Once upon a time, there was a computer hardware company that never, ever stressed the state of the art but sold hot air and unwarranted confidence to customers who knew no better. They used monopolistic practices to stifle competition from more innovative but smaller competitors and, much later, used and took credit for those competittors' developments. And thus IBM blunted progress in computer hardware development during the 60's and 70's.

Later, there was a software vendor that never, ever stressed the state of the art but sold hot air and unwarranted confidence to customers who knew no better. They used monopolistic practices to stifle competition from more innovative but smaller competitors and, much later, used and took credit for those competittors' developments. And thus Microsoft blunted progress in computer software development during the 80's and 90's.

Still later, there was an on-line services company that never, ever stressed the state of the art but sold hot air and unwarranted confidence to customers who knew no better. They used monopolistic practices to stifle competition from more innovative but smaller competitors and, much later, used and took credit for those competittors' developments. And thus AOL has attemted to co-opt the Internet for their own profit, blunting progress in the 90's and threatening to do worse in the future.

As of now, AOL has not strangled competition and offers nothing that cannot be had, usually faster and often better, elsewhere on the Internet ... but they're trying. Don't help them. Get yourself a real ISP and see how slow AOL is, how poorly they have been treating you. See that they offer nothing unique. Don't give them your money now, lest we all regret it 10 years from now.

For another reason to switch, see:

January 2001 Update: Watch out folks, it's happening! Please pay attention.