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back to article Time Warner gives up selling AOL

Time Warner's board of directors are likely to decide today to spin-off AOL as an independent company. The ailing dial-up internet service provider has been hawked around for sale for several years. Disney and Microsoft are among those who rejected a deal. AOL famously began life as a dial-up ISP and covered doormats around …

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  1. Richard Porter
    Thumb Down

    Just let AOL sink!

    The problem with AOL is that it had an absolutely awful user interface. It tried to provide its own browser and download files in a foirmat that was incompatible with anything else. They tried to provides loads of content when all you wanted was access to email and the worldwide web. They seemed to assume that all you wanted was what AOL provided.

    The one good thing was that you got three months' free service in which to sort yourself out with a decent ISP.

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  2. Elmer Phud
    IT Angle

    Walls

    "They seemed to assume that all you wanted was what AOL provided."

    That's why I stayed well clear but it's the model the other ISP's still wish for. There are still plenty of people who's homepage is what thier ISP serves up but these very same people have also discovered Facebook and the like.

    Or maybe my reply to Richard should have just been 'AOL'

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  3. Mister Cheese
    Coat

    Re: Just let AOL sink!

    > The problem with AOL is that it had an absolutely awful user

    > interface. It tried to provide its own browser and download files

    > in a foirmat that was incompatible with anything else. They

    > tried to provides loads of content when all you wanted was

    > access to email and the worldwide web. They seemed to

    > assume that all you wanted was what AOL provided.

    > The one good thing was that you got three months' free

    > service in which to sort yourself out with a decent ISP.

    Me too.

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  4. Mal Franks

    Best thing about AOL

    were the free floppy disks. Once they moved to CD, I was gutted.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    CD Wall!

    I had a wall that was covered with AOL Cd's..... looked fucking amazing! How much must that have cost them.....

    Compuserve kicked the crap out of AOL back in the day.

    Now where is my 300buad modem!

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  6. Martin Lyne
    Happy

    hehe

    More info at

    www.timewarner.com

    AOL Keyword: fucked

    or

    AOL Keyword: goodriddance

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  7. Kevin
    Happy

    @CD Wall!

    This post reminded me of the best use for AOL CD's someone ever found http://stupidco.com/aol_throne_intro.html

    although I do miss my free cup coasters :(

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  8. Disco-Legend-Zeke

    Nostalga alert

    Back in the sixties, i was selling dialup service using 110 baud AJ acoustic couplers, and out big competitor was GE Time Sharing Services, which became GENIE, which became compuserve.

    AOL had a spectacular model, but they never survived the culture clash between new media and old.

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  9. Maestro
    Thumb Down

    Bunch of theiving cretins

    I say let em' die. They're the worst company i've ever had the misfortune of dealing with - and i never even used their services.

    I PURPOSEFULLY went out of my way to avoid ever having AOL, yet somehow they're now billing me for broadband access i never asked for, and neither me nor the bank can make them stop. They acknowledge that it's fraudulent activity, but won't cancel the account because I can't give them the AOL account name and details!! Cretins, thieving bastard Satan spawn. I hope that they and all their associates rot in the deepest depths of hell for all the headache and trouble they've caused me. Sooner they're put out of business the better.

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