I used it. A family member is pissed because he says it means Apple is now extorting more money from him. His iMac "works fine" but since it is so old it doesn't support messages, and there is no real alternative to iChat/AIM, this is "more evidence that Apple just wants to steal from all of us by making things that don't last." And by last, he means "more than a few years."
Fairly, I a bit surprised someone didn't buy AIM from AOL. There is certainly a market.
There are plenty of alternatives like Skype or Google Talk. Look at the Adium client, it supports pretty much all the remaining chat services there are.
Google Talk might work. But just to shut my family member up, I'm taking him a refurbished iMac that supports messages. It is completely worth it to stop the bitching.
I don’t understand how this person can’t comprehend that Apple has nothing to do with this?
Because they most likely don't understand how technology works and they might have been using iChat which is an Apple app which will no longer work. Therefore, its Apple's fault because they can't install Messages, and/or a newer version of Mac OS X (macOS) that supports Messages on this particular Mac. Its the same people who think when they pay for something, it should last forever and be supported forever which we all know how it actually works.
Oh, so you've met my dad then. Enough knowledge to get himself into trouble but once there it's Apple's fault he got himself there.
Don't even get me started on the logical changes Apple makes each version but because they make him do something different he gets all upset.
Ironically though it's because of him I have an interest in computers and ended up spending 18 years of my life doing IT as a Systems Engineer. I am a motorcycle postie now though because I found IT to be a PITA. I got into IT because I wanted to play with all the cool toys only to find that the only cool toys I got to play with in 18 years were the ones I bought myself. Basically in all those 18 years my job was essentially keeping old crap that should have had the plug pulled years ago on life support. I mea, have you ever tried keeping 30 year old software working on the latest version of Windows? It's bad enough trying to keep modern software running on Windows.
Old people and technology suck unless they're really old and then they're like a kid learning new things and they're super-excited by what they have learned. I love those people. I met an 80 year who taught himself to rip his old LPs into MP3. He was my hero. But the 50-60 year old bracket are a complete PITA.
I spent way too many late nights on eWorld, AOL, and AIM. I met some wonderful people from all over the country, and there are a handful I still keep in touch with all these years later. The first time I ended up with a $300 phone bill and didn't intercept it before my mom got it, she freaked out. I remember her saying, "Oh my God! Is this phone sex?!" I said, "Not exactly." ;-)
I used it. A family member is pissed because he says it means Apple is now extorting more money from him. His iMac "works fine" but since it is so old it doesn't support messages, and there is no real alternative to iChat/AIM, this is "more evidence that Apple just wants to steal from all of us by making things that don't last." And by last, he means "more than a few years."
Fairly, I a bit surprised someone didn't buy AIM from AOL. There is certainly a market.
There are plenty of alternatives like Skype or Google Talk. Look at the Adium client, it supports pretty much all the remaining chat services there are.
Google Talk might work. But just to shut my family member up, I'm taking him a refurbished iMac that supports messages. It is completely worth it to stop the bitching.
I don’t understand how this person can’t comprehend that Apple has nothing to do with this?
Because they most likely don't understand how technology works and they might have been using iChat which is an Apple app which will no longer work. Therefore, its Apple's fault because they can't install Messages, and/or a newer version of Mac OS X (macOS) that supports Messages on this particular Mac. Its the same people who think when they pay for something, it should last forever and be supported forever which we all know how it actually works.
Oh, so you've met my dad then. Enough knowledge to get himself into trouble but once there it's Apple's fault he got himself there.
Don't even get me started on the logical changes Apple makes each version but because they make him do something different he gets all upset.
Ironically though it's because of him I have an interest in computers and ended up spending 18 years of my life doing IT as a Systems Engineer. I am a motorcycle postie now though because I found IT to be a PITA. I got into IT because I wanted to play with all the cool toys only to find that the only cool toys I got to play with in 18 years were the ones I bought myself. Basically in all those 18 years my job was essentially keeping old crap that should have had the plug pulled years ago on life support. I mea, have you ever tried keeping 30 year old software working on the latest version of Windows? It's bad enough trying to keep modern software running on Windows.
Old people and technology suck unless they're really old and then they're like a kid learning new things and they're super-excited by what they have learned. I love those people. I met an 80 year who taught himself to rip his old LPs into MP3. He was my hero. But the 50-60 year old bracket are a complete PITA.
