AOL gets worse and worse.

[Shurikane]

Why the fuck is it that what we want, corporations do the exact and complete opposite?!

I sincerely can't believe some "cool" inventions for the Internet are complete crocks of shit that should've never existed, and I can't comprehend why they exist and much less why people use them in the first place.

I thought the MSN Messenger "winks" were already bad enough. I thought I had seen it all when I saw someone's contact list with at least six smilies on each side of his buddies' nicks.

Now to install AOL Instant Messenger.

The installer basically didn't do anything I wanted it to do.

(Note: TRILLIAN WAS NOT AN OPTION. NOR ANYTHING ELSE. I HAD TO INSTALL THE REAL AIM TO DO WHAT I WANTED TO DO)

I am asked if I want to install AOL Explorer.

I'm sorry, but MSN Explorer was already one step too many. I didn't need another dogshit web browser to try to steal all my Firefox settings and privileges. So I unckeck every single box about installing the software.

AOL Explorer installed itself, made itself the default web browser, and changed my starting page on IE to AOL Today.

Not only that, but clicking any URL inside AIM makes AOL Explorer open, regardless of which default browser I set. Kinda like MSN's completely useless maneuver of using IE to sign you into your Hotmail.

I'm sorry, but corporations are absolutely fucking stupid. I don't want a huge bloatware that takes an hour to download when I won't even use a tenth of it's so-called super-cool EZ 2 USE LOL features. I don't want skins. I don't want plugins. I LIKE MY PROGRAMS STRIPPED, GRAY AND BORING.

Uh-huh, and then someone will say "oh yea, well got a better idea lol?" I sure as shit do:

INSTALL-ON-DEMAND!

IE got it partly right with its language packs, so why didn't the other people catch on to it? I could save a shitload of hard drive space by installing only what I need. I have a webcam feature but no webcam. I have an extra web browser that I don't need. I have a ton of things I will most likely never use. Why wasn't anyone in the entire world bright enough to make a stripped program, ask what extras to install and then, if you click on something you don't have the program says "Hey, you don't have it. Want to install it?"

It'd save ME bandwidth.
It'd save the COMPANIES bandwidth.
And it would stop my blood from boiling.

[Andsectoid]

That is the reason I am rocking AIM 5.9 with the adds removed.

[Silver Adept]

Install on demand. So handy, so helpful, so very unlikely to frag your preferences. For all those reasons, it'll never happen. Comanies are too greedy and know more than a few ways to get around your preferences and set them to theirs.

Grah.

[MitchellTF]

AOL is pure evil. It actually inspired a fanfic, which has not been written.

Bullseye has a customer complaint. They don't answer. He goes to their place. He kills them all.