[NBLUG/talk] Linux for an AOL addict?

[Walter Hansen]

I realize I know a little bit more than that. AOL also has DSL services.
Now the DSL hardware is the same as any other DSL, so the actual AOL
software for DSL service has to use pure tcp/ip.

But here's another lead. I'm pretty sure that AOL customers can now access
AOL services from 3 party computers via the web. I may be wrong, but a
little digging at AOL should tell the truth. Now the big question, if this
is true, is how similar to the software interface the web interface is and
whether you're friend would put up with it. I could be wrong, but I do
have some associates that use AOL and I tend to pick up information.

> On Sun, 2005-07-17 at 23:35 -0700, Walter Hansen wrote:
>> I know that once you actually connect to AOL, it basiclly behaves like a
>> normal ppp connection. The linux software probably establishes the
>> connection only.
>
> Sounds promising...
>
>> All the little AOL &*(^&^% probably requires their
>> software. Don't have a clue about it's availablity in linux. Dual boot?
>
> Dual-boot will not suffice for this kind of technophobe.  If I can't
> provide EVERYTHING she expects from a Windows PC without resorting to
> dual-booting, she'll never boot into Linux, not even to save her own
> sanity.
>
> I can see two possible solutions:
>
> 1. Install WINE, so that all the little AOL &*(^&% will run on Linux.
> I've never used WINE (yet), so I don't have any idea how well this would
> work.  I wouldn't be surprised if it proved slow and crash-prone, and
> while that might be acceptable for a veteran Windows user, it wouldn't
> be acceptable for me (as the guy who sets it up).
>
> 2. Find an alternative to all the little AOL &*(^&% that will provide
> all of the same so-called "premium content" on Linux, either using AOL's
> actual content or equivalent content pulled from other sources.  I
> haven't used AOL for about 8 years, but I'm sure that such an
> alternative would require lots of gaudy eye candy to be acceptable to
> the average AOL addict.
>
> ---
> Lincoln Peters
> <sampln at sbcglobal.net>
>
> This place just isn't big enough for all of us.  We've got to find a way
> off this planet.
>
>
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