Yeah sometimes I purposely don't upgrade my dad's iMac even though he asks. My dad is 74 and actually gets around pretty well, but when things do change and it takes him time to get used to change, its also a situation where you touched his computer so everything is now broken. "Well it didn't do that before"...I fucking hate that comment when people say that after you touched their computer, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with why you touched it. He has a brand new 21.5" 4K iMac and loves it...came from a 2012 Mac mini (which I have now as a server).
I used it. A family member is pissed because he says it means Apple is now extorting more money from him. His iMac "works fine" but since it is so old it doesn't support messages, and there is no real alternative to iChat/AIM, this is "more evidence that Apple just wants to steal from all of us by making things that don't last." And by last, he means "more than a few years."
Fairly, I a bit surprised someone didn't buy AIM from AOL. There is certainly a market.
There are plenty of alternatives like Skype or Google Talk. Look at the Adium client, it supports pretty much all the remaining chat services there are.
Google Talk might work. But just to shut my family member up, I'm taking him a refurbished iMac that supports messages. It is completely worth it to stop the bitching.
I don’t understand how this person can’t comprehend that Apple has nothing to do with this?
It's on his mac. Apple is responsible. It's sort of like when a tire fails on the car you bought. Ford tells you the tire came from Firestone, and they had nothing to do with it.
I used it. A family member is pissed because he says it means Apple is now extorting more money from him. His iMac "works fine" but since it is so old it doesn't support messages, and there is no real alternative to iChat/AIM, this is "more evidence that Apple just wants to steal from all of us by making things that don't last." And by last, he means "more than a few years."
Fairly, I a bit surprised someone didn't buy AIM from AOL. There is certainly a market.
This is the second post I’ve seen about your delusional family member and their bizarre view that Apple has anything to do with AIM, with a loose assertion that there’s something to that claim. There isn’t.
And why do you think there’s a market for a product that dropped to near zero usage in a sector that’s been completely taken over by multiple other players?
so confused.
Im not convinced there is a zero usage.
But I hear ya on the delusional. Lots of people like that in the world. The claim is "I paid for something, and now, through no fault of my own, it doesn't work because someone decided they couldn't make more money off me." That has a grain of truth in it. A grain.
No, it doesn't, because you're talking about AIM which always has been a free service.
I used it. A family member is pissed because he says it means Apple is now extorting more money from him. His iMac "works fine" but since it is so old it doesn't support messages, and there is no real alternative to iChat/AIM, this is "more evidence that Apple just wants to steal from all of us by making things that don't last." And by last, he means "more than a few years."
Fairly, I a bit surprised someone didn't buy AIM from AOL. There is certainly a market.
There are plenty of alternatives like Skype or Google Talk. Look at the Adium client, it supports pretty much all the remaining chat services there are.
Google Talk might work. But just to shut my family member up, I'm taking him a refurbished iMac that supports messages. It is completely worth it to stop the bitching.
I don’t understand how this person can’t comprehend that Apple has nothing to do with this?
It's on his mac. Apple is responsible. It's sort of like when a tire fails on the car you bought. Ford tells you the tire came from Firestone, and they had nothing to do with it.
Who are they even talking to on AIM that they can't talk to on another network? I literally had like three or four friends on AIM still after hundreds migrated off many years ago. But like, introduce them to Jabber/Gtalk or WhatsApp or whatever the hell else actually has users on them anymore or ICQ or IRC or ....
How old does your Mac even have to be to not support a version of OS X with Messages in it?
Verizon also owns, and at the same time shut down, the Compuserve forums. Who knew those were still around and active until today. End of an era, indeed.
I used it. A family member is pissed because he says it means Apple is now extorting more money from him. His iMac "works fine" but since it is so old it doesn't support messages, and there is no real alternative to iChat/AIM, this is "more evidence that Apple just wants to steal from all of us by making things that don't last." And by last, he means "more than a few years."
Fairly, I a bit surprised someone didn't buy AIM from AOL. There is certainly a market.
There are plenty of alternatives like Skype or Google Talk. Look at the Adium client, it supports pretty much all the remaining chat services there are.
Google Talk might work. But just to shut my family member up, I'm taking him a refurbished iMac that supports messages. It is completely worth it to stop the bitching.
I don’t understand how this person can’t comprehend that Apple has nothing to do with this?
Because they most likely don't understand how technology works and they might have been using iChat which is an Apple app which will no longer work. Therefore, its Apple's fault because they can't install Messages, and/or a newer version of Mac OS X (macOS) that supports Messages on this particular Mac. Its the same people who think when they pay for something, it should last forever and be supported forever which we all know how it actually works.
