This has been all over the news. Google is going to abandon Microsoft OS and switch to Mac OX and Linux.


But if you read the news carefully, you won’t find anyone from the Google executive team behind this message. Perhaps this time our media friends jumped the gun and took the words of unnamed employees - most likely misinterpreting them.

Regardless, the facts do remain. There are many operating systems on the market, but the major ones are coming from three places: Microsoft, Apple and open-source Linux. Every one of them has multiple versions. When referring to the Windows operating system and its security issues, we usually mean Windows XP, which is fairly old, but still a very dominant and widely-used OS. Although it is a dominant system on the world markets, Windows XP is constantly under hacking attacks which makes it very vulnerable. This is similar to John Lennon’s story when his popularity got him killed.

We don’t have any real proof that Mac OX and Linux are more secure as they have never been tested in the same conditions. They have never been in the same situation, having as many users and so much hate pointed to one product.

Meanwhile, Windows 7 and the hated Windows Vista are much more secure systems than the old Windows XP. Vista users always complained about confirmation messages, but this was a major way to keep the system user-friendly and flexible, while making it more secure. There is no technological challenge to close the system from attacks, but it is a challenge to keep the system open, friendly, and secure at the same time. If you want to allow developers to create applications for your system, you have to give them access. If you want your system to communicate with other devices and 3rd party software packages, you have to open the gate a little bit.

Back to Google…I don’t think they really need Microsoft’s OS. As a software developer, they can live happily with Linux or its modified versions. They also don’t use business management tools like Microsoft Exchange and many others including Office programs. They develop their own business tools, market them, and use these products within their organization.

Keep in mind that on average, business and user needs are very different from the needs of Google, Inc. Neither Linux (a very advanced operating system) nor Mac OS can provide the solutions package or simplicity that we get from Windows OS including server side functionality. And we take that for granted.

Labels: Apple, Google Business tools, Linux, Microsoft, operating systems, software, software market