Friday, June 11, 2010

Microsoft responds to Google moving away from Windows, calls it ironic

Google made some waves earlier this week by reportedly moving employees off of Windows and onto Mac OS X and Linux machines -- although the company wouldn't confirm the switch, the move was said to be precipitated by security issues after Chinese hackers attacked the search giant back in January.

Now, that wasn't the only reason mentioned in the report -- Google apparently also wants employees to use home-grown products like Chrome OS, and it's sort of weird for Google to buy tons of software licenses from a major competitor -- but the implication that Windows isn't secure enough for Google seems to have raised Microsoft's hackles: a new post on the Windows Team Blog says the irony of the move is "hard to overlook" as Gmail and Google Docs have privacy and security issues of their own, offers a point-by-point breakdown of all the ways Windows 7 is more secure than the competition, and goes on to suggest that a recent piece of shady Mac OS X malware is "a future sign of things to come for Apple and security." Meow.

Now, we honestly think the real story is as simple as Google not wanting to write Microsoft a really big check, but we're not going to say no to a little fight here -- Eric, Steve, you have anything to say?

source Windows Team Blog