That company is Google. And following the intrusions into its innards in January by network crackers allegedly from China, the search giant is reported to have decided to discontinue the use of Windows internally.

A report in the Financial Times online says this is due to security concerns - and for the first time a mainstream news outlet has this line: "Windows is known for being more vulnerable to attacks by hackers and more susceptible to computer viruses than other operating systems."

According to the report, from January this year onwards, new Google employees have been given the choice of using either Mac OSX or GNU/Linux.

Google appears to have a very poor opinion of security on Windows - to the extent that anyone who wants to use Windows internally has to obtain clearance from the company's chief information officer, according to the report.

It said the move would also help the company to move to its own Linux-based operating system, Chrome.