AOL 8 Officially Released

[Brian Rector]

I have been an AOL subscriber for years and usually the first one to try out software (Beta and Final) from AOL, so it really didnt cause any excitement from me that the final version of AOL 8 was released last night quietly to subscribers.

Here's what AOL 8 offers:

1)Once again, no homepage. However, AOL does offer subscribers a choice of 6 welcome screens based on different tastes and varieties. For example, if you want a welcome page that has just Internet stuff and the news of the day, that will do fine with AOL.

2)AOL Companion. This is the equal to one of those docking features of the free internet providers. You can least place this anywhere you want and even shut it off. It has a indicator of how much email you have, how many people on in your Buddy List, etc. Also, features such as Weather, News, and even more propaganda material from AOL. Blah, Blah, Blah.

3)You can choose desktop themes and backgrounds from AOL via the Preferences menu.

4)You will need a minimum of 64MB of RAM for this monster. It does move slow, even with my Pentium 3 (384MB of RAM). If you dont have the latest version of Internet Explorer, make sure you have at least 1GB of hard drive space available. The download time for AOL 8 with a 56k modem is 3 1/2- 4 1/2 hours.

All this is making me wanting to see what MSN8 offers (I am a subscriber to that service too)

[Kevin]

I downloaded version "8.SLOW" today, and I have to say that I'm pleased with it (unlike many of the previous upgrades). The customizable toolbar/desktop/IM sounds are really neat. It definately takes a bit longer to load, even on my 2.0gHz processor. I can imagine it being very sluggish for people with processor speeds of 1.0gHz or less.

[Brian Rector]

The Version 8 of AOL had only one way to go. The one thing that people are still going to wonder is this:

"When is AOL gonna put Netscape in its browser?"

The answer of this is simple: They will never put it in. Its ironic (Everytime I say that word, I have memories of Alanis's video in my head) that AOL bought Netscape years ago, but still havent integrated it in its browser. AOL did, however, did tests with its Version 7 with the Gecko browser, but AOL still put in IE in its current AOL 8 distribution.

I do love AOL 8, but just wasnt surprised with the additions. Its probably because I am one of those testers that AOL has to test their distributions.

One thing for sure: AOL 8 needs to be installed only on PCs with higher processors. I have a 500 Mhz processor and that is barely making it these days (especially with Windows XP and now AOL 8). Looks like I am gonna have to make a hardware upgrade sometime in the next few years.

[Brian Rector]

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961541.html

Here is an article that CNET posted today about AOL 8.

[AJ2086]

I dont care how many different things I can do to it, tis still crap.