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1. Comment - AOL debuts new desktop software for Windows

   (Dec 11, 2007 - 6:28 PM)

   Their software generally sucks, too; take everyone's word for it. If you don't have a problem with how AOL behaves on your PC, you are rare. Just wait until you try to uninstall it; older versions don't exactly remove cleanly (some don't like being removed at all and will fight you on it tooth and nail). Newer versions uninstall cleanly, but lose their Internet connectivity constantly especially on Vista, and offer no big-deal improvements over 9.0 whatsoever.

2. Comment - AOL debuts new desktop software for Windows

   (Dec 11, 2007 - 6:12 PM)

   Has anyone reading this tried this browser? I test-drove it when it was the next to last beta of Helix and it chewed through RAM in a way that would make Firefox's so-called "memory leak" just beam with pride. It never ran under 80 MBs once it "warmed up" if I recall correctly. I missed Firefox so much the afternoon I used it (and I forced myself to use it for hours that day, just to give it a fair shake) it about made me cry. Like other off-the-wall AOL offerings it had some weird "geeky" features, like "I need eyeglasses" "View this page backwards", "View this page upside-down" etc. The only browser feature I liked was integrated IP lookup; AOL's Desktop s the only browser I've seen do that, and I've test-run many different browsers (probably 20) in the last few years.
   
   Hated: the memory usage, the lack of customizations and add-ons, the few skins it had, and the claustrophobic feeling I had the entire time like I was "trapped" inside of it somehow. The integrated email feature did not work at all with Earthlink, Yahoo, or PeoplePC; overall it was a "run don't walk" back to Firefox kind of experience for me.
   
   If I ran AOL and wanted a competitive browser for IE7 and Firefox I would just push the Netscape browser onto the masses that much harder (rebrand it as an AOL product if you have to, that's really not a big deal) and drop code development for the other experimental browsers altogether. THAT would finally get the AOL crowd using the best browser on Earth (the code and engine is probably identical, and Netscape is no longer full of pop-ups or other privacy invasions, either; or at least nothing that can't be easily disabled). Cost to push the Netscape browser to the masses? *Nothing.* AOL already owns the code and pays the devs to do whatever they do with it, and pushing it *instead* of pushing the AOL browsers would not cost AOL an extra dime. Should I run AOL or what?