You know, we haven't actually used AOL in a good long while, but we do have several years' worth of experience with that particular online service, and we've got to say... we're kind of tired of beating up on it. Okay, so the company has 7.0 software for Windows but only 5.0 software for Macs. So it's created enough sign-up floppies and CD-ROMs over the years to overflow a landfill the size of Montana. So it resorted to hiding said floppies and CD-ROMs in everything from our breakfast cereals to our own abdominal cavities in hopes of signing up more rubes. So, for whatever reason, AOL yielded massively slower connections than any standard PPP-based dial-up service over the same modem, possibly because (as our saucy neighbor Jed likes to say) it has to "drag along all that extra suck." The point is, AOL has been the whipping boy of the Mac online services for ages now, and maybe deservedly so, but don't you feel that maybe it's time to pass the title along to a new contender?

Well, ask and ye shall receive! If you're as tired of bagging on AOL as we are, get ready, because before too long there may be a new punching bag in the ISP borough of Macville; faithful viewer Sledgehammer Smythe tipped us off to a Think Secret report which states that Microsoft may well be bringing MSN Internet Access to the Mac sometime this summer, complete with MSN Explorer. What's MSN Explorer, you ask? Microsoft describes it as "all-in-one software that delivers everything you need to feel at home on the Web. E-mail, instant messaging, Web browsing, and more are integrated in a friendly program." In other words, it's basically Microsoft's answer to AOL. So soon, instead of using AOL's bloated and slow Internet software, you'll be able to use Microsoft's half-assed attempt to copy it, instead. Woo-hoo!!

Note that we're making some wild assumptions, here, since we've never used MSN Internet Access or MSN Explorer, and for all we know they're ten times better than anything AOL has ever managed to staple together and slap on a CD promising six zillion free hours or whatever. But we do think it's fair to note that MSN is yet another instance of Microsoft trying to ape its way into a market after the fact, and we're sure that the very fact that MSN is a Microsoft service will be justification enough for some Mac users to refocus their ridicule on MSN while giving AOL a much-needed (though not necessarily well-deserved) break. And everyone needs a change of pace now and again, right? Anyway, word has it that the Mac version of MSN is not being done by the Mac Business Unit, which doesn't bode well, so with a little luck, maybe we'll all have something new to be outraged about once summer rolls around. We can hardly wait.