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Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

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Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#31

Post by catalogia »

chrisseaton wrote: post #25
zozbot234 wrote: post #2

What's surprising to me is that it was allowed before. They have had their own videochat solution for years, so I would expect the usual "eat your own dogfood" approach.

> What's surprising to me is that it was allowed before. > They have had their own videochat solution for years, so I would expect the usual "eat your own dogfood" approach. If an engineer from Microsoft has to speak to an engineer from Google, and you think they should both be dog-fooding their own video application... how do you see that working? Just both dig their feet in and never talk to each other? Seems silly…

> If an engineer from Microsoft has to speak to an engineer from Google, and you think they should both be dog-fooding their own video application... how do you see that working?

They could use a telephone. (Yes, they still exist.)

Edit for response:

Neither Google nor Microsoft forbid their employees from using telephones, and neither would even consider it. The assumption that they'd dogfood their own video chat platforms is obviously not a supposition that they'd ban telephones. Your comment frames the matter as though a third party video chat service is the only pragmatic option. Video chat was a fringe concept not very long ago, considered mostly to be in the realm of science fiction. Even today, inter-company telephone meetings are still common. Tech-fetishists working in this industry often seem to lose sight of the obvious time-tested solutions that still work today. I think a lot of people are earnestly forgetting that telephones still exist.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#33

Post by wolco »

_delirium wrote: post #26
zozbot234 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporate devices should be for work. Especially if you're sheltering-in-place anyway and you're not even physically at the office.

It's surprisingly common for people not to own a non-work computer other than a phone/tablet, especially now that prevalence of desktop computers is declining. Some people do still have a home desktop, or a separate personal laptop, but a lot of people I know don't. Or they might have one but it's a shared family computer that's mostly used by the kids, while parents use their work laptops.

If you ever owned a desktop chance are you have one now. A lot of people skipped them and went straight to an iphone.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#34

Post by azurezyq »

_delirium wrote: post #26
zozbot234 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporate devices should be for work. Especially if you're sheltering-in-place anyway and you're not even physically at the office.

It's surprisingly common for people not to own a non-work computer other than a phone/tablet, especially now that prevalence of desktop computers is declining. Some people do still have a home desktop, or a separate personal laptop, but a lot of people I know don't. Or they might have one but it's a shared family computer that's mostly used by the kids, while parents use their work laptops.

Not surprising at all. I'm also among them. Reasons are: 1. performant laptops are expensive. 2. If not for work, most of the time you don't need it.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#35

Post by Itaxpica »

jedberg wrote: post #6
zozbot234 wrote: post #2

What's surprising to me is that it was allowed before. They have had their own videochat solution for years, so I would expect the usual "eat your own dogfood" approach.

What do you use when Hangouts is down to discuss fixing Hangouts? :)

Standard practice for Google SREs in any serious outage is to communicate via internally-hosted IRC, since it has a minimum amount of dependencies outside of itself

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#37

Post by FriendlyNormie »

zozbot234 wrote: post #2

What's surprising to me is that it was allowed before. They have had their own videochat solution for years, so I would expect the usual "eat your own dogfood" approach.

I was once invited to the Google campus in Mountain View. The employee showing me around laughed in disbelief when I pulled out my Android phone to show her something. She said that she and all of her coworkers use iPhones.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#38

Post by mulmen »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #7
zozbot234 wrote: post #2

What's surprising to me is that it was allowed before. They have had their own videochat solution for years, so I would expect the usual "eat your own dogfood" approach.

Googlers don't use Zoom for company work. It was banned as in it can no longer be installed on corp laptops.

Right but it's also astonishing that was allowed before. If it's not needed for work why would it be installed? Why would any non-work software be allowed on corp laptops?

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#39

Post by ghaff »

zozbot234 wrote: post #22
amf12 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some employees had it installed on corp devices, maybe to connect with their friends and families. Google has banned even installing that app on corp devices. Nobody used it for corp work.

Corporate devices should be for work. Especially if you're sheltering-in-place anyway and you're not even physically at the office.

Eh. Depends on how much control the company has over devices being used for work. I have a number of different computers--including a company-issued laptop that I use as a Linux system. But I mostly use a personal MacBook for both personal and work use. I travel a lot (normally) and really wouldn't want to have to travel with a laptop that was strictly for work use.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#40

Post by chrisseaton »

zozbot234 wrote: post #22
amf12 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some employees had it installed on corp devices, maybe to connect with their friends and families. Google has banned even installing that app on corp devices. Nobody used it for corp work.

Corporate devices should be for work. Especially if you're sheltering-in-place anyway and you're not even physically at the office.

> Corporate devices should be for work.

Many (most?) companies are perfectly fine with you using your corporate machine for typical home-life stuff and side projects as well.

Reduces waste of having to buy two devices.

Seems nothing wrong with it to me?

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