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Mozilla, Gecko, Netscape, And Their Future At AOL
bluephone writes "I've been lucky enough to receive some interesting information from within the Netscape/AOLTW firewall, although in light of AOL's recent massive losses, poor outlook, and high profile execs resigning their positions, I'm not sure if these battle plans are still intact. As it stands, Netscape 7.x has one major release left for the forseeable future, but Gecko will soon overshadow everything, becoming the core platform for all of AOL's Internet content distribution. For all the details and much more, read it here."
It will finally force web authors to support standards not monopolies.
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
Every now & again we get another "leaked" memo/whatever from AOL hinting that they're going to drop IE.
And every time, AOL are just about to go into negotiation with Microsoft & want a bargaining chip to reduce licensing costs.
Every time I see an AOL commercial on TV, I think "man, their advertising department needs to be shot."
If I wasn't so entrenched in my current e-mail, I'd consdier getting AOL on top of my RoadRunner account. For the same price as RR, I'd get a whole slew of content et al that isn't out on the web at large.
I remember how AOL used to be, back in the days before my parents bailed and got a local ISP. It was fast, volomious, and the "custom AOL" bits were far slicker than anything i've seen before or since.
Forget about the ISP bit--let the market have that crowd. AOL should go after folks who have an internet connection, by promoting what they can do that the rest of the 'net can't.
If their only pitch is that they're easy to use, then they're going to get taken off just like any other set of training wheels.
AOL is getting everything it deserves. Let's hope this sealed off network dies a death.
I used to be semi-pro AOL. I knew most Internet geeks didn't like their service, but I recommended them to newbies, since they do have a good 'get running quickly' service that's easy to understand. No more. My clients complain they receive TONS of spam now, despite AOL's OTT screening and banning.
I'm lost here. Granted, I think AOL sucks. I wouldn't use it. But no one (including anyone in Soviet Russia) is forced to use it. Yet, millions do (not as many as last month, but still millions). My mother uses it, and frankly, I set her up with it so she wouldn't bug me to death asking questions.
It's called "free market". AOL adds value to many people. To me and you, no, its not worth the price, but it obviously is to alot of people.
A "sealed off network", as you call it, is just the same internet (albeit at crappys speeds) and lots of unique content. I am not convinced that is a bad thing.
You talk about them banning email servers for spam, then bitch that they get tons of spam. You can't have it both ways. I can no longer send email from my own servers on a SDSL line, because a "free open list" that is commonly used, lists all SDSL ip ranges. My servers never sent more than 10 emails a day. Oh, and AOL accepts mail from my servers.
You seem to have a lot of anger toward them, but your logic doesn't make sense. It seems to just be a rant against "closed systems".
As to being "semi-pro AOL", I have no freaking idea what the hell that is. Is that like "an experienced newbie"?
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
YOU do... and that's great. Actually a very valid point you have. The problem is will little tiny companies such as, oh, CITIBANK that have a "few" customers! What is a shame is the fact that they have to use IE to bank. I've tried Citibank for Business online, and Safari fails. KDE fails. Mozilla works, but only with the prefs bar plugin to change the id string to IE on WinXP. Otherwise Citibank fails. The problem is not the sites you design, but the corporate sites that millions of people would like to use to shop, bank, etc to make their lives a little easier. And needing IE to use these sites makes life easier, but a lot less secure.
I've had e-mail exchanged with Citibank on this topic, and they only test for IE and, to quote, "most of the time Netscape too". MOST OF THE TIME? Great.
If 32,000,000+ people are using Gecho engine (assuming AOL makes the switch), this will be great because it could very well force companies to do what you do! USe their frontpage but with the propper settings so HTML is clean and pure and written as per the standards. This can only be DoublePlusGood(TM) for IE, Netscape, Gecho, Moz, KDE, Safari et. al.
AOL's competitors are essentially utility companies. There's no way to create a value added service for my electrical supply, and connectivity is getting to be the same way. AOL is coming from a time when you didn't just buy the electricity, but the service included all your electrical appliances as well.
Wouldn't web design be so much easier if everyone just used Word? Forms, macros, print preview.
This is what I tell people who design only for IE.
Who cares about standards? Obviously idiots don't.