Google’s Eric Schmidt talks Microsoft, recommends Macs

By Tom Warren, on 1st Jun 11 10:30 am with 66 Comments

Eric Schmidt at D9 - Asa Mathat | All Things Digital

Former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, has recommended that people use Macs to stay secure.

Speaking at All Things Digital on Tuesday, Schmidt made a number of remarks against Microsoft. Microsoft is “not driving the consumer revolution,” he said, referring to the company’s Xbox business. He says Xbox is “not a platform at the computational level.”

Schmidt recommended that people use Google’s Chrome browser for security.“You could also use a Mac instead of a PC,” he added. “The viruses that are present on the PC are not likely to affect you as much on the Mac”. Schmidt’s comments came at shortly after Apple issued s security update on Tuesday to address an increasingly wild MacDefender malware threat.

Schmidt also spoke briefly about partnering with Facebook. “We’ve tried very hard to partner with Facebook,” he said. “Traditionally, they’ve done deals with Microsoft.” The Google chairman also excluded Microsoft from his top four companies providing the major consumer technology platforms. He chose to highlight Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. “Each of them is a consumer brand that provides something that you can’t do otherwise,” he said. “What’s different now is that these are global companies with reach and economics that ten years ago or 20 years ago one company had.”

Eric Schmidt’s D9 video highlights are available below, Todd Bishop at GeekWire has a good overview of Schmidt’s comments too.

  • Ronit Kumar

    Ahh I love this, he can see Microsoft coming after Google and eating on their search shares and other deals! Good work MS, schmidt can’t take you out of his mind now!! 

    “Be what’s next” yeah that’s MS!! :)

  • http://twitter.com/richfrombechtle Rich Gibbons

    Sounds a bit like a sore loser doesn’t he?

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3OIDXOI5OEMTX6Z3O5YUBFSISA Diego3336

      And some people here bashes Ballmer as “arrogant” when he says something about Google…

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3OIDXOI5OEMTX6Z3O5YUBFSISA Diego3336

      And some people here bashes Ballmer as “arrogant” when he says something about Google…

    • zzz

      Just complete bullshit/sore grapes/marketing talk. Quite typical of Googlers these days, it seems. But I don’t think I’ve ever read so much bullshit in such high density.

  • Guest

    that ‘one company’ is ‘typically Microsoft’, said he.

  • Anonymous

    Use a Mac if you’re stupid enough to click on a link from a distant Nigerian relative who left you 1 million dollars when they died.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ahmad-AbdulLateef/100000511909755 Ahmad AbdulLateef

    Haha an Ballmer rightly described Eric Schmidt is a Pussy afterall :D

  • http://twitter.com/Chassit Kane Gao

    Yes, those PC viruses won’t affect you on Mac. But once people begin to move to Macs in bulk, you bet viruses exclusive to Macs will follow in no time. And guess who is then to cry, sitting on a platform that has never seen any mass hacker attack before largely thanks to lack of popularity?

    And seriously I don’t know what “computational level” as in “not a platform at the computational level” means. For god’s sake it’s a GAMING CONSOLE! No one is expecting heavy decryption job or such from those things! As to consumer-revolutionary, I don’t see why Xbox is not one of those pioneers. Who started the trend that every gaming consoles goes online, huh? Seriously don’t tell me Sony did it with PS2, which didn’t even have an ethernet port by default.

  • Nsasono

    He says Xbox is “not a platform at the computational level.”What is he actually saying here?
    Define “Computational”.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mitch-Foster/100000527225418 Mitch Foster

      In other words… Xbox does everything for you.  You don’t need to know anything about computers or electronics and could figure out how to use everything on the Xbox in an hour.

      Thats the beauty in owning something like a console though, ease of access.

  • Jard

    of course…they realease a own OS (Chrome OS) that will be a huge fail. So they prefer to recomend anything that doen´t have any relation with Microsfot (its main rival).

    But, this also suggest that Google doesn´t have any faith in Chrome OS.

    Another fail to google

    • Anonymous

      maybe because chromebooks are not full PCs?

