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Re: Even AOL Contributes to Open Source *GASP*

Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> __/ [ casioculture@xxxxxxxxx ] on Saturday 02 September 2006 03:17 \__
>
> >
> > Why "evem AOL"? Didn't they support Netscape/Mozilla for a number of
> > years and then when they spun them off and started the Mozilla
> > Foundation gave them a few million dollars?
>
> I didn't realise that they were behinf Mozilla, despite the Netscape
> relationships. My bad...
>
> I still perceive AOL as a company that thrives on ignorance, much like
> Microsoft.

Nah. AOL have historically been on the side of "the good guys".

They bought Netscape same year it went open source and bankrolled it.
They bought Naviserver and then open sourced it. They kept in tight
alliance with Sun Microsystems. They bought winamp (the player that was
synonymous with mp3) and kept it going and are now open sourcing it.
Their AIM messenger is going open source too. (media playback and
online presence were two things Microsoft wanted to totally dominate
but AOL kept them back for some years). I even remember when people
were saying that AOL was going to buy redhat. It seemed the natural
thing to happen back then.

Also, AOL is sibling of CNN. CNN have historically been "the good guys"
compared to many others. They cover international issues, such as
development for the poor, quite well, more than any other major TV
channel, and they have great support for the UN, and the UN supports
FOSS. Nevermind that CNN had great coverage for Linux even in the
1990s.

See this from January 22, 2002

"AOL, in fact, has tried twice to bring out Linux desktops. In 2000,
AOL and Gateway touted the Touch Pad, a Web-surfing appliance with a
Transmeta processor. Four months later, Gateway stopped promoting it.
And AOL Avant, a joint venture in Spain, also has promoted the
Dot.Station, an Internet-surfing terminal from Intel. Dot.Stations did
reach consumers, but the project has since been de-emphasized."

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-819578.html


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