Aol's priorities

[edX]

read this
and then tell me how aol can spend money on this "just because they can" and not properly support mac users. Is it also "just because they can"?

[vanguard]

AOL is bothering me with this one too. I use trillian at work because I need to connect with yahoo and aol users from my windows machine.

Trillian is awesome. (Wish I could use it on the mac, I like it better than fire)

AOL claims they are doing it because they feel that trillian is a security risk. (This article didn't stress that but others that I red did.) That's crazy. I can think of six security issues that AOL IM has had and none of them affected trillian users. Score: Trillian 6 ; AOL 0.

If they just said it's expensive to run their network and that they need the ad revenue I'd have more respect for them (although I still wouldn't give them my money). They shouldn't lie to me. They lose my respect that way.

[simX]

.... did you ever have any respect for AOL, anyway? Oh, wait, I might have had a little respect back when AOL for Mac was at version 1.0...

[vanguard]

Respect for AOL, they don't bother me. They are an ISP that caters to newbies. That's a fine business to be in.

However, I think they are running their IM service all wrong. Closing it and leaving it unencrypted is a problem.

[edX]

vanguard, you just had to come back with that didn't you. for s few brief hours the three of us agreed on something. i was about to mark the calender and break out the good WHEEEEEEE.

i can't complain really about aol being in the business of internet for newbies. but it is how they go about doing that business that bothers me. they are much like m$. making every attempt to conceal alternatives from their customers, spending money on trashing competitors instead of on improving their own product, and treating macintosh users like they are stupid to own one because these companies are too ignorant to make a good program for them.

now if we can just get kilowatt, racerX and frgmstr to all agree that this is poor business/ethics/decision making by aol, we may get one step closer to world peace

[RacerX]

I think it is pretty bad, but not as bad as having AIM installed on your system when you install Netscape... that is bad! Every so often I get someone calling saying "I installed Netscape, and now when ever I restart my system AIM starts up... when did I install AIM?", at which point I tell them how to turn it off. Honestly, AOL has made Netscape nag-ware for many people.


(Is that what you wanted to hear Ed?)

[rinse]

I am not huge fan of AIM.... But I do use use it nearly every day to talk to coworkers, and my lovely wife.

However... What are the other options for Instant Messenging out there?

MS Messenger? Gah! Just as evil as AOL.

Yahoo messenger? I don't know anyone that uses it.

ICQ? Last time i checked... that was run by AOL too.

IRC? Way too geeky for me.

Fire? Not bad, but not really stable for me. (Plus it doesn't support any of the cool features for the networks it runs on.)

[Dak RIT]

As far as I'm concerned, AOL is M$ 2.0. Although right now the AOL/TW monopoly takes a backstage to the more serious one being played out in the industry right now... the M$ monopoly. Because M$ exists right now AOL/TW is left relatively alone, although expect once M$ falls that AOL will be going through the same thing M$ is now... it'll probably end in a breakup, as well as being forced to open up its IM services.

The industry's going over a few annoying bumps in the road right now, and despite the perceived invulnerability of M$ right now, they're not nearly as strong as many people believe. The industry is going to look very different in 10 years... and Jobs is right, there's not going to be any winners, only survivors. But, in the end, it will be for the best.

Cheers,
Dak