UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi all!

Is there anyway for America Online to run under unix/linux? If not why has AOL not looked in this direction? My subscription ends in December so I will probably dich it and go with Cable or DSL. Any ideas before then?

Jeremy

AOL On-Line is web-based with a browser. You can run web browsers on any modern version of unix or linux.

Well, kind of. AOL makes it's own special "browser", and has many proprietary protocols that are not being ported to other operating systems.

Not to sound condescending, but the typical AOL user has never even heard the word Unix - there is no demand for it because the majority of their clients are fairly new to computing. So why should they spend time and money on it?

In fact, very few ISP's actively "support" other operating systems that Windows, and possibly Mac. It doesn't mean you can't use most ISP's, because they stick to open standards, such as PPP and TCP/IP. AOL, as I understand it, actually goes out of their way to make sure you're running their software to be on their network.

Sorry, I was not referring to any proprietary version. I was talking about :

http://www.aol.com/

So, if the user choses to use www.aol.com, AND they don't require any proprietary AOL usage other than a standard web broswer and plug-ins, they should be ok Iti is simply a matter of getting off the proprietary AOL client software and on to a standard web browser to AOL ..... (one choice)

Hi all again!

I mean the isp service not the web browser (which works 1/2 the time ). I understand that aol uses some strange way of making sure that you use their softwere. I gess that there is no way that aol is going to make a Linux or Unix version. Well the cable or dsl now looks even beter now!

Thanks to all!

Jeremy

pen and paper are better then useing AOL.

Is there any particular app that you want to use with AOL?

AOL has actually released a AOL IM Client for Linux and it is also available in the FreeBSD ports along with a host of other IM compatible clients.