    • Jard

      they say 90% of bussiness and people could use a chromebook for the same work they use a pc.

      Now, they recomend macs…..

    • Anonymous

      The 90% part is weird considdering that only 1% actually can do with Google Docs exclusively… :p

    • phil jay

      kill android, make chromeos a multidevice os for tablet, pc and phone, completely web centric. push chrome with native client(and to other browsers) and google can really give a shit on what platform you want the app to run.

    • phil jay

      kill android, make chromeos a multidevice os for tablet, pc and phone, completely web centric. push chrome with native client(and to other browsers) and google can really give a shit on what platform you want the app to run.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3OIDXOI5OEMTX6Z3O5YUBFSISA Diego3336

    I bought a white MacBook 3 years ago and it’s the most useless computer I have ever had. I can’t burn DVDs as it didn’t came with a DVD recorder, only a CD-R/DVD Player (hello, it was in mid-2008 and no DVD-R?), the HDD bricked in 2 months, and besides some others problems, what it makes my MacBook so useless is how it’s hot, and not on the good way of the word. CPU @ 122 F in idle, @140:disqusjust browsing the web and more than 160 F just watching a short video on Youtube.

    I still own this PoS, but my next laptop is going to be a PC one. No more Mac for me. Never more.

    • Anonymous

      :( I know thats sad, my girl who has a mac, paid $3000… when she told me the price i was mad haha. now it shuts down randomally, it might be her battery though. there was a time when we were in windows to play videogames and it displayed lines in the screen, it was an amazing nvidia that ruined all the computer, and she paid like $500 to get it fixed. those nvidia models were buggy. she sees more software in windows, she studied graphic design and she sees coreldraw, xara, expression studio… and well i use 3dsmax so its windows only. even simple stuff as messaging, video call and audiocall. she was complaining how there wasn’t a good client for IM, since MS bought skype i installed it (haha yeah that was my reason) now we can turn cam on and call if we arent together.
      BUT still people think they are amazing and the best, its personal preference, not everyone likes hp or dell or toshiba for a laptop.
      but some are more poweful, better made, and cheaper, and even you can run windows on a mac, it makes stuff worse… the computer runs hotter… in fact windows hibernate her computer because it gets 99°C +… (so it gets really hot like you say)

      if she has money she would get a PC, she says is cheaper, some look really better than MBP (specially for a price, but also for design). i kinda dont care what people use but i hate this idiotic war when people insult others for what they use, but for some mac works and for some not, like you and my girl. it wouldn’t work for me either, since i play videogames and i use 3dsmax and i do windows only stuff alot, even UDK which im learning to see if i dont fail much at it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/dominic.blakey Dominic Blakey

    This guy, Eric, talks absolute Bull Shit. Microsoft not in the top 4… I’m sorry but without them, there wouldn’t be a Computer on every Desk in every home, thus making Google obsolete.

    He talks shit all the time, with his Mac comment… “Macs don’t get virus’s in the same way”. No Eric, they get them worse. This recent Malware attack on Mac’s shows how unprepared Apple consumers and the company are.

    He also thinks average normal people understand which phones have Android on it… Yes they may understand to an extent (such as pointing out the green frog logo thing) but they don’t understand what it ACTUALLY is. Google are an evil company and I hope they realise Bing is eating away at their Marketshare.

    • Anonymous

      Your right. Google only cares about search and if people use macs they are less likely to use bing or windows mobile. People don’t understand the mac simply HIDES the virus protection from the user so they can’t see if they haves virus. The only thing a windows user has to do is download security essentials. Its the best Anti-virus on the planet and is dead simple. To use. He’s just worried (as you said) that bing is a better option and it is. I have started using it and the link I want isalways

    • Tom

      Eric Schmidt has a history of joining ventures that created great technology but failed in the marketplace.  Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, Sun, Novell.  (Novell?!)  He’s got 25 years worth of grudges built up against Microsoft.

      Wouldn’t expect him to say anything else.

