I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that gitlab is fully remote.
In an office where you have on-site IT staff, and a local corporate LAN, you can require every windows machine to be part of AD, have group security policies pushed out, and generally have tools available for central management.
But with gitlab, everyone is working in their own networks around the world. That sounds like a very hard environment in which to globally apply the types of security policies that are needed to keep Windows secure.
Mobile device management is the topic. You can manage windows devices remotely, just as you can manage MacOS devices. No need for them to check in. It „just“ takes some effort, and if you have multiple operating systems to support, the effort is multiplied. But a company of their market cap and size probably should have the funds for a team dedicated to this.
My corporate win 10 laptop does all those things fine when WFH.
They just set it up, couriered it to my house, gave me my password and off I went.
It does all its GPO update, carbon black policies etc. over the VPN exactly the same as if I was in the office.
Worst case scenario gitlab would just need to courier equipment globally via a decent carrier like DHL, but probably a drop in the ocean compared to other staff costs.
In an office where you have on-site IT staff, and a local corporate LAN, you can require every windows machine to be part of AD, have group security policies pushed out, and generally have tools available for central management.
But with gitlab, everyone is working in their own networks around the world. That sounds like a very hard environment in which to globally apply the types of security policies that are needed to keep Windows secure.