.5 Use Internet Explorer mobile.

I've tried all of the beta builds up until now, and I've promptly deleted the whole thing after realizing how useless the AOL client is. I have Adium and Mail to handle the bulk of what AOL desktop does, and while it's nice that it's finally a universal binary application, I wonder how relevant it will remain after all this time.

Are Mac users smart enough to navigate AOL?

Are you serious? those chicks are morally ambiguous with large breasticies, there's is not reason not to date them (3 or 4 at a time)!

6. Dip genitals in acid.

Yeah Mark, I'd make you do all those things as well before I installed AOL Desktop onto my Mac.
I'd also have to make you buy me a Mac but that's a separate matter...

@GeekyNerdGuy: The real question is...are you?

You've got shit!

@GeekyNerdGuy: Actually, they only need to be smart enough to AVOID AOL.

It boggles my mind (easy enough, but still) that people still use AOL on any platform at all. But there I go again, underestimating the power of intertia and fear of change.

Yesterday I was in class and an older student (~60yo) booted up AOL on her old thinkpad in front of me.

I couldn't believe AOL was even still around. I used that until I was like 8... it is just so terrible.

Why is AOL still around? Seriously, do they live by the motto, "There's always the next Idiot?" I was one of those idiots in the 90s sad to say....

if only they'd send me a cd-rom to get started. haha. oh no!...that was just a joke! dont send...aggghhh!

I couldn't believe people used AOL when dialup ISPs were the best option for connecting to the internet. The fact that anyone still uses it now makes me want to hurt people.

@Darrone: Oh, my stars and garters... When Mark said that, I thought he meant dating the GUY on the bachelor. Which would be funny.

@ps61318: It's cuz they had an awesome marketing campaign back in the late 90's. They would give you those sample CD's for internet then you were hooked. Most people didn't even know that there were other ISPs out and they were running that business well into the broadband market too!

@ravedown:Oh Boy you asked for it! Just wait for your 1,0000000 FREE DAYS Trial CD!

AOL won't be around much longer in the current form - so who got paid to code this? What where they thinking?

J

Why is AOL still doing this? I thought they did away the client with a website instead.

Dear AOL,

We've been patient. We've been waiting this out. We've seen the writing on the wall for years now. Yet you still refuse to die.

We didn't want it to come to this, we wanted you to fade away peacefully, with dignity, with honor. But you've forced our hand, and we have no other choice.

We are going to kill you, AOL. You won't know when, and you won't know where. We're watching you, you know. We're always watching you.

7. Read Engadget instead of Gizmodo

@kingburrito: As the longest running virus in the history of computers, I believe remnants of the aol software will still be infecting computers long after the company is gone. AOL is the herpes of computer software. Your computer might not always be showing symptoms, but once you get it you're stuck with it.

It's good to know Apple doesn't fill their computers up with (much) trial shit before shipping them out. When I still used PC I hated it when I brought home a new one and there were 8 AOL trials on my desktop.

@ps61318: Hey if you are gay no reason not to date him .... same goes for the woman ... i mean come on there are worse catches out there (me being one of them) ;)

It's a happy day for masochists everywhere-

Now they can download AOL Desktop, and while they're at it, click on a few "You have one 2 free iPod Nano ads" and start making 1000$ a day from the comfort of my own home!

@ps61318: Believe it or not, but there are some people out there that think that AOL is like a phone company where they don't have any choice of ISP.

@kingburrito: Are you serious? I would of bitch slapped the Think pad out of her hands and shaken her until she was released from teh grip of the AOL succubus.

correction: "their own" home.

@videoCWK: at least the trial shit on an apple is from apple and can be removed easily ...
The new PC of one of my friends had 5 (FIVE !!!!) Toolbars preinstalled ... suddenly i understood why everyone buys 24" displays ...

@Enigmaaron1: In the early-to-mid 90s AOL made sense because it had quite a bit of content compared to the vast void known as the World Wide Web. But yeah, by the late 90s it was outdated and has never recovered.

AOL still has its place (and no I don't mean in the bottom of a trash heap) - my mother, for example...for her, AOL is perfect, as she is the least computer savvy human being alive.

