If it gets to the point that you can't use the internet without Microsoft products then I guess that I don't need to use the internet also.
Gersh, you are crying fire when there is no fire. There is the issue of ease of use though. The fact is, Win95 gave the average user the ability to hook up to the internet. MSFT provided Win95. As a non-Apple et al user, I'm grateful for that.
But re ease of use..perhaps you should save some vitriol for AOL and their marketing and technology tactics. Here we have a case where MicroSoft Network and AOL competed the same way--both had clickable icons on the "first screen" for neophytes to click on to get connected to the internet.
Facts: My sister, an average very very busy Mom, first got onto the internet via MicroSoft Network - she didn't admit it, but I know her lack of technical savvy, and I very strongly suspect that she went onto the MicroSoft Network only because there was an icon there to guide her through the process - ease of use. Next, she got sick of MSN and got set up with AOL - Again, most likely because the icon was there to set her up - it was easy. After she got heartily sick of 9600 bps connections, she finally took the effort to get set up with a local ISP. It wasn't as easy, but she found that the ISP was happy to help her get her computer set up properly.
The Point - MSN used all the power they had to get new users to sign with MSN. AOL was also allowed to have their icon there on the first screen - and AOL has "won" this battle for users, so far: AOL is a defacto monopoly in their own space - ISPs.
Do you have any idea how much power AOL has over users, due to their "ease of use"? Let me tell you how much - I have a cousin who has used AOL exclusively for a couple of years, on a few different home and work computers. He uses them because it's the only way he knows how to get on the internet - he just clicks on the AOL icon and it sets up his computer. He's definitely a very very non-technical newbie type person; and he doesn't learn new things, period. Last Wednesday I showed him how to access the world-wide web. After logging on to AOL, I simply clicked on the Interenet Explorer Icon and typed in an address onto the address line. He was like "Wow! How did you do that!". It was the first time in over two years of being online that he had ever seen cyberspace outside of the AOL network content. And the first time he had seen the Internet Explorer browser.
That's power, Gersh. But where is the outcry against AOL? Seems like ISPs nationwide, all the "small guys" should get a class-action lawsuit going pronto. |
