Screaming Penguin

RANT_MODE = true; AOL sucks because AOL sucks ASS! OK, thats a little ad hominem, even if it is true. Anyway, the reason this mini rant was prompted was that over the last few days AOL has decided to block users of the free (and coincidentally better than AIM) instant messenger software Trillian. For some background, Trillian is very solid. Trillian is free, flexible (works with AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, etc), xml based, skinnable, not full of stupid popup ads and banners and overall much better than just about any other IM client (sans Jabber, Jabber is my personal favorite, but Trillian is right there.) Until yesterday Trillian worked with AIM. AOL has blocked it several times and Trillian has created a new release each time to circumvent the block. AOL claims that for "security purposes" they block actions like this each time anyone "hacks into" their system. Trillian does not "hack" anything, it simply connects AIM users with valid AIM accounts to the AIM service and servers with exactly the same network calls as AIM uses? AOL couldnt tell a hack if there was one on their wise old CEOs sack. Did I mention that AOL sucks ass? This is not the only incident of this type. AOL is notorious for stunts like this and for all around ignorance. If AOL would wake up they would realize that users of the Trillian client are just that, clients, and they still have to have AIM accounts, use AIM buddies, etc. Overall it actually proliferates the AIM crap rather than being detrimental to it. Its exactly this kind of mentality and move that would make AOL and Redhat, or AOL and anything good (ala Netscape) a terrible idea. AOL will use every resource they have (which is considerable) to make any product or item they are associated with more and more proprietary, closed and hostile. This is exactly NOT what Linux and open source are about. AOL also destroyed Netscape in a software debacle to rival all others (although they were certainly willing to be "open" and accept the community development of Mozilla and use it as Netscape, they still managed to make business decisions that effectively killed Netscape by releasing it way to early against the advice of the Mozilla developers.) AOL may be excited to get on the Linux bandwagon, to leverage more of the open source community efforts, but AOL has the weight and stupidity to crash the cart. For more info see the links, and note the AOL CEO story and what he said about Anthrax attacks being "incredibly positive for the Internet." That single line gives you an idea of the mentality. RANT_MODE = false;   Yahoo News Link to AOL Sucking Ass