America Online has dropped Internet Explorer from a test version of its software for MacOSX, the latest sign that the Internet giant wants a rematch in the browser wars with Microsoft. Read more at ZDNews.
AOL Drops IE from MacOSX Beta
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Maybe if AOL were to do this full scale and win back some market share, perhaps all of these damn ‘IE only’ websites will change their tune.
Not that I have a peroblem with IE, but websites that are built specifically around the capabilities of IE are usually much more bloated than they need to be.
Although I’m not a big AOL fan, right now I’m picking the lesser of the two evils. Good luck to AOL – hopefully will the end of “You need to use IE to browse this site” fairly soon.
Will they switch over the Windows version – that’s the real question.
Could someone post a screenshot of the new “aqua” look for this recent AOL beta…interested to see how gecko is used and how they have adapted their interface for OS X.
Yeah it would be nice to have the web browser agnostic, but some webmasters for some reason turn the browser into some sort of religion. My attitude is that if you don’t support my browser, then you don’t deserve my attention nor business because if you’re too lazy to build a fully compatible website, I am too lazy to download that browser you do support!
Isn’t it great to have consumer power? The customer is always right you know (even if they are wrong)!
AOL bought Netscape opened the code to navigator
and funds the Mozilla project for a reason
Could it be because they really don’t want to be under Uncle Bill’s thumb anymore?
Could it be they want to have total control over their browser?
Could it be they don’t like MS and just used IE to get on lots of desktops?
Could it be AOL gets it that if MS gets control over the web AOL will be taken out behind Bills barn and well you know.
Do you smell that?
Do you smell that?!!
I love the smell of napalm errr a browser war in the morning.
There is an entire generation of computer users who know nothing but an every expanding Microsoft monopoly, those days are over.
AOL starting their Mozilla/Netscape push.
StarOffice being portrayed in the computer press as a viable and in some cases the best choice for replacing MS Office.
Walmart selling MS OS free computers with Linux links right next to their adds.
Low end Linux servers running Samba in place of Windows servers.
MS’s growth is slowing to a rate comparable to a normal company.
Highly public failures like Hailstorm and XBox.
Court cases accumulating.
Home computer market slowing with consumers no longer seeing the need to upgrade their systems and hence no longer the enormous source of new Windows’s licence sales.
Any one not being particularly significant, but taken as a whole illustrate a dramatic change is taking place in the computer world.
AOL (eviilll) would loose to MS. MSN’s service is getting better and better, its cheaper, more reliable, its more easier to use (MSN Explorer)… But thank God, I’m using a real ISP (none of the above). There is an possiblity of Earthlink getting some share.
AOL will end up going to opera just to mess with everyones heads
Won’t happen but would be a good way to teach people to stop guessing what they are going to do.
putting XBox and Hailstorm together is misrepresenting the situation. XBox is far from a failure: expected 3.5 – 4 million shipped by June 2002 [ http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=105&STORY=/www/st… ].
A lot of people who don’t understand the gaming industry are looking at XBox through MS-Office glasses and think “Well, if MICROSOFT has to lower prices then it must have failed.” — gee, no, it’s just that there is competition in the gaming industry unlike in other markets where MS has a near-monopoly. MS is fighting in a highly competitive industry and is doing surprisingly well.
Please provide a link to a story that suggests XBox is a failure like Hailstorm. (I didn’t think so!)
XBox has increased Microsoft’s reach into consumer’s homes opening up a new angle of attack for it should typical consumer computer sales shrink. Being in control of home entertainment, internet on your TV, devices, etc. is not a bad strategy for a company with money to go the distance.
To make all of you MS-haters feel even worse, I’m sure you all know that [http://www.wugnet.com/] “…more than 60 million customers have been licensed for Office XP since the product was launched nearly one year ago. License numbers for Microsoft Office XP are more than double the number for Office 2000 licenses during a comparable time frame.”
60 million Office XP licenses!!!! Let’s call that a failure too for no apparent reason!
>>putting XBox and Hailstorm together is misrepresenting the situation. XBox is far from a failure: expected 3.5 – 4 million shipped by June 2002 [ http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=105&STORY=/www/st… ].<<
It’s still a piss in the wind compared to the over 30 million PS2 units that Sony has sold, and Sony hasn’t seen a slowdown in sales yet. And with hardly any games to speak of for the X-Box, there is only one clear choice… the PS2!
..the IE only pages disappear. Also because IE 5.1 on the Mac is not able to show ALL sites correct.
Thoems
The biggest thing about Mozilla that I hate is the address bar. When you click on it, it selects the entire address, which is fine, IE does that too, but if you have the whole address selected and then try to just select a portion of it, you can’t do it in Mozilla. It attempts to drag the address rather than making a new selection, which is just plain dumb, I don’t know many people that would want to drag the address (and it does it when you have just some of the address selected).
Well, I’m done ranting.
well right now i don’t have mozilla, but i am gettin it back shortly, but if you want to highlight only part of the address in moz, you have to click the addressbar(highlights url) then click it again(gives you a cursor) and then just drag the mouse(while clicking) over what you wanna highlight like always…no big deal.
Yeah, I know, it’s just annoying, who would want to drag the address, or drag part of the address? It’s just a stupid stupid UI flaw.
though i have no problems with the address bar, but the side bar is annoying. its beyond annoying…
You can dissable the side bar, it takes turning it off in two differant settings panels though. Why it is on by default i don’t know. Does anyone actualy use it and what for?
…that you can’t make it as default that all new Windows will made a new Tab, or is it somewhere ? I always have to right-click the links and make open-in-new-tab.
Tab is really cool, especially because on OSX it’s not so easy and fast (right-click prog-icon is no fast if you ask me) to change windows quickly.
Thoems
Why would AOL ever want their own browser?
They would be better off with letting others fight a browser war, as they wouldn’t have to put down a dime (they run their company to maximize profit, nothing else, mozilla would not have happened if they don’t think that it will bring them money, don’t kid yourself) and simply supply content.
So why do they want to buy in on software such as winamp, netscape, ICQ, etc? I myself would say control. Partly for a good reason, so that they know what their customers are using, and could help them better. But also because they would be in a position where they control the software which interprets the media.
And to be honest, when content AND the means to view the content is controlled by the same corporation, I feel uneasy. Wouldn’t you as well?
What version are you using? I’m using RC2 and do not see the address bar issue you are describing. In fact, it is much more functional that IE’s is.
Also, to rajan r. If you don’t like the side bar, why don’t you just turn it off?
I hadn’t used Mozilla or Netscape for a very long time (I’ve been using Opera since version 4). However, I installed Mozilla RC2 and I think it is awesome. IE was ahead in the browser space for a while, but Mozilla and Opera 6.x both put IE to shame as far as I’m concerned.
Does anyone actualy use it and what for?
I use the sidebar for google searches. When you search there, you google results remain on the side making it easier to follow links several layers deep and then click on the next google result without having to hit the back button many times or open new tabs or windows that you probably don’t really want open anyway.
It has it in every stinkin version.
So either a)You don’t understand what I mean, or b) you’re lying out of your ass.