IP: AOL's "upgrade of death"

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 15:51:28 -0500
> From: tim finin <finin () cs umbc edu>
>
> I like the quote "If a member picks yes, we make their lives simple".
> I'm experiencing this more and more in consumer grade software.  I
> think this represents one of the downsides to "agent oriented"
> interfaces.  These installation wizards are so eager to be of service
> and to help you if only you will delegate to them the nasty and
> complicated job of installing the software you wanted.  The next thing
> you know, they've taken over half of your environment and it's not
> always clear how to undo their work, short of taking drastic measures.
> Tim
>
> --
>
> Critics say new AOL software interferes with rivals
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/01/21/aol.five.ap/index.html
> January 21, 2000 Web posted at: 11:48 AM EST (1648 GMT)
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- The latest software from America Online Inc., the
> world's largest Internet provider, can prevent customers from using
> rival online services or corporate connections, enraging smaller
> competitors and even some of AOL's own subscribers.
>
> Critics contend that version 5.0 of America Online's Internet software
> -- which a national technology magazine this week suggested was "the
> upgrade of death" -- sometimes cripples existing Internet accounts
> with rival companies and prevents current AOL users from signing for
> service with competitors.
>
> "You're faced with a company that knew its software would blow up the
> ability of its competitors," charged Bill Kirkner, chief technology
> officer for Prodigy Communications Corp., an AOL competitor that has
> roughly 2.2 million subscribers. "We can get our customers through it
> if they call, but the solutions are sometimes a bit nasty to go
> through." These include deleting and reinstalling software, and
> sometimes tinkering with arcane technical settings.
>
> America Online, with 20 million subscribers, said complaints about
> interference by its latest software are overblown and the result of
> customers not understanding that if they click yes during installation
> to allow AOL to become their default Internet browser, AOL largely
> takes over all the online functions on the computer.
>
> "If a member picks yes, we make their lives simple," said Jeff
> Kimball, AOL's executive director for its client software. That means
> AOL seizes responsibility to display all Web pages, send all e-mail
> and exclusively perform other tasks online.
>
> But rivals and some AOL customers complain that the selection, made
> with a single click of a mouse with no added explanation, also can
> suddenly interfere with connections to rival Internet services or
> business accounts.
>
> "It wipes out their previous settings, and the customer becomes an AOL
> customer," said Kirsten Witt, a spokeswoman for Mindspring Enterprises
> Inc., with 1.3 million subscribers. "In effect it allows the customer
> only to access AOL."
>
> Peg Graham of New York installed AOL's latest software on her laptop
> weeks after its initial release in October with disastrous results:
> Her computer crashed. In vain, her laptop manufacturer urged her to
> reinstall her entire Windows operating system -- she did three times
> -- before she finally paid a local repair shop $145 to fix it.
>
> Afterward, she returned to an earlier version of AOL's software she
> considers less risky. She suspects the new program suffered conflicts
> with the laptop's network hardware she used to connect at her
> university.
>
> "There's no person to hold accountable," fumed Graham, who's now
> shopping for a new Internet service. "They just say, yes, we know
> there might be problems. It's almost like brushing you off."
>
> The complexity of modern software can lend itself to problems that are
> hard to diagnose and make it even harder to lay blame. Rival Internet
> providers won't say exactly how many customers have reported problems,
> and no one admits even to calling AOL formally to complain about its
> software's alleged behavior.
>
> AOL spokeswoman Anne Bentley reported "very minimal calls about this,"
> and many AOL customers said they installed the latest software without
> hassle.
>
> But AOL's own message boards, with thousands of complaints since
> Christmas, suggest these problems are more than fantasy concocted by
> disgruntled rivals. And this week, Windows Magazine's Web site asked,
> "AOL 5.0: The Upgrade of Death?"
>
> The magazine's technical testing showed AOL's software installed
> redundant files that threatened a computer's stability. The software
> crashed the first time it ran. "AOL can reduce a perfectly good
> computer system to a paperweight," the magazine concluded.
>
> Software problems like these also can take on enormous implications
> when a company becomes as dominant as AOL, which last week announced
> its $145 billion mega-merger with Time Warner Inc. That's a deal that
> will allow AOL to distribute this new software with Time Warner
> products, including its magazines, which draw 120 million readers. So
> far, about 8 million of AOL's 20 million customers have installed the
> new software.
>
> The federal government last year pursued high-profile antitrust
> complaints against Microsoft and Intel, proving that even goliaths of
> the nation's booming high-tech industry aren't beyond its regulatory
> scope.
>
> Indeed, as AOL Chairman Steve Case testified before Congress last
> April about high-speed Internet connections, he drew a mild rebuke
> from Sen.  Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., who cautioned that AOL one day
> could run up against antitrust laws because of its own dominance.
>
> "They're still a young-company mentality," said Frank Soler of San
> Francisco, an AOL subscriber since its earliest days who won't install
> the latest software for fear of its effects. "They could find
> themselves in a heck of a lot of trouble. Somebody might accuse them
> of trying to do away with competitors. They have to be very careful
> how they proceed."
>
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