I read Slashdot & I use AOL...
Show me an online service AOL ran out of business by signing contracts with the OEM's to lock out other online services. Can you show me that? Nope. Yet we can see how Micro$oft forced OEM's to NOT bundle Netscape on their machines back when Netscape was still superior to IE. IE is only superior because over the past several years, M$ has blown well over $1billion trying to put Netscape out of business. You can use Netscape and Opera with AOL's service. But can you run Windows Update through Netscape? Nope. IE specific. Interesting how that works.
And one other thing. You people have really short memories. There never was a partnership between AOL and M$. When Windows95 was set to be introduced, M$ came up with the brilliant idea of bringing out what became MSN, and boy was it a turkey. But still, with a preferential icon placed on the desktop, it definitely threatened the abilities of Compuserve, Prodigy, Delphi, and AOL from competing. The Justice Department looked into the situation and made M$ sign a consent decree so that they'd make available the other companies software from the OS install disk. That was not altruism from Mr. Gates, because he lacks any. The government forced it down his throat. Then M$ got cocky afterwards because the government backed down (before Netscape got the lawsuit gears cranking) and then threatened AOL from expelling them from the Windows install disk if they didn't agree to make IE the official AOL browser. Now if any of you actually remember early 1997, AOL had chucked its own crappy webbrowser and made Netscape its official one. It was rather strange seeing the AOL logo normally where the Netscape "N" was. Of course, this did not last long because AOL needed placement, so Netscape was dropped. (of course, maybe some of you chuckleheads will think that was part of AOL's grand plan of grabbing Netscape dirt cheap). So don't make it sound like they were partners.
How about in the videogame market since M$ has been poking its head in. M$ bankrolled the development of the Sega Dreamcast, formerly known as "Blackbelt," "Dural," and "Katana." Sega got this paid for because they agreed to have CE as the OS. Sega owned stock in 3dfx and 3dfx was set to supply the chipset for the machines. But no, NEC stepped in and basically told M$ that it owed them the contract because NEC via Packard Bell generated lots of business for M$. So M$ made Sega break their contract with 3dfx (to the detriment of both Sega AND 3dfx) and assigned NEC's PowerVR with the contract for Dreamcast graphics chipsets. PowerVR's only saving grace on the Dreamcast was the fact that it had a large amount of Vram in the machine. M$ screwed its partners for its own interests. This led to 3dfx getting massively hurt and now for all tense and purposes not existing at all, and now Sega has been reduced to the role of a third party developer for the M$ Xbox. This is what happens when you partner with M$. Has AOL done this type of stuff before? Nope.
And let's look at M$'s recent behavior. They are promising inter-operability between IM services. Does that mean they'll play fair with Yahoo. Yeah right. M$ tried hacking in for several weeks to AIM's client. Does AOL hack with M$ code? Nope. So there is NO comparison between M$ and AOL. AOL has won its market share fair and square. You can bitch and moan about AOL not being the true internet, but this world is gonna be split between two powers, M$ and AOL.
So choose wisely. If you want a chance for alternative OS's to exist, you better pick AOL. Let's see, AOL owns a chunk of Palm. Palm is a rival system because it competes head-to-head with Micro$oft's long running flop WindowsCE, err, I mean, PocketPC. AOL owns 30% of TiVo, which is definitely one cool piece of hardware and software, also facing still competition from, yep, you guessed it...(not Frank Stallone) Micro$oft! I'm surprised that AOL hasn't bought a chunk of Red Hat. Personally, I look forward to the day when I can pop in an AOL install disk and install a user friendly version of "AOL's Linux" and actually run a slew of software on my machine that won't crash. And then people will be asking, "Microsoft who?"
All you Neville Chamberlain wannabe Micro$oft appeasers can all "Suck It" for all I care. You are the reason the software industry is in its terrible state with no choices in a variety of fields, not because of the laypeople that use AOL.
Oh yeah. Can your MSN service buy Madonna tickets? Microsoft..."where you want to go today? Ooops, not Ticketmaster!"
