AOL assimilated by the Microsoft Borg - AOL division wants to pull the plug entirelly on Netscape?

theinquirer.net/ ^

[milan]

Simply put, that means the chances of AOL ever switching to a competing operating system (or to broaden their subscriber base to include Linux users) are now close to zero. 5 words describe this "windows only" scenario: "Painting themselves into a corner."

I gotta ask; what person who uses Linux would subscribe to AOL? This is the dumbest arguement I have ever heard.

I am an open source advocate, but many times it is a loss of money for companies. 75+ employees laid off because AOL dumps the Netscape project. Yeah this is a bad thing, but hundreds of thousands of people are out of work because of an economic slowdown...but somehow this entire article gets directed at Microsoft for being the "evil empire." Put blame where blame is due; AOL is deciding to dump the project. And believe it or not, it is a business decision. I am sure they don't want to do it, but $$$ is what makes the capitalist society go around.

Ah, conspiracy theories are great. I hate to see an open source project die, but this article is crazy.

[TheGeezer]

AOL is a company with a great asset: a user-friendly propietary online service with millions of subscribers

User friendly? Thank heaven for my shell-less ISP and DSL.

AOL = Ted Turner, for heaven's sake, and try staying conencted with AOL for more than thirty minutes!

The only good thing about AOL is that is caused Turner to lose most of his fortune.

[Grut]

I use IE6 on my PC, but Mozilla is much better than the version of IE available for my wife's Mac. The best browser, in terms of features and cross-platform availability, is Opera; unfortunately, it doesn't work very well and Opera's proprietors seem to think that adding more features which also don't work is more interesting than fixing what's there.

[Snuffington]

Ah, conspiracy theories are great. I hate to see an open source project die, but this article is crazy.

Kind of misses the whole point of open source, doesn't it? For some people anti-Microsoft bias seems to shut down a lot of otherwise functional brain cells.

[Richard Kimball]

IMHO IE sucks on all platforms. For Mac, either Safari or Camino are far better choices.

[goldstategop]

AOL could have bought out Lindows and developed a competing operating system version based upon Linux to Microsoft and its Windows. My guess is they threw in the towel since they've been hemorrhaging for the last few years and figured if you can't beat the Big Kid On The Block you might as well join him.

[milan]

Yeah, there are tons of Microsoft bashers who have just lost their marbles.

[chance33_98]

I use netscape on my Sun Solaris server at home, it is quite buggy. Not that IE isn't, but the bugs on netscape are more annoying to me :) Looks like I will have to breakdown and download the mozilla source and tweak it (been looking for a good c project, but right now am busy with java and the SunOne IDE, as well as .net). If you like open source and like to tinker there are some really cool downloads of small programs you can play with, change, and compile (like dog, 'which is better than cat').

Running unix one finds many reasons to write their own programs (though you can do a lot with the right shell and some good scripts). I wanted to do more with cat and started my own code when I came across dog which had the source code. Open Source can be very educational!

Large programs like Mozilla can be intimidating and there is a steep learning curve, but there is something about making changes to something you use often to fit your own needs that feels good.

If your new to C and want to learn it (or c++) take a look at my profile page, last book on there is a great starting point and a really fun read.

[chance33_98]

Ping

[milan]

Safari is very nice, but I have had numerous problems with it (yes, I defend Microsoft at times, but I love my MAC). The main problems I have seen is with page display (which has gotten much better with updates) and with any site that uses logins (this is also getting better).

Safari is in its infancy, but we will proably see great things out of it...but the big question now; will Apple port the browser for Windows?!? My answer is no. The same reason they will not port OSX to PCs. Becuase people may use their porduct without an Apple underneath.

Don't get me wrong, MACs are great, but if anyone should have been sued for having a monopoly, it should have been Apple. They dominate their little nitch. There is some headway being made with competing processors, etc, but Apple usually crushes them. If you are a MAC user, you KNOW what I am taking about. Apples history is much worse than Microsoft's. Microsoft just got too big to be ignored.

[milan]

"what Linux user would use AOL" its "What AOL user would switch to Linux".

How about both.

[hchutch]

Looks like Bill Gates comes out on top again.

How many people's butts have been kicked again?

[milan]

I build computers, program, etc. on the side and offer Linux as a solution to people all the time to save cost...especially if they are using anything before windows 2000. But they don't want any part of it and I understand that. Linux and UNIX are not for the faint of heart or the computer illiterate. They like being able to go into wal-mart and buying a program and having it work. Scripts, installation procedures, compiling programs, rolling the kernal...these things are way out of the league of most computer users.

Now, redhat and mandrake are making inroads, but I don't think AOL would be the killer app to win them support. Maybe a few users, but nothing significant. IMO

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Gates as Borg

[goldstategop]

The funny thing is you can dial into MSN on Linux but not AOL. Microsoft has the best of both worlds!

[mhking]

Firebird.

'Nuff said.

[hchutch]

Whatever.

The lesson learned here is quite simple: Mess with the best, lose like the rest. :)

Netscape is headed for the ash heap of history, right next to OS/2.