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Technology Stocks : America On-Line: will it survive ...? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam who wrote (10789)	7/28/1998 9:36:00 AM
From: Yikes	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13594

Are you serious?! ICQ can become whatever AOL wants it to become - the reason being AOL now owns it! Yes, it is a free service (for now). But does it have to stay that way? The software can be recoded (and it should btw, some security holes), and more importantly the UI can be designed to support advertising. If you think that AOL simply decided to buy ICQ to spend some cash - you need to revisit a principal called ROI. A lot of programming and public acceptance before you can count ICQ users as subscribers. But you already did count them. (Follow the message number twice to see for yourself.) Don't count your chicken before the eggs hatch. Wrong. No one is "forced" to run Windows/NT. I'm sure you've heard of UNIX, Linux, Macintosh? Yes, there is another world other then Windows. You saying that AOL can be duped - but Win can't? Nothing is farther from the truth. Any technology out there today can be improved, re-engineered and re-packaged. All it takes is enough capitol - both monetary and human. Go down to BestBuy and see how many UNIX, FreeBSD, Linux, or Macintosh computers they sell. Then walk down the software isle and count the number of non-Windows software. No one can create another OS like Windows because retail consumers cannot buy software for them. Macintosh is barely surviving as it is. BeOS made a splash a while ago. Yet if I manage to install it on my computer today, where could I buy a word processor with grammar checker or PhotoShop for it? That's what a monopoly means. Joe Shmoe buying a computer for the first time is forced to buy Windows because the salesperson recommends it, and Joe only sees Windows software on the shelf. I use Windows because I am forced to. If I have my choice, I would be using my NeXTstep (it's next to me) or a Macintosh. Windows is my last choice. But not much software is available for the NeXTstep or Macintosh. Can't run my realtime InterQuote on them. Can't run a proxy modem server on them. Can't play cool 3Dfx games like Quake and Unreal on them. I am forced to use Windows. No one is forced to use AOL. Yikes