SAN MATEO (02/14/2000) - (These edited excerpts from our Web site's forums provide a sample of the lively debate that takes place there. For the full discussions, go to www.infoworld.com and click on the forums button.)AOL 5.0 anger"When I started not being able to access some sites, I thought it was just me, or that those sites were just down for the moment, or there was too much traffic on the Internet and my request got dropped. I can't believe that this is all just a little oops on AOL's [America Online Inc.'s] part."
"I was blaming my computer. I even bought a new one! Same problems: freeze-ups, sudden disconnects, error messages. I never thought about it being AOL, but once I had loaded AOL things got noticeably worse."
"AOL 5.0, when installed, knocked out the NetZero and Freei.Net connections.
Blue screens of death appeared and browsers like Opera ceased to function.
Removing the AOL 5.0 software resolved most of these issues."
"I received the trial disk and thought that if I didn't like it, it would be no problem to make it go away. Well, stupid me! AOL 5.0 is now costing me a lot just to get it out of my PC. I'm using my laptop until I can get it out of the shop. Everything was out of whack. Even after uninstalling it, the jerks (AOL) still charged me $29.00."
"My experience has been painless. First ... no software gets a 'yes' vote to install itself as default ... especially something as bulky as the AOL client.
In this case, it is that action alone that causes the problem."
"I'm a Unix administrator for a software developer. Anytime our employees install AOL on their home systems, they can no longer dial into our company network or use our VPN option (or any other previously working ISP setup). They bring their system in, and the fastest solution is to back up whatever files they want saved, wipe the disk, and re-install the OS and applications."
"It's about time people started suing en masse, because that's apparently the only way to get the attention of software publishers. Of course, they're trying to head that off with UCITA [the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act]."
"Should AOL be liable for $8 billion in damages because most of its customers are not intelligent enough to read the messages while installing a piece of software? Maybe this will teach the casual user to be more careful, huh?"
"[Developers of] software for the casual user must be careful. The industry has worked hard to convince people software is easy and they should be able to do everything themselves. Then, when it gets screwed up they are sure it's the fault of whomever sold them the computer."