    • IntelligentReply
    • Martin

      Eric S used to be on the Apple board till Steve J kicked him of over conflict of interest.  Cause soon after he got the job with Go-ogle he was aware that Apple was bring out the iphone and soon after his Go-ogle job they brought their phones.  Steve J wasn’t happy and didn’t even tell him about the iPad while he was still on the board.

      And it shows his character.  He probably trying to save face with Apple.

    • Guess

      Jajajajajjaja (LOL in spanish)
      Please, are you on drugs or alcohol?
      You really think MacDefender is a big issue?
      And Bing better than google…

      I use MS product, develop in MS platform, and I like it very much, but in the last decade Google and Apple make grate products, better and more secure than MS. Please get your head out of your ass and you can have the best of all 3.

    • Guess

      Jajajajajjaja (LOL in spanish)
      Please, are you on drugs or alcohol?
      You really think MacDefender is a big issue?
      And Bing better than google…

      I use MS product, develop in MS platform, and I like it very much, but in the last decade Google and Apple make grate products, better and more secure than MS. Please get your head out of your ass and you can have the best of all 3.

    • trashoner

      Care to explain how the Mac is more secure than Windows. They way most informed people win an argument is by explaining, not trolling about it. so, save the JA JA JA for a different spanish apple forums. that, by the way, are also filled with complaints about OSX too.

      I use apple products too but I do read on what geeks/hackers have to say about the OSX platform is usually all bad things when it comes to security. Just because OSX gets less attacks than Windows it doesn’t make it more secure. MS usually responds with security patches for their OS way faster than its apple counterpart. IMO macs aren’t more secure than a car without a lock. Sure you may be able to park it in a safe town but you park that nice car in the middle of the bronx and see what happens. I know that MS doesn’t only have more experience against attacks to the OS but also puts patches out there way faster than any other OS. 

    • http://profiles.google.com/tegilmore Ted Gilmore

      I have my own ideas about computers and OS’s and if M$ was to disappear tomorrow I would not miss them.  Anyone can do a search and learn about how M$ came to monopolize.  M$ has not been able to find and delete all history.  M$  fans just don’t know!

      I care even less about Apple as I am not a fan of Sole Source marketing nor Jobs way of thinking.

      IBM is at  fault for not retaining rights to PCDOS in ~1980!

      Ubuntu equals anything  M$ has.  Malware is going to follow whoever replaces or follows M$.

      I don’t expect many to understand or believe what I’ve said here, because what people  think is more important to them than what they “know”.  Most people “think” “know” and “think” are the same.  Actually they are as different as night and day!  Thus people have widely different POV’s.

  • GP007

    The guy who got kicked off as Google CEO wants to talk smack?   Yeah ok, Gotta love the flops Google has so far that people seem to write off or forget about, and lets not forget that Bing is growing in the US every month. 

    Oh well, one day he’ll finally just shuttup and spare us his BS.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mitch-Foster/100000527225418 Mitch Foster

       “What’s different now is that these are global companies with reach and economics that ten years ago or 20 years ago one company had.”

      Bing probably wouldn’t have been created if Google hadn’t proved search to be such a lucrative and innovative product.
      ;)

  • GP007

    The guy who got kicked off as Google CEO wants to talk smack?   Yeah ok, Gotta love the flops Google has so far that people seem to write off or forget about, and lets not forget that Bing is growing in the US every month. 

    Oh well, one day he’ll finally just shuttup and spare us his BS.

  • Anonymous

    What an ignorant idiot. Viruses pretty much ceased to exist for the PC platform since the middle of 200X. Yes, there’s still malware like trojans but they only affect inexperienced or careless people and those who don’t keep up to date.

  • zzz

    “You could also use a Mac instead of a PC…”

    But why should I? I’m doing perfectly fine with my five PCs at home that I paid anywhere from $450 to $550. They run everything I throw at. One is a quad core desktop that will run circles around imacs costing 2 to 3 times more. If I went with Macs, I would have spent $2000 to $3000 more with less functionalities. That’s crazy.

    Schmidt is dissing MS because Google fears MS the most.

