America Online X

AOL is a blatant ripoff to any competent consumer, I urge you to cancel your account immediately and get a real browser such as IE or Netscape. These browsers do not require any monthly fee, and are far more flexible.

Hmmm. 10.3.7 was the last version of AOL. Cheshire seems to be the verion. Which browers does it use? Safari, or Explorer? Is there a version for 10.3,9 Panther?

Best Asset...Fast. Still a beta so I reserve any more comment at this time.

What's with half of the chat profiles showing html tags? Clicking the picture tab in profiles often makes the AOL logo in the upper right ripple like something is happening (cool effect, but its too far from what you're doing to be useful). When no pictures load, the rippling continues, even when clicking back to the main part of the profile it continues. It seems like some sort of error should be sensed and a message displayed (No pictures, server farted, whatever).

The client is loaded with half-baked features. For instance if you select someone in a buddy list and do Buddy Info you can Send Mail, Send Instant Message, Add to Address Book, View Profile, View Web Page, and Locate Buddy. But if you select someone in a chat room there's just an ignore checkbox, Send Message and Buddy Info. Buddy Info doesn't do what the other Buddy Info did, it brings up a profile. It makes sense not to have the Locate Buddy feature there (since you see him in the chat room), but the others ought to be there. Double-clicking should bring up an IM window. Other SMALL buttons below the list of people in a room could bring up the other features (or one button bring popup choices), also control-clicking or right-clicking (for those with multibutton mice) should be able to bring up the choices directly from the screen name. Considering how long AOL has been around they've still got a long way to go with polished features and the user interface. These guys ought to try the open source chat clients and use some other Mac software (like iTunes) to get an idea of what good software feels like. There's more to it than just having a list of features and not crashing.

While I'd never pay for AOL, a family member has it and sharing it with a bunch of people works well as a backup ISP. Multiple screen names can be logged on at once when it's through another ISP (not using AOL dialup). It was very late in coming compared with the Windows version, but I am glad they added support for using an existing LAN (cable/DSL/wireless) connection. Many things are still incredibly lame... obvious sloppy things like not sorting lists of chat rooms alphabetically. And its a joke that AOLs own news links aren't compatible with the browser much of the time. Other instant messaging clients provide more control and some features Adium X on Mac OS X and GAIM on Windows provide file transfers, support for multiple systems (AIM, Yahoo, MSN etc), encryption, No video in those yet, but it'll be added when other open-source projects evolve. This Mac AOL client doesn't do video yet either, but iChat users with a iSight camera can conference with users of the Windows AIM client. The Windows AIM client is very annoying being full of ads and confusing buttons related to other services, so it should be avoided in favor of GAIM unless one needs the video feature. I'd like to see the AOL clients redesigned to allow a totally ad-free interface to paid users, with ads only appearing in the free AIM client (and in a free chat-room client that I think they should release) At least the Mac OS X client is being improved. It's been pretty stable for me, although things like accessing photos in chat profiles seem quirky. They really ought to have that done in a browser friendly way so users of ancient clients (OS 9 or old Windows) have access, and so AIM users can link to pix. It's be another place for them to sell ads.

Ok guys enough already! AOL is not all bad, I've been a member since late '96. I still have the floppy for version 3, lol. Now as for 10.3.7, it seems stable on my Mac, I run a G3 B&W, running Jaguar 10.2.8 so far so good. It is to bad AOL didn't change its look alittle, or to add something different. The only other con I can see is that it creates a 2nd folder as in the OS 8&9 days, but no big deal, just remember the use the new icon in the Dock etc. Now to you Eggheads out there, first get a life, and second, repair your Hard Drives before installing AOL For the issue of piggy backing, I say go for it! I've been doing it since '97, I go by the theory that if AOL goes down for any reason ( or nonpayment ) you still have your local ISP to get online. I have more then one browser if one acts up, and I also use AIM, for when I don't want to log onto AOL. I hope this puts the matter to rest. Relax and have fun out there guys. Ray

Very unreliable, crashes all the time, firefox or safari.. even Internet Explorer are all better