The Financial Times reported last night that Google was going to phase out internal use of Microsoft Windows due to security concerns. The migration away from Windows is reported to have started in January, motivated by the Chinese Aurora attacks on the company that exploited a flaw in Internet Explorer 6.
In the story, the FT said that new Google employees would be given the choice between systems using Mac OS X and Linux. Windows machines will only be available with CIO approval. This would put an end to the existing policy, whereby employees were generally free to pick the platform that they preferred. Google has refused to comment.

This seems surprisingly extreme, given that there are practical reasons for Google employees to use Windows. The company produces Windows software, such as the Chrome Web browser and Google Desktop Search. The company also has a great many Web properties, all of which need testing on Windows. As such, Windows is sure to remain a part of the Google ecosystem, at least for anyone involved in end-user facing applications. It's just too important to ignore.

In the aftermath of the Google hack, even Microsoft said that people should stop using Internet Explorer 6, as it lacks the defence-in-depth measures found in Internet Explorer 8 when used on Windows Vista and Windows 7.