old. That kind of progress is what keeps a commercial malware platform from developing on the Mac.
Windows 7 should have been a new OS core with an XP emulator on it that imports an old XP the same way that VMWare Fusion does on a Mac. You can take a Mac out of the box, install Fusion, connect to your XP machine and run the importer, and then all your XP apps run on the Mac, in their own windows and with Dock icons and even file associations. Then you can, for example, replace Photoshop CS4 for Windows with Photoshop CS5 for Mac and that turns the app native. Repeat with other apps as the updates ship and in 2 years you can throw XP away and your virus exposure goes to zero. This is an easier upgrade than XP to Windows 7. There's no reason Microsoft couldn't have done that to migrate their users from botnet paradise to a stable, functional OS.