Oh, so you've met my dad then. Enough knowledge to get himself into trouble but once there it's Apple's fault he got himself there.
Don't even get me started on the logical changes Apple makes each version but because they make him do something different he gets all upset.
Ironically though it's because of him I have an interest in computers and ended up spending 18 years of my life doing IT as a Systems Engineer. I am a motorcycle postie now though because I found IT to be a PITA. I got into IT because I wanted to play with all the cool toys only to find that the only cool toys I got to play with in 18 years were the ones I bought myself. Basically in all those 18 years my job was essentially keeping old crap that should have had the plug pulled years ago on life support. I mea, have you ever tried keeping 30 year old software working on the latest version of Windows? It's bad enough trying to keep modern software running on Windows.
Old people and technology suck unless they're really old and then they're like a kid learning new things and they're super-excited by what they have learned. I love those people. I met an 80 year who taught himself to rip his old LPs into MP3. He was my hero. But the 50-60 year old bracket are a complete PITA.
Conversations with luddites can be entertaining. The world view is really....interesting.
A lot of the things that were supposedly "codified": with messenger, existed previously in IRC, the many BSS's and even on USENET forums in the 1980s. Started using irc I think around 1987 and was on what is termed now, the internet around 1985 (i was in the ecole polytechnique engineering school). The BBS existed of course a substantial time before that
Typing a single line on those acoustic modems was slow as hell and every caracter saved was a godsend ;-).
I used it. A family member is pissed because he says it means Apple is now extorting more money from him. His iMac "works fine" but since it is so old it doesn't support messages, and there is no real alternative to iChat/AIM, this is "more evidence that Apple just wants to steal from all of us by making things that don't last." And by last, he means "more than a few years."
Fairly, I a bit surprised someone didn't buy AIM from AOL. There is certainly a market.
There are plenty of alternatives like Skype or Google Talk. Look at the Adium client, it supports pretty much all the remaining chat services there are.
Google Talk might work. But just to shut my family member up, I'm taking him a refurbished iMac that supports messages. It is completely worth it to stop the bitching.
More than AIM, I mourn the demise of AOL in general... It just didn't survive the switch from dial-up to cable. AOL was always a fee for service organization but, when Verizon, Comcast and others like Google offered "free" email over cable, people thought they could save money by dropping their AOL subscription -- without realizing that they could simply drop their monthly bill without dropping AOL... ... Today its unusual to see anybody with an AOL email account much less using AIM.
Such a shame: they failed to make the transition both from a technical as well as a marketing perspective and now AOL is just a shell of what was once a great, industry leading organization.
I would love to hear an objective, knowledgeable account of how this once great industry giant slid into irrelevant obscurity.
(BTW, I'm one of the few who still have an active AOL email address. I just never saw any reason to change.)
I used it. A family member is pissed because he says it means Apple is now extorting more money from him. His iMac "works fine" but since it is so old it doesn't support messages, and there is no real alternative to iChat/AIM, this is "more evidence that Apple just wants to steal from all of us by making things that don't last." And by last, he means "more than a few years."
Fairly, I a bit surprised someone didn't buy AIM from AOL. There is certainly a market.
This is the second post I’ve seen about your delusional family member and their bizarre view that Apple has anything to do with AIM, with a loose assertion that there’s something to that claim. There isn’t.
And why do you think there’s a market for a product that dropped to near zero usage in a sector that’s been completely taken over by multiple other players?
so confused.
Im not convinced there is a zero usage.
But I hear ya on the delusional. Lots of people like that in the world. The claim is "I paid for something, and now, through no fault of my own, it doesn't work because someone decided they couldn't make more money off me." That has a grain of truth in it. A grain.
No, it doesn't, because you're talking about AIM which always has been a free service.
Well, I do specifically remember AOL/AIM being advertised as "included for free" on the outside of the Performa 460 I bought for my dad. He used it to his dying day not too long ago.
I used it. A family member is pissed because he says it means Apple is now extorting more money from him. His iMac "works fine" but since it is so old it doesn't support messages, and there is no real alternative to iChat/AIM, this is "more evidence that Apple just wants to steal from all of us by making things that don't last." And by last, he means "more than a few years."
Fairly, I a bit surprised someone didn't buy AIM from AOL. There is certainly a market.
So what does "a/s/l" mean? Not exactly as ubiquitous as "lol"
There was a time when it was.
