Aol

[carlwill]

I don't know why I have such a huge chip on my should about AOL but anytime I try and help an AOL user - I just become extremely frustrated and disgusted.

I know not everyone knows a lot about PC's and I am far from knowing anything in the IT field but AOL users seem to have this nieveness (sp) about them :rolleyes:

AOL (ISP) just brain washes their customers and basically handicaps them from doing basic functions that common users should be able to perform

(i.e Clearing Cache, Clearing Cookies, Typing in the URL field, Know where the URL box is, using Outlook, etc etc etc)

AOL to me is just a crap service and it frustrates me that so many people are just signing up for this crap just because they sent you some junk mail CD.

I have seen numerous polls that point AOL as the worst ISP to date yet so many people still use them. People get mad when I tell them I will not email an AOL account. They just don't get it.

Maybe I am just alone here but wanted to see how the Linux community felt.

[crackers]

You can rant and rave and froth at the mouth all you want. Some of it's justified - a lot of it isn't.

Microsoft created the illusion that a general-purpose computer is as easy to use as a toaster, when it really isn't (at today's level of technology). So they had to keep lumping more eye-candy onto the OS to make this marketing hype reality. AOL realized that they could do one better, by riding on top of the OS through a (basically) souped-up browser.

The people using AOL, for the most part, do not want to have to "think" about what they're doing or even what it all means. They just want to use it, like the toaster.

Hooray for mass-marketing.

[imdeemvp]

i went form aol to msn bacause of that......i know use sbc yahoo dsl and love it :D

[foolish]

I know there used to be trouble with getting online with AOL in open computer systems, you had to get a third party dialer that only kind of worked, is this still the case?

[Jman]

As far as I know AOL still has their own dialer that will only work on their network. But our household left AOL a couple years ago.

AOL does a good job at enabling people to get online with minimal effort - on AOL's network with AOL software of course. This naturally attracts beginner computer users, and frustrates more experienced users who just want to get on the Internet or use their own email client.

I did like AOL for their content however, like news.

[crackers]

I know there used to be trouble with getting online with AOL in open computer systems, you had to get a third party dialer that only kind of worked, is this still the case?
In the past couple of days, I've seen mention of an (apparently sanctioned) AOL dialer for Linux. I didn't check it out because I wasn't interested... even remotely.

That's a joke, son. I'll be here all week and be sure to tip the waitresses... ;)

[Shadow Skill]

Its not really fair to criticize AOL users so harshly, you have to understand that for the most part those of us who have broadband for example are the elite minority world wide (Although this is becoming less of a reality at this point it is still true.) Then of course there are the power users (pretty much anyone with the balls to try any Linux/Unix flavor aside from OSX [Which outside of the developer crowd is full of people who know nothing about real computers; if they did they would never buy those subpar pieces of crap mac calls computers especially the mobiles.] is a power user IMO. The typical AOL user has not reached the same level of awarness that people on these boards have (Those of us who are coming from Windows to Linux.) in regards to computers. Perhaps they have just started using them or use them sparingly so they have never really needed or wanted to know all of the niffty things we happen to know about them. Hell I am probably at the same level as the AOL user when it comes to Linux.

How many of you all have broadband connections? (I wouldn't recommend Linux to anyone without it no matter how good they were with computers, the "Library hunt" is just too ridiculous) As I am typing this I am heading into my third hour of a ridiculously long apt-get source --compile string of commands trying to get vlc to work right with mkv/ogm files. Three hours [Gives anyone who dares to insinuate that the "Library Hunt" is largely over a dirty look in light of current experience to the contrary..] of staring at a console spew out useless crap and the occassional apt error message complaining that a dependency failed or that no package was found. And yet after all this time I have no idea if my efforts will pan out...sigh.