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LindowsOS Will Bundle AOL Client

ealar dlanvuli writes "BuisnessWeek Online is reporting that AOL/TW and Lindows have decided to work together in bundling a version of Netscape 7 with future Lindows products. One wonders if they should instead be supporting OEone and making it scream."

4 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Misleading Headline by krmt · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's dwindled a lot over the years, especially as a lot of the content has moved on to public webservers. But basically a lot of media companies pay for the privledge to be a part of AOL, and they often provide some content to AOL users that they don't give to the outside world.

    I personally rarely use AOL for anything but email and AIM now that the web has grown so much. The real benefit would be the ability to admin my email account and the like, which I can't do without a real AOL app.

    But I'm a really clued user. There's millions who aren't. A lot of people stay right there within the bounds that AOL sets. It's very organized and fairly well set up. Every portal site you've ever seen is basically a rip off of the AOL model of organizing information for the user, and occasionally personalizing something. It's passe to do that on the web now, but it was once a very nice thing.

    And as for the ISP part, you can't connect to AOL if they're your primary ISP through Linux. They don't use standard ppp or the like, but something proprietary.

    --

    "I may not have morals, but I have standards."

  2. Re:Thank you by krmt · · Score: 5, Informative

    Interesting. You're right, there it is. AOL client 7.0 sneak preview.

    So my next question is how do they do this? Is the client fully native? Compiled with winelib? Just run through wine? Will this work on my debian setup?

    Still, thank you for pointing this out. This is great news, especially if it can run in Mandrake and the like. Hopefully we'll know more soon.

    --

    "I may not have morals, but I have standards."

  3. Re:Linux and AOL by Wdomburg · · Score: 3, Informative

    >The point is moot, anyway, since they're not
    >really bundling the AOL client, but just Netscape
    >(which is what the poster above is complaining
    >about).

    Right now at least... But, if you go to their website, they say they working on it:

    Even though AOL can't currently be used as your
    ISP to connect to the Internet from within
    LindowsOS (that's being worked on)

    And provide a link to download it:

    http://www.lindows.com/aoloffer

    And give you screenshots of AOL 7.0 running under Lindows:

    http://info.lindows.com/aol/#client

    It would hardly suprise me if, come the time of their Lindows 3.0 release, there was an AOL icon on the desktop like you get with a lot of OEM manufacturers.

    Matt

  4. Re:Where'd that headline come from? by dj28 · · Score: 3, Informative

    They are testing an AOL client for Windows. For some reason, the story didn't post to it. Anyways, here's the URL: http://www.lindows.com/lindows_products_details.ph p?id=15