Friday
Jun042010
If Google Is All About Choice, Then Why Are They Limiting Their Employees?
Friday, June 4, 2010 at 6:18PM
Google Smarts Up in Security - Layers Of Tech
Many people are applauding the reports of Google ditching Windows in favor of OS X and Linux in the name of "security". Besides the fact that I have little patience with people labeling OS X and Linux more secure than Windows, my main problem is the culture that Google is creating with this new policy.
Google has always promoted choice and being open. It is two of their favorite buzzwords to use, and used oh so lovingly at Google I/O to insult the fruit-that-must-not-be-named. So why isn't Google taking their own advice they are spewing to the tech world and their competitors?
Whether Google likes it or not, people do like Windows, and while Google is already an Apple/Linux centric community, IMO, Google needs to let their employees embrace their competitors by letting their employees choose what OS they want to use. If Google continues to restrict what their employees can use, they are going to create an environment that is not supportive of one of their favorite buzzwords, choice. This will eventually lead to ignorance to what their competitors are doing, and also create an air of superiority that no company should have.
While I am not worried about that happening quite yet, I hope the Google of the future is nothing like this, and that these restrictions are kept to a minimum. If they continue to dictate what their employees use in more extreme ways, don't be surprised if this attitude carries over to consumers as well. Microsoft has already done that once, and we just dug ourselves out of that hole. Let's not do it again.
Many people are applauding the reports of Google ditching Windows in favor of OS X and Linux in the name of "security". Besides the fact that I have little patience with people labeling OS X and Linux more secure than Windows, my main problem is the culture that Google is creating with this new policy.
Google has always promoted choice and being open. It is two of their favorite buzzwords to use, and used oh so lovingly at Google I/O to insult the fruit-that-must-not-be-named. So why isn't Google taking their own advice they are spewing to the tech world and their competitors?
Whether Google likes it or not, people do like Windows, and while Google is already an Apple/Linux centric community, IMO, Google needs to let their employees embrace their competitors by letting their employees choose what OS they want to use. If Google continues to restrict what their employees can use, they are going to create an environment that is not supportive of one of their favorite buzzwords, choice. This will eventually lead to ignorance to what their competitors are doing, and also create an air of superiority that no company should have.
While I am not worried about that happening quite yet, I hope the Google of the future is nothing like this, and that these restrictions are kept to a minimum. If they continue to dictate what their employees use in more extreme ways, don't be surprised if this attitude carries over to consumers as well. Microsoft has already done that once, and we just dug ourselves out of that hole. Let's not do it again.
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