AOL got me on line when I was gifted a pizza box with a 300baud modem and a low res (even then) monitor. AOL techs told me what gear I needed and how to set it up.
Chat was amazing. Met/made a lot of friends there. Put many wavs in the sound folder. Learned the difference between AOL, the Internet, and a browser. Learned how to upgrade VRAM and RAM there. My AOL connection was local but I used up many message units. First bill was $400+ and somebody told me about the 'flat rate' from Pac Bell (I think it was still Pac Bell then). I had already dropped Call Waiting. Repurposed many a 3.5" floppy disks.
Still have an AOL t-shirt I got at my first MacWorld. Still an AOL member to this day, and use an AOL address as one of my two main email addresses.
Even now, when a TV show or a movie uses the modem handshake sound effect, I smile.
I used it. A family member is pissed because he says it means Apple is now extorting more money from him. His iMac "works fine" but since it is so old it doesn't support messages, and there is no real alternative to iChat/AIM, this is "more evidence that Apple just wants to steal from all of us by making things that don't last." And by last, he means "more than a few years."
Fairly, I a bit surprised someone didn't buy AIM from AOL. There is certainly a market.
Twitter could've bought it for a song.
How is that a reasonable comment? Apple could've bought it for a song. Google could've bought it for a song. Nissan couldn've bought it for a song. Nabisco could've bought it for a song. I could've bought it for a song. …
How about explaining why you believe that buying AIM would end up being a worthwhile purchase for Twitter?
How about explaining why you believe that buying AIM would end up being a worthwhile purchase for Twitter?
Wouldn’t they have useful chat-based patents? Or is AIM so old they’re all expired? Twitter’s commonality with AIM’s format is probably why it was suggested.
Comments
Don't even get me started on the logical changes Apple makes each version but because they make him do something different he gets all upset.
Ironically though it's because of him I have an interest in computers and ended up spending 18 years of my life doing IT as a Systems Engineer. I am a motorcycle postie now though because I found IT to be a PITA. I got into IT because I wanted to play with all the cool toys only to find that the only cool toys I got to play with in 18 years were the ones I bought myself. Basically in all those 18 years my job was essentially keeping old crap that should have had the plug pulled years ago on life support. I mea, have you ever tried keeping 30 year old software working on the latest version of Windows? It's bad enough trying to keep modern software running on Windows.
Old people and technology suck unless they're really old and then they're like a kid learning new things and they're super-excited by what they have learned. I love those people. I met an 80 year who taught himself to rip his old LPs into MP3. He was my hero. But the 50-60 year old bracket are a complete PITA.
How old does your Mac even have to be to not support a version of OS X with Messages in it?
Conversations with luddites can be entertaining. The world view is really....interesting.
Started using irc I think around 1987 and was on what is termed now, the internet around 1985 (i was in the ecole polytechnique engineering school). The BBS existed of course a substantial time before that
Typing a single line on those acoustic modems was slow as hell and every caracter saved was a godsend ;-).
It just didn't survive the switch from dial-up to cable. AOL was always a fee for service organization but, when Verizon, Comcast and others like Google offered "free" email over cable, people thought they could save money by dropping their AOL subscription -- without realizing that they could simply drop their monthly bill without dropping AOL...
... Today its unusual to see anybody with an AOL email account much less using AIM.
Such a shame: they failed to make the transition both from a technical as well as a marketing perspective and now AOL is just a shell of what was once a great, industry leading organization.
I would love to hear an objective, knowledgeable account of how this once great industry giant slid into irrelevant obscurity.
(BTW, I'm one of the few who still have an active AOL email address. I just never saw any reason to change.)
AOL got me on line when I was gifted a pizza box with a 300baud modem and a low res (even then) monitor. AOL techs told me what gear I needed and how to set it up.
Chat was amazing. Met/made a lot of friends there. Put many wavs in the sound folder. Learned the difference between AOL, the Internet, and a browser. Learned how to upgrade VRAM and RAM there. My AOL connection was local but I used up many message units. First bill was $400+ and somebody told me about the 'flat rate' from Pac Bell (I think it was still Pac Bell then). I had already dropped Call Waiting. Repurposed many a 3.5" floppy disks.
Still have an AOL t-shirt I got at my first MacWorld. Still an AOL member to this day, and use an AOL address as one of my two main email addresses.
Even now, when a TV show or a movie uses the modem handshake sound effect, I smile.
RIP, AIM.
How about explaining why you believe that buying AIM would end up being a worthwhile purchase for Twitter?