Googling Google

Christopher Dawson

No more Windows at Google: Just FUD?

By Christopher Dawson | June 1, 2010, 7:44am PDT

Google usually gets its share of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) thrown at it. Whether it’s over privacy (not a non-issue, by the way, but Google is hardly the only company profiting from your online data), the use of the cloud with Apps, or some other form of potential world domination. However, the story in the Financial Times yesterday about dumping Windows at Google just strikes me as awfully FUDly.

Google dumps Windows; Is Microsoft’s OS headed down a troubled path?

The long and the short of it is that Google is largely not using Windows operating systems internally on their PCs anymore due to “security concerns.” Reports do point to a security hole in Internet Explorer as one of the vulnerabilities that allowed the well-publicized attacks on Google’s Chinese properties. However, Safari and Firefox are hardly without their vulnerabilities. Chrome is solid, but hardly infallible. And as Mac marketshare continues to grow in both mobile and desktop spaces, the security by anonymity largely enjoyed by Mac users will come to an end. The same, in fact, could be said as Android adoption explodes, for Linux-based systems.

Keep in mind that I’m a diehard Google fan. I’m typing this in Chrome, I use Google Apps more than any other productivity tool and, in fact, more than any other website. All of my primary computers are Linux or Mac, whether because the OS is free or provides some particular utility I need or I just plain like the look and feel of Ubuntu (or my kids like OS X). Google tools invariably overlay just about everything.

And yet I’m actually typing this on a Windows 7-based Classmate (in a Chrome browser, of course) because it was handy to take to a conference today.

Clearly, Google knows that their backend security is far more important to protecting their enterprise customers and the privacy of their billions of consumer users. Will getting rid of Windows on Googlers’ desktops actually make the data with which we as users, businesses, schools, and consumers entrust Google safer? I’m inclined to doubt it.

Google has a real advantage here in that everything they do is platform-independent by design. The web is the platform and the web doesn’t care what OS you use. To be honest, I don’t actually see this as a loss for Windows. At best, it’s a corporate realignment with internal tools and a commitment to “eating your own dogfood.” At worst, it’s anti-Windows FUD. It certainly sets the stage, though, for Google to make the Chome OS/browser and Android absolutely bulletproof from a secuirty standpoint if they wish for this to be a credible move.

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Google Inc., Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Christopher Dawson, Google-Windows

Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.

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Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.). He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change. He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have). Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others. Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair. Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards. Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap. Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff. Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable. Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.