Slashdot Mirror
I read Slashdot & I use AOL... Show me an online service AOL ran out of business by signing contracts with the OEM's to lock out other online services. Can you show me that? Nope. Yet we can see how Micro$oft forced OEM's to NOT bundle Netscape on their machines back when Netscape was still superior to IE. IE is only superior because over the past several years, M$ has blown well over $1billion trying to put Netscape out of business. You can use Netscape and Opera with AOL's service. But can you run Windows Update through Netscape? Nope. IE specific. Interesting how that works. And one other thing. You people have really short memories. There never was a partnership between AOL and M$. When Windows95 was set to be introduced, M$ came up with the brilliant idea of bringing out what became MSN, and boy was it a turkey. But still, with a preferential icon placed on the desktop, it definitely threatened the abilities of Compuserve, Prodigy, Delphi, and AOL from competing. The Justice Department looked into the situation and made M$ sign a consent decree so that they'd make available the other companies software from the OS install disk. That was not altruism from Mr. Gates, because he lacks any. The government forced it down his throat. Then M$ got cocky afterwards because the government backed down (before Netscape got the lawsuit gears cranking) and then threatened AOL from expelling them from the Windows install disk if they didn't agree to make IE the official AOL browser. Now if any of you actually remember early 1997, AOL had chucked its own crappy webbrowser and made Netscape its official one. It was rather strange seeing the AOL logo normally where the Netscape "N" was. Of course, this did not last long because AOL needed placement, so Netscape was dropped. (of course, maybe some of you chuckleheads will think that was part of AOL's grand plan of grabbing Netscape dirt cheap). So don't make it sound like they were partners. How about in the videogame market since M$ has been poking its head in. M$ bankrolled the development of the Sega Dreamcast, formerly known as "Blackbelt," "Dural," and "Katana." Sega got this paid for because they agreed to have CE as the OS. Sega owned stock in 3dfx and 3dfx was set to supply the chipset for the machines. But no, NEC stepped in and basically told M$ that it owed them the contract because NEC via Packard Bell generated lots of business for M$. So M$ made Sega break their contract with 3dfx (to the detriment of both Sega AND 3dfx) and assigned NEC's PowerVR with the contract for Dreamcast graphics chipsets. PowerVR's only saving grace on the Dreamcast was the fact that it had a large amount of Vram in the machine. M$ screwed its partners for its own interests. This led to 3dfx getting massively hurt and now for all tense and purposes not existing at all, and now Sega has been reduced to the role of a third party developer for the M$ Xbox. This is what happens when you partner with M$. Has AOL done this type of stuff before? Nope. And let's look at M$'s recent behavior. They are promising inter-operability between IM services. Does that mean they'll play fair with Yahoo. Yeah right. M$ tried hacking in for several weeks to AIM's client. Does AOL hack with M$ code? Nope. So there is NO comparison between M$ and AOL. AOL has won its market share fair and square. You can bitch and moan about AOL not being the true internet, but this world is gonna be split between two powers, M$ and AOL. So choose wisely. If you want a chance for alternative OS's to exist, you better pick AOL. Let's see, AOL owns a chunk of Palm. Palm is a rival system because it competes head-to-head with Micro$oft's long running flop WindowsCE, err, I mean, PocketPC. AOL owns 30% of TiVo, which is definitely one cool piece of hardware and software, also facing still competition from, yep, you guessed it...(not Frank Stallone) Micro$oft! I'm surprised that AOL hasn't bought a chunk of Red Hat. Personally, I look forward to the day when I can pop in an AOL install disk and install a user friendly version of "AOL's Linux" and actually run a slew of software on my machine that won't crash. And then people will be asking, "Microsoft who?" All you Neville Chamberlain wannabe Micro$oft appeasers can all "Suck It" for all I care. You are the reason the software industry is in its terrible state with no choices in a variety of fields, not because of the laypeople that use AOL. Oh yeah. Can your MSN service buy Madonna tickets? Microsoft..."where you want to go today? Ooops, not Ticketmaster!"