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Google Switches Away from Windows (Mostly to Mac) Due to Security Concerns

bob.loblaw said:
The better question is, why aren't they using Chrome?
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that's what i was thinking

I mean.. they clearly stated that the vulnerability was in IE and Google makes their own freakin browser

obviously this was meant as a slap in the face to MS and improve security

I cant really believe they can seriously move 100% away from Windows based machines though, It's silly to think they could thoroughly test and develop new products etc without them
 
skellener said:
Yeah, MBPs, Mac-minis, and iMacs. Not sure if they would really use the horsepower of the MacPros.... Is anything Google makes multi-core aware? :confused:
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My guess is that the Google Search Appliance is multi-core aware. For consumer-grade software, maybe Picasa?

It's likely that the people who switch to Macs are sales and marketing folks. Google wouldn't switch to Macs for operations. That's almost exclusively going to be Linux boxes.
 
You know what annoys me? If Apple banned Windows stuff at their company (and there was a press release about it), there would be HUGE uproar about it, that Apple is an evil Big Brother company and other **** like that.

Gee, is it ever so popular to hate Apple right now (but most people still secretly use and love their products)
 
Times are changing
It's inevitable that microsoft will loose it's place as first. They cant always be the number one most used OS. How much longer? 10 more years, 20?

Whats wrong with micrsoft?
No real innovation, out of touch with the times, their size has made them lazy and they put steve balmer in charge.
 
Oh stop the security through obscurity line that Leo LaPorte gets wrong so often. OS X could have a billion users and it still wouldn't be as big a target as Windows would continue to be. It's a difference in architecture that makes OS X relatively invulnerable. Note, I didn't say invulnerable, just less so because of the UNIX foundation. That will always be true.
 
ccunning said:
You're paying too much attention to the quantity of the target rather than the desirability of the target. China was not hacking Google because they were using Windows. They were hacking Windows because Google was using it. Now there will be incentive for the hackers to learn to have OS X.
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Indeed!

But this does not preclude the fact that you are THE WINNER OF 10,000 AIR MOLECULES WIN WIN winwINWIN

But seriously. You have a good point there. AND YOU WIN
 
This is overkill. Switching an entire OS because of one security flaw? There have been plenty of flaws in IE before so why choose now? Has to be some PR reason behind it.
 
DARKJ3DI said:
And It just keeps getting worse for Microsoft. But why doesnt Google use a Linux distro since they are all about "openness?"
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Google is interested in "openness" when it serves their own interests. However, they aren't champions of openness.

Remember, Google's revenues are largely from a completely closed and proprietary system known as Google AdWords.

Don't deceive yourself. Google waves the "open source" flag for publicity, not for profit.

jimmyjoemccrow said:
This is overkill. Switching an entire OS because of one security flaw? There have been plenty of flaws in IE before so why choose now? Has to be some PR reason behind it.
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Nah, knowing Google, they probably did a detailed cost analysis of supporting users of various OSes within the company and found that it was the most expensive supporting Windows (with the least amount of benefit).

Remember, Google is legendary for analyzing everything. They don't act on a hunch or with some sort of human emotion. Everything needs to be quantified and turned into a dataset. That's one reason why they have bungled social networking on a continuous basis.
 
I'm really tired of the whole "if Mac gains market-share then they will start getting hacked too!" thing. There is a huge difference in an app or OS that was built with security from the design phase versus an app or OS that addresses security as an afterthought. So, when you say things like that, you are simply showing your ignorance of the SDLC (that is software development life-cycle if you are unsure). Am I saying MacOS is immune to attacks? Of course not. However, other info sec managers out there, share your findings of your last Retina scans and tell me how the risks/vulnerabilities stack up with respect to Unix OS's versus Windows. It isn't pretty, folks.
 
