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"Getting a new Windows machine now requires CIO approval," said another employee. I really hope that's quoted out of context (e.g. maybe it's really getting a

"Getting a new Windows machine now requires CIO approval," said another employee. I really hope that's quoted out of context (e.g. maybe it's really getting a second machine, regardless of OS, that requires CIO approval?). I doubt we're getting the whole story here. I'm sure there are everyday tasks that can be done more effectively on Windows (I've been Linux-only for a couple of years now, so I can't imagine what they are, but I'm sure they exist). And "Windows isn't secure" is absurdly simplistic (particularly at a company which can presumably hire the best sysadmins in the business). Constraining your employees like that to save the IT department a little effort doesn't sound like a good tradeoff. I'd speculate this is more about politics, or dogfooding. Maybe they're trying to move employees from Office to Google Apps, and that's easier if Office is no longer available.

jrockway 16y ago
This is how big companies work. They want even the smallest task (like, "viewing documentation for the product we just bought") to take days and require multiple levels of managerial approval. Because I guess it's cheaper to have 10 employees doing the same job than it is to get sued if one employee posts confidential information to a blog, or something. (If you've ever wondered why you only get 0.00025% interest on your savings account... now you know.) (This is being downmodded, but it's really true, at least where I work. The IT system is set up for HR people and bank tellers, not programmers. So the programmers just have to deal, because the system isn't setup for "average joe" employees to do anything useful. The good news is, we bought some company that says they won't be able to continue doing business if this stuff doesn't change, and the company we bought is more prestigious than we are ;)
- brown9-2 16y ago
  who do you think runs Google - the programmers or the IT staff?
  - fragmede 16y ago
    Sales. Google is an ad-company after all. There was little interest in Gmail until contextual ads were brought into the picture.
zmmmmm 16y ago
> I'd speculate this is more about politics, or dogfooding Agree on the dogfooding. <speculation>I think Google is planning a major attack on Microsoft's business / office empire. They have made it so simple to set up a new business using Google apps that it's almost unthinkable to me that I would go out and do an exchange setup. But this is largely still in stealth mode because Google wants to bring its business apps up to the point where they are a alternative to Office for real tasks before they really play this hand. And that means they have to force their employees to live on them every day, for everything. If they can't do it, how can they expect their customers to? And the best way to make it happen is to take away Windows entirely. Otherwise people will continue to fall back to Office and find reasons to sneak it onto their computers.</speculation>
- w1ntermute 16y ago
  There's a major flaw in your logic - Google has already begun a major attack on Apple, but they're still allowing OS X on their campus.
  - robryan 16y ago
    In mobile computing, I don't see them making any push into the apple desktop/laptop/osx market. So I guess you make a valid point if they were giving their employees iphones over andriod ones which I doubt. I doubt they are looking at chrome OS to be a replacement for a full osx like operating system at any time in the near future.
deleted 16y ago
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commandar 16y ago
I don't know about needing approval directly from the CIO, but last I talked to a friend of mine that works as a sys admin at Google, he did mention that they were requiring users to have to be able to make a business case for getting a Windows machine, otherwise they were deploying all Linux and Mac systems. This has been maybe 4 or 5 months ago now, not sure what, if anything, has changed since then.

jrockway 16y ago

This is how big companies work. They want even the smallest task (like, "viewing documentation for the product we just bought") to take days and require multiple levels of managerial approval. Because I guess it's cheaper to have 10 employees doing the same job than it is to get sued if one employee posts confidential information to a blog, or something. (If you've ever wondered why you only get 0.00025% interest on your savings account... now you know.) (This is being downmodded, but it's really true, at least where I work. The IT system is set up for HR people and bank tellers, not programmers. So the programmers just have to deal, because the system isn't setup for "average joe" employees to do anything useful. The good news is, we bought some company that says they won't be able to continue doing business if this stuff doesn't change, and the company we bought is more prestigious than we are ;)

brown9-2 16y ago
who do you think runs Google - the programmers or the IT staff?
- fragmede 16y ago
  Sales. Google is an ad-company after all. There was little interest in Gmail until contextual ads were brought into the picture.

zmmmmm 16y ago

> I'd speculate this is more about politics, or dogfooding Agree on the dogfooding. <speculation>I think Google is planning a major attack on Microsoft's business / office empire. They have made it so simple to set up a new business using Google apps that it's almost unthinkable to me that I would go out and do an exchange setup. But this is largely still in stealth mode because Google wants to bring its business apps up to the point where they are a alternative to Office for real tasks before they really play this hand. And that means they have to force their employees to live on them every day, for everything. If they can't do it, how can they expect their customers to? And the best way to make it happen is to take away Windows entirely. Otherwise people will continue to fall back to Office and find reasons to sneak it onto their computers.</speculation>

w1ntermute 16y ago
There's a major flaw in your logic - Google has already begun a major attack on Apple, but they're still allowing OS X on their campus.
- robryan 16y ago
  In mobile computing, I don't see them making any push into the apple desktop/laptop/osx market. So I guess you make a valid point if they were giving their employees iphones over andriod ones which I doubt. I doubt they are looking at chrome OS to be a replacement for a full osx like operating system at any time in the near future.

deleted 16y ago

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commandar 16y ago

I don't know about needing approval directly from the CIO, but last I talked to a friend of mine that works as a sys admin at Google, he did mention that they were requiring users to have to be able to make a business case for getting a Windows machine, otherwise they were deploying all Linux and Mac systems. This has been maybe 4 or 5 months ago now, not sure what, if anything, has changed since then.