    • zzz

      Schmidt: “Each of them is a consumer brand that provides something that you can’t do otherwise,”

      Can anyone tell me how I’ve managed to survive all my life without a single Apple product?  (I did have an ipod briefly (from company raffle) but sold it promptly on CL.)

    • http://profiles.google.com/carlosrfonseca Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca

      Or Google… Does Google provide something you can’t live without?

      Sure, we’d have less context sensitive ads, but I could live with that :)

    • Anonymous

      That’s what I was thinking.  What does google honestly provide that is really unique and essential?  If google.com went away today, I would be fine.  If any of their products just disappeared, it wouldn’t be a huge loss.  Their competitors have everything and more that google does.  And increasingly better products/services with more privacy at that.

    • Guest

      Docs? Youtube? Blogger? Earth? Google Finance(sorry the msn really is crap)? Google Scholar(I can’t live without it)?
      I’m sorry but it would be a loss for the internet. Are you telling me that you’ve never used/visited on a regular basis those services?
      Also why the Google hate on this site? Just because the companies hate each othedoesn’t mean you have to become a sheep following any statements your favourite company makes(Apple much?) I use both Microsoft and Google products and I can tell you that both are equally as useful and I couldn’t live without either. Remember Microsoft and Google are competitors, are you expecting them to tell you to buy products from their competitor?

    • andrewbware

      office 365? bing video? windows live profiles? surface globe? bing finance?

      yea right. I could EASILY live without google services.

    • Guest

      I use yauba.com (privacy search engine) and ixquick.com (semi-private meta-search engine).

    • Vista

      How are you like your MS tablet?  LOLOLOLOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

    • Vista

      How are you like your MS tablet?  LOLOLOLOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

    • Anonymous

      I love your last comment.

  • mosen

    he can be a great stand-up comedian after his life in Google :-s !!!!

  • Frylockns86

    People use Chrome for security? Then why did Ed Bott show IE9 to be more security centric? Compared with Chrome? Why does Chrome install to the user folder (Which doesn’t require admin privlages) instead of the Program Files folder?

    Nice words, Mr. Schmidt, but hardly truthful. Heh.

    • http://twitter.com/hazardousideas Paul

      The biggest difference between IE9 and Chrome is that it operates in a sandbox like structure making it its own environment, separate from your system. But it’s the internet and nothing is ever secure so its much better having a great anti-virus suite along with a great browser like IE9.

    • http://twitter.com/furdworetzky Fur Dworetzky

      Not sure what you’re getting at here. Both IE9 and Chrome operate in a sandbox. In fact, Internet Explorer was sandboxed before Chrome even came out.

    • http://twitter.com/furdworetzky Fur Dworetzky

      Not sure what you’re getting at here. Both IE9 and Chrome operate in a sandbox. In fact, Internet Explorer was sandboxed before Chrome even came out.

    • http://twitter.com/furdworetzky Fur Dworetzky

      Not sure what you’re getting at here. Both IE9 and Chrome operate in a sandbox. In fact, Internet Explorer was sandboxed before Chrome even came out.

    • Test1ngi23

      Maybe Chrome installs to your ProgramData folder instead of Program Files is because if a hacker compromised Chrome, which is exceedingly hard to do, it would only have immediate access to your user folder, not Program Files.

    • http://twitter.com/furdworetzky Fur Dworetzky

      …which is worse. The user has complete write access to his own user profile, but no inherent write access to Program Files. Theoretically, it would be a lot easier for a vulnerability in the browser to replace Chrome with Trojan than it would be for any of the other browsers because of this. Chrome can just write over itself however it wishes. Firefox and IE9 would at least require a UAC prompt before any damage took place.

      There is a reason why programs don’t install in the user profile. Except Chrome, of course.

    • http://twitter.com/furdworetzky Fur Dworetzky

      …which is worse. The user has complete write access to his own user profile, but no inherent write access to Program Files. Theoretically, it would be a lot easier for a vulnerability in the browser to replace Chrome with Trojan than it would be for any of the other browsers because of this. Chrome can just write over itself however it wishes. Firefox and IE9 would at least require a UAC prompt before any damage took place.

