It's really wonderful to be reminded of history like this! -- and sad. How quickly we forget....
on 02-07-21 7:02 PM, Michael W. Wellman at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Christian is just trying to lure me into a lengthy discourse about how > America Online was actually a joint venture between Apple and Quantum > Computing Services (the latter company eventually became AOL). > > America Online started life as a spin-off of AppleLink, an online forum used > by Apple to communicate with its service organizations, dealers, and > developers. Eventually there was some demand for those services outside > that community. > > Thus a joint venture dedicated to creating AppleLink Personal Edition was > born. Apple eventually traded most of its rights to the code for stock in > what became AOL. > > Eventually, Apple found itself licensing later generations of that self-same > code back in an attempt to create eWorld. > > eWorld was moderately successful; however, Apple was never dedicated to > marketing it. Which would have been hideously expensive. As was eventually > demonstrated by AOL having to restate practically all of its previously > alleged earnings. > > So, since MSN was seemingly similarly failing and thus Apple no longer felt > that they had to have a "Me too!" online services division *and* Apple was > in it's every 2 to 3 year "Imminent Death of Apple" media frenzy followed by > a cost cutting purge of products, eWorld went away. > > ##### > > Of course, my view of history is biased as I (and a few other people then at > InterCon) wrote the 1.0 and 1.1 versions of both AOL and eWorld's web > browsers. InterCon and a dozen-plus other small'sh Internet-related > software companies were killed by Netscape's abuse of its then monopoly > position in the Web client and server market. Many of us still chuckle at > the legal lunacy that allowed Netscape to go whining to the government about > dying from blows received from the same sword. -- Bill Cheeseman - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Quechee Software, Quechee, Vermont, USA http://www.quecheesoftware.com The AppleScript Sourcebook - http://www.AppleScriptSourcebook.com Vermont Recipes - http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/VermontRecipes Croquet Club of Vermont - http://members.valley.net/croquetvermont -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
