[thelist] AOL wants to buy RH Linux??

.jeff jeff at members.evolt.org
Sun Jan 20 15:47:35 CST 2002


deke,

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> From: deke
>
> Hmmm. Comparing Mapquest and Mirabilis to WebTV and SCO,
> I'd have to say that AOL is "a" and Microsoft is "b"
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yes, one can find specific examples to counter my general comment all they
like, but the fact remains that aol is just a large, company-gobbling
megalith that only has their own interests in mind, let alone the interests
of their own customers.

let's talk about mapquest.  it used to be one of the best mapping sites on
the net (circa 98ish).  now look at it, it's just an aol billboard -- 6
banners on the homepage and they're all for aol.  do a search.  tons of more
banner ads, all for aol or aol-owned companies.  looks more like a
circle-jerk than genuine service offerings to me.  it's probably no wonder i
use expediamaps.com now.  not only are they almost devoid of advertising
(save for same site ads), but also have a much more usable interface, better
maps, better features, faster returns, etc.  so they're owned by microsoft,
big deal.  if anything that's proving my point.

here's an idea if you think aol isn't so bad -- go find some documentation
on a particular product from aol.  now, go find documentation about a
particular product from microsoft.  sure, you might have alittle difficulty
finding microsoft's, but you'll be damned if you can find anything for aol.
heck, webtv's developer documentation is *really* easy to find:

http://developer.webtv.net/

you can even get a viewer for testing your pages in.  can you do the same
for aol's service.  ha!  yeah right.  you can if you infest your system with
an aol install and pay for the service each month.

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> But the key point of this is that RED HAT DOESN'T OWN
> LINUX.
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well, yes.  quite true and a fair distinction.  however, you're missing the
point i was making in that aol would own the os on the computers of its
users (from the perspective that their customers couldn't migrate to another
os).

just my 2c,

.jeff

http://evolt.org/
jeff at members.evolt.org
http://members.evolt.org/jeff/






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