That having been said, the mac clients have been the worst POS's of ever.

@GeekyNerdyGuy Mac users are smart enough to *NOT* use AOL ;-)

@videoCWK: If a company makes thier own hardware and software, it doesn't make any sense to put third party stuff into thier own product.

i still use an aol email account (free) because its the same e-mail address that I've had for about 15 years - meaning that old friends can always find me (although now, with facebook and its ilk, the unchanging email address is not as important as it once was).

The only reason I still use AOL is because it's now free, so with a free account there's no real reason to cancel my email address and go through my other accounts to change the info.

That said, don't fuck with me AOL. I have a gmail account, and I know how to use it.

I don't know anyone who owns a PC that likes or uses AOL, what makes them think they can break into the Apple market?

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: So true, so true.

I thought AOL gave up a couple of years ago, but I guess I was wrong.

Sweet! Does it include free dial-up?

So is AOL going to come preinstalled on Apple compys too annoy that market too?

Could be good news, because frankly, no program gives me greater satisfaction than uninstalling AOL.

You've got mail.

I remember back when I was in high school around 95ish, we had AOL dial-up, and I met my first hot chicks online in the chat rooms.

Met two or three of them for dinner or whatnot. They were fat back then too.

OH!!! I want a Darth Maul face tattoo!!!

LOL

@Rabid Penguin: In defense of the application itself, it's a hell of a lot nicer on Mac than the one on Windows. It's a lighter weight program that doesn't eat up memory like AOL 9.0 VR whatever shit they use now, doesn't have this ridiculous installation process and doesn't lace your system with other hidden apps, like AOL dialer. If I didn't have any other applications already doing what I used to do on AOL lo those many years ago, AOL Desktop 1.0 would actually be a rather passable system.

This is great, but where's the AOL desktop for iPhone?!

I remember my first AOL experience in dial-up days. Installed the free trial, clicked on it and five minutes (if even) later, logged out and never looked at that infernal interface again.

My second AOL experience was when they started billing us 30 days later and we had to call up and threaten to eviscerate people to get the charges removed. At least I managed to avoid handling the application this go-round.

Two experiences too many.

who even uses AOL now a days?
seriously.... it's not 1996

@Gann: Sorry but Windows has been around longer than AOL ;-)

@Kaiser-Machead: I used to have AOL back in the day. I only used it up until 3.0 though. I was never the same after that, I still go to counseling. I just don't see the point of it. It looks like a lot of trouble and overhead just to have the cluttered up homepage feel of Yahoo or MSN with the functionality of Google.

@Kaiser-Machead: ...and you have demonstrated exactly that to which I was referring. Most people still using AOL really just don't want to bother changing email addresses, at least among my consulting clients (small businesses and home users). And frankly, it is a pain in the buttuchus (made that one up, gotta stay ahead of the content filters here) to make such a change - especially if you've got 1000 business cards and twelve reams of letterhead... The cost of changing, even given the tools available to do so, is too high for the perceived benefit.

wow now it happens... now finally now Mac users will start feeling the pain of having truely crappy software on their computers and ruining the experience...

wow can you imagine how quick Apple would crash if macbooks came preinstalled with AOL and Earthlink like most new pc laptops do lol.

@ps61318: AOL is the reason that customers i talk to daily somehow thing that MSN.com (Their homepage) is "the internet" ... i swear to god i get 15-20 people a day that call the ISP here in the caribbean that SWEAR TO GOD that msn.com when they open they open IE is the entire internet and that they can click from their elsewhere...

that address bar at the top somehow is magical and odd to them LOL>

Noooooooo! AOL is NOT touching my Macs!

@phantam: From my experience with this software from the first to final build, I can say that the problems and glitchy bullshit that the "regular" AOL software can be given blame for just doesn't seem to exist. If Macs came preinstalled with AOL, it would likely just be the desktop (which seems to be all there is so far), and it wouldn't be automatic or have other little things that start up when you boot in. Heck, it doesn't even have that stupid long intro window with the logo telling you "Initializing" > "Updating Locations" > "Starting" that can last forever on a bad day.