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Ask HN: Google policy on employee windows machines

2 points by plg ↗ HN
Does Google still essentially outlaw Windows machines for employees at work? (except of course for developers working on Windows-Chrome, etc).

What do most employees use? Is there a big contingent of Linux-as-main-machine users?

3 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 14.9 ms ] thread
LinuxBender
I do not work there, but the people I know there are required to use a hardened Linux machine for Production access.
dekhn
Google doesn't outlaw Windows machines for employees. I've had a windows laptop (currently on Chromebook). I used it to ssh to my workstation. There may be restrictions I'm not aware of but my statement is generally true for engineers across the company. that said, most people have Mac laptops, and gLinux workstations.
NotSammyHagar
They used to 'pay' you for not using office by giving a personal 1tb google drive space. When they got hacked by the chinese govt hackers a few years ago (or whatever you want to call it, "suspected"), they really started cracking down on security and requiring 2fa. Windows is so horrible, it's just an infinite infection around because people can't stop themselves from clicking on possibly dangerous docs. That's one reason they use chromeos so much internally.

When I was there they were basically telling people stop using windows and use chromeos if you can at all.