My company hired me, I went in and replaced all the Windows machines with Macs and haven't had a single issue. It's a no-brainer.
 
cvaldes said:
Nah, knowing Google, they probably did a detailed cost analysis of supporting users of various OSes within the company and found that it was the most expensive supporting Windows (with the least amount of benefit).

Remember, Google is legendary for analyzing everything. They don't act on a hunch or with some sort of human emotion. Everything needs to be quantified and turned into a dataset. That's one reason why they have bungled social networking on a continuous basis.
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You know google do you? You know their inside tech policies?
 
kenman884 said:
Gee, is it ever so popular to hate Apple right now (but most people still secretly use and love their products)
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Aint that the truth.

Tall Poppy Syndrome at its worst.

cvaldes said:
Google wouldn't switch to Macs for operations. That's almost exclusively going to be Linux boxes.
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If you want to get technical its still just a *nix system like OSX.

rpaloalto said:
Whats wrong with micrsoft?
No real innovation, out of touch with the times, their size has made them lazy and they put steve balmer in charge.
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When Bill left he forgot to switch off the Reality Distortion Field, and its gone into overdrive. Eventually it will implode and Redmond Washington will just be a smouldering black hole on the earth.
 
ccunning said:
You're paying too much attention to the quantity of the target rather than the desirability of the target. China was not hacking Google because they were using Windows. They were hacking Windows because Google was using it. Now there will be incentive for the hackers to learn to have OS X.
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What? There will be a desire for hackers to learn a Unix variant? Well I'll be...

You are kidding right? Go find me a hacker. Ask him what system he uses to execute his (or her) attacks. More than likely it isn't Windows...that is an understatement actually. It is overwhelmingly Unix/Linux variants. They know these systems quite well.
 
cvaldes said:
Google is interested in "openness" when it serves their own interests. However, they aren't champions of openness.

Remember, Google's revenues are largely from a completely closed and proprietary system known as Google AdWords.

Don't deceive yourself. Google waves the "open source" flag for publicity, not for profit.
Click to expand...

QFT. That might just become my new sig line.
 
Just a stop gap until Google OS is ready. You know they have a team working on a full scale PC OS, not just the stripped down Chrome OS. I wouldn't be surprised if they based it on Apple's Darwin .
 
cvaldes said:
Google is interested in "openness" when it serves their own interests. However, they aren't champions of openness.

Remember, Google's revenues are largely from a completely closed and proprietary system known as Google AdWords.

Don't deceive yourself. Google waves the "open source" flag for publicity, not for profit.
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Or even better their search/page rank algorithm, which many people have asked them to reveal for years.

But no one talks about that.
 
Linux on the desktop is still lacking in some ways - mostly the availability of particular software titles and compatibility with some hardware. But for a lot of stuff it works just fine - I'm a bit surprised Google didn't just say "we're moving everyone to Linux, and we'll solve the problems as they come up".

Of course that's neglecting the fact that there are a lot of non-technical people working at Google - ad sales reps and managers, secretaries, etc. The company might just figure it's not worth fighting that battle yet - maximizing profit is still what any company is all about. People scream when Microsoft moves their menu items whenever Office is updated - trying to get them all using OpenOffice might be considered too problematic.
 
InfoSecmgr said:
However, other info sec managers out there, share your findings of your last Retina scans and tell me how the risks/vulnerabilities stack up with respect to Unix OS's versus Windows.
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I wouldn't say that's a very good example. It's quite easy to quarantine an infected system and replace it. If your retina database gets cracked you have to replace the entire system due to people usually only having two retinas. The weak link in biometric security is the system required to support it.
 
InfoSecmgr said:
What? There will be a desire for hackers to learn a Unix variant? Well I'll be...

You are kidding right? Go find me a hacker. Ask him what system he uses to execute his (or her) attacks. More than likely it isn't Windows...that is an understatement actually. It is overwhelmingly Unix/Linux variants. They know these systems quite well.
Click to expand...

You're missing the point. Also "have" was supposed to be "hack" if that was what was throwing you off.
 
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