By Sam Ormes, Senior Editor, See staff list for e-mail address
Over the past months I have been editorializing about the exclusion of our Amiga platform from the dominant online service - AOL. Didn't get very far with that!
To my "amazingment" I opened the latest edition of our remaining print magazine and there on page