[thelist] AOL wants to buy RH Linux??

Denis, David DDenis at inlumen.com
Sun Jan 20 17:45:09 CST 2002


.jeff,

> yes, i know they own netscape.  whether or not it's the most standards
> compliant browser is a completely different story.  netscape 

Well I think Andrew's reply on the subject is a good start and I'm not
really inclined to track down links showing the better CSS, HTML and DOM
support that Mozilla/Netscape 6.x has.  Netscape has gone to great pains to
support open standards in their latest browser.

> is an odd beast
> though as it was well in production before aol purchased it.  
> try taking a
> product they built from the ground up themselves and see how standards
> compliant it is.  one *good* example is how they choose to 
> ignore email
> protocols with their built-in email client.

I agree.  I'm also perplexed by other AOL purchases such as WinAmp, which
they've basically done nothing with.

> ok, let me rephrase.  "another thing is that aol is a media 
> company first --
> microsoft is not.  sure microsoft tries to be a media company 
> as well, but
> that's not their top priority."

So then I understand the difference with AOL Time Warner getting involved in
the software business as Microsoft has tried to get into the media business.
Don't get me wrong, at the end of the day I think AOL's purchase of Redhat
would be a bad idea.  Not because it would hurt the linux community in any
way (the GPL would hopefully stand up) but that it just doesn't make sense.

> ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> > And they'd love to purchase a major cable provider as
> > well.
> ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> 
> oh yeah?  says who?

I thought you were kidding at first but I guess not.  OK, here ya go:

http://www.thestranger.com/2001-08-16/city4.html

<wrap>
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:eRoGRR6s8rUC:www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories
/news/0,4586,2803853,00.html+microsoft+talks+buy+cable&hl=en </wrap>

had to get the second link off google since the story is gone.  Microsoft
also has over $1 billion in comcast who stands to gain big if they get the
AT&T business:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/invest/2001/12/05/microsoft-to-thwart-aol
.htm

Personally I find both Microsoft and AOL terrifyingly large companies.

Dave




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