I remember when AOL first began

[Brian Densmore]

Yeah,

Like this will actually reach Mr. Case.

AOL probably has a mail filter that goes something like this:

stevecase at aol.com > /dev/null

I don't mind if AO(Hel)L buys RedHat. Maybe they will learn something.
Or maybe an influx of personnel with moral aptitude would boost
corporation-wide morality ('course I'm speaking executives here).

Hey! It could happen.

Besides Redhat isn't all there is to Linux. And having a big nasty
corporation pushing Linux against M$ might actually help user
acceptance.
'course downside is, might actually cause forking of the kernel. I can
see
the beginnings of that already. Mandrake fork, Redhat fork, Torvalds 
(aka official) fork.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: DCT Jared Smith [mailto:jared at dctkc.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 9:33 AM
> To: stevecase at aol.com
> Cc: kclug at kclug.org
> Subject: I remember when AOL first began
> 
> 
> Dear Steve Case:
> 
> I remember when AOL first began. I remember reading your 
> personal e-mails to
> your earliest subscribers. I recommended your company to a 
> few friends, and
> then quit doing so several years ago, for the following reason:
> 
> Trying to make my website readable in all browsers, I 
> recently installed
> Netscape 4.79, thinking I would get a bare-bones browser from 
> the 1990s,
> with maybe a few enhancements. Instead, I got the whole AOL 
> experience:
> 
> Via this installation, America Online dropped seven links 
> onto my desktop,
> two links into my QuickLaunch bar, one link into my System 
> Tray, several
> links into my Start Menu, a handful of links strewn 
> throughout my Internet
> Explorer favorites section, it installed RealPlayer (which is 
> known for
> tracking users) without asking,
> somehow I've got a cookie to AOL without ever going to your 
> site, and there
> are at least three advertisements you've dropped onto my computer.
> 
> All of this without asking, under the guise of a simple Netscape
> installation.
> 
> In 14 years of Internet experience, AOL still has the record 
> for being the
> single most intrusive software I ever installed. Makes 
> Microsoft look like a
> friend. What's up with that?
> 
> Please reconsider your policy of taking over your user's 
> computers. Some of
> us do not want to track down every little AOL particle and 
> remove it, simply
> because we made the mistake of installing Netscape 4.79. I 
> have found this
> to be the case with anything remotely related to AOL.
> 
> Perhaps you are unaware of this. You have created a class of 
> users who will
> never use your software, and will recommend to anyone who 
> asks us... to go
> elsewhere.
> 
> I am sorry that you bought Netscape. Please fix it, or write back and
> explain why you do this. If you want to buy Red Hat, you've 
> simply got to be
> more humble.
> 
> -Jared
> 
> 
> 
> 
> majordomo at kclug.org
>