In Other News, Windows Mobile Phones Are Banned From Apple HQ and Talking Up SAP to Larry Ellison Is a Bad Idea

Microsoft’s Windows operating system runs about nine out of 10 PCs worldwide. But not those at Google. Not for much longer, anyway. Sources inside the company tell the Financial Times that Google is no longer offering employees Windows as an operating system choice, steering them instead to Apple’s OS X operating system or Linux.

The reason is ostensibly security concerns related to the attack on its corporate network late last year. “We’re not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort,” one Google employee told the FT. “Many people have been moved away from [Windows] PCs, mostly towards Mac OS, following the China hacking attacks,” said another.

Which makes some sense, given Windows’ history of security vulnerabilities. That said, Google’s increasingly vicious rivalry with Microsoft (MSFT) clearly plays a role here as well. As does the forthcoming launch of the search giant’s own competing operating system, Chrome OS.

This move by Google (GOOG) was inevitable and, frankly, a long time coming. To chalk it up simply to security issues is to ignore the bigger picture here, as Microsoft’s VP of corporate communications, Frank Shaw, wryly noted in some caustic tweets this morning. “News flash: Google boards up all windows in its global HQ, citing security concerns. Must credit FT,” he wrote. “News flash: Google bans Bing from its computers. Must credit FT. Picture on Bing home page is distracting to G engineers.”