Microsoft buys off AOL for $750 million
- Thread starter manly
- Start date
I think AOL will continue to lose subscribers to high speed internet companies dispite their best efforts to thwart the movement :/
XZeroII
Lifer
- Jun 30, 2001
- 12,572
- 0
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buys off AOL? They were forced to pay AOL because AOL is a crybaby. Netscape sucked and lost because they never upgraded it and IE just got so much better. Netscape lost the browser war fair and square. Unfortunatly, AOL is 100x more evil than MS and here is the proof.
A bargain: they get off easy for using the Windows monoply to destroy Netscape, and by offering use of IE for free they give AOL no reason to continue development on Netscape. And they make sure AOL keeps IE as its browser engine.
This is right up there with funding SCO's fight against linux in defend-the-monopoly cleverness.
This is right up there with funding SCO's fight against linux in defend-the-monopoly cleverness.
I couldn't care less about AOL. I do, however, care about Opera/Mozilla/*insert non-sucky browser*
seriously, i was hoping to read that MS was gonna buy the AOL portion of AOL/Time Warner and let Time Warner be what it always should have been.
Someone has no grasp of history.
During the browser wars:
Gates decided to make IE free simply to "cut off their oxygen" -- that is to drive Netscape out of business by giving them no way to make money. This is also why Internet Information Server was made free and bundled in with Windows NT. It worked very well: Netscape instantly lost over $30 million a year in revenue.
Microsoft charged higher Windows license fees to any company that wanted to ship Netscape preloaded on their machines. They also included license terms that companies could not pre-install the Netscape logo shortcut on Windows desktops.
Microsoft forced software developers to install IE in order to access online help for tools, and forced developers to install IE on customer machines in order to use features of Windows that had nothing to do with web browsing (the common controls DLL).
Microsoft was convicted of abusing their Windows monopoly power to damage Netscape. The settlements were to determine the penalties for their criminal behavior.
DaveSimmons,
Well he's an MS shill and believes they got to where they are solely through "innovation". There's plenty of evidence to prove otherwise, but that's irrelevant to many Americans. They see MS as the pinnacle of corporate success, and the argument ends right there. Never mind silly old antitrust laws.
Speaking of innovation, this was an interesting piece I saw recently:
http://www.kickassgear.com/Articles/Microsoft.htm
Well he's an MS shill and believes they got to where they are solely through "innovation". There's plenty of evidence to prove otherwise, but that's irrelevant to many Americans. They see MS as the pinnacle of corporate success, and the argument ends right there. Never mind silly old antitrust laws.
Speaking of innovation, this was an interesting piece I saw recently:
http://www.kickassgear.com/Articles/Microsoft.htm
Somewhere down the bottom of that article..see the picture of Richard Parsons, CEO...
he is brushing his teeth with his fingers.
o yeh...AOL must die!
he is brushing his teeth with his fingers.
o yeh...AOL must die!
Originally posted by: slycat
Somewhere down the bottom of that article..see the picture of Richard Parsons, CEO...
he is brushing his teeth with his fingers.
o yeh...AOL must die!
WTF are you talking about, idiot? He's doing something you don't: thinking.
XZeroII
Lifer
- Jun 30, 2001
- 12,572
- 0
- 0
I see you read LOTS of newspapers. Unfortunatly, you get a very biased interpretation. You are not wrong about most of it, but you are also way off on some stuff. Integrating the browser into the OS was the next logical step in the evolution of the the webbroswer and OS. Yes, MS was convicted and everything was true about what they did. But Netscape didn't put up much of a fight. Netscape basically just fell over and died w/o throwing a single punch. Competition is the key to innovation and capitalism. Netscape had many options available to it to fight back, but it chose not to do any of them. It just sat there and let IE win. THAT is what I hate about netscape. MS innovated many features into IE and made IE lots better than Netscape. It was Netscape's job to innovate and win back their customers, or at least try. But it didn't. It didn't even try. Now, it complains. Netscape got what it deserved. It deserved to die. It sucked. AOL doesn't deserve all that money. They bought Netscape and sat on it and got what they deserved, the death of Netscape.
It's nice to see DaveSimmons lay out a solid argument based on facts, and XZeroII's rebuttal based on his personal disdgain for Netscape accuses Dave of bias.
You do have a point about Netscape being slow to the table, but also realize they lost any revenue they would've got from selling the software, therefore they needed investment from other sources. Since MS was well established, and had other source for cash flow, they didn?t have a huge problem with giving their browser away.
Schadenfroh
Elite Member
- Mar 8, 2003
- 38,416
- 4
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the AOL part of time warner is draging down the TimeWarner part. TimeWarner should just off load them and sell them to microsoft and end it already. **waits for justice department to clear such a measure**
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