      There is a reason why programs don’t install in the user profile. Except Chrome, of course.

  • Paulpauldesign

    I think that he fear too much for Bing, Next WP update Mango, Xbox against google TV, Windows 8 tablet, skydive, ms live services and so on. So his recommendation is pushing you to hell.

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Whitneyjj

    Congrats google I am now uninstalling google chrome and I am going to love my new windows phone when I get it next week! :)

  • Anonymous

    “He chose to highlight Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. Each of them is a consumer brand that provides something that you can’t do otherwise,”

    Ok, can someone tell me what these does that noone else does? Each and every one of these companies have competitors.

  • Damien_monize

    he just sounds like a washed up prizefighter bragging. Microsoft is eating away their search shares (no more ads bit#$es) and he’s trying to get us to run from them.

  • Fjfjfjhdh

    what a faggot, dogs from google yet again.

  • Fjfjfjhdh

    what a faggot, dogs from google yet again.

  • Anonymous

    he recommends mac because he CANT recommend Googles own OS, which is a just browser. ;) i thought it could do 99% of what is done in normal pcs.

    and like if people didn’t run mac to run windows only software like… alot of videogames, 99% of MMO, 3dsmax… stuff like xsplit. and some people buy macs just because they are good looking, but they still have only windows, or use mac because alot of software they bought was for mac, so they dont want to redownload everything for windows… so what he says is BS. my friend has a mac, and she is currently using windows, because of Expression Studio, when she does design in Adobe then she has to use mac becasue she is lazy to redownload all that in her crappy internet.

    and well i havent gotten a virus in a while… yeah windows its too insecure /s, i really dont know how people can listen to this guy when he say stupid stuff like if he didn’t know about computers.

  • GRS_DEV

    one word! Delusional…

    Talk about tunnel vision! This mentality is so commonly shared among people who live, work, eat and breath sillicon valley. They become so immersed in their own crap that they get so high on it and lose touch with reality.

    Let’s see… if google search disappeared today there would be a long list of options that would seemlessly fill the gap starting Yahoo and followed by Bing – a Microsoft product and several others…

    If google android disappeared today, there would be many other embedded linux implementations for those who want a not for cash product. Oh wait, what am I talking about, there are already many other embedded linux implementation including one that’s rumored to being developed by google’s biggest handset partner, Motorola. I don’t consider android a free product because google monetizes the OS’ users’ information.

    If apple PCs disappeared today, the PC market would probably regain 10% of its marketshare the remaining 6% would go to linux.

    If apple iPhones disappeared today, well the fanboys would be in denial and still camp outside closed down apple stores in hopes of getting a white iPhone 5.

    If apple iPads were to disappear today, the world would switch to other more practical tablets that were once called laptops.

  • phil jay

    google is niiice! so is microsoft.. but sometimes those marketing guys talk real shit.. its the developers that make those companies, and what makes some google and ms products so really awesome! google guys like doing some really extremely neat things, really hacking things out of what not and pushing out revolutionary stuff. ms devs do most of their stuff extremely well and thoght out, they usually take a little longer and they have less features, but you learn to love the results. i was chrome fanboy, having all the features i can get, first didnt like ie9, now I love it, its just well done.

  • phil jay

    google is niiice! so is microsoft.. but sometimes those marketing guys talk real shit.. its the developers that make those companies, and what makes some google and ms products so really awesome! google guys like doing some really extremely neat things, really hacking things out of what not and pushing out revolutionary stuff. ms devs do most of their stuff extremely well and thoght out, they usually take a little longer and they have less features, but you learn to love the results. i was chrome fanboy, having all the features i can get, first didnt like ie9, now I love it, its just well done.

  • Anonymous

    thank god i don’t use chrome and google

  • http://twitter.com/starksimon Stark

    Eric Schmidt is an ass.

  • http://twitter.com/starksimon Stark

    Eric Schmidt is an ass.