IMHO AOL should be steered clear of. It has long been a major DRAG on system resources, and in my experience, only the most illiterate of users actually runs it. I also think that the reason they use it is fear of the unknown. I have known/been an AOL user/s (in my less literate days). They fear the configuration that comes with getting a real ISP. Although once seen, they realise there was nothing to fear, that fear was real enough to keep them there for however long it did. I admit, one of the things I like about Linux is that AOL won't run on it. Therefore users must get past that part of their fear in order to use it. I also agree that Linux needs to be more user friendly to the newbie. So I guess it's now up to the Linux community to come up with an AOL look alike that can ease people into the OS without scaring the &*^$ of them. And preferably something that doesn't hog system resourses and make even the best of systems crawl.
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IMHO AOL should be steered clear of. It has long been a major DRAG on system resources, and in my experience, only the most illiterate of users actually runs it. I also think that the reason they use it is fear of the unknown. I have known/been an AOL user/s (in my less literate days). They fear the configuration that comes with getting a real ISP. Although once seen, they realise there was nothing to fear, that fear was real enough to keep them there for however long it did. I admit, one of the things I like about Linux is that AOL won't run on it. Therefore users must get past that part of their fear in order to use it. I also agree that Linux needs to be more user friendly to the newbie. So I guess it's now up to the Linux community to come up with an AOL look alike that can ease people into the OS without scaring the &*^$ of them. And preferably something that doesn't hog system resourses and make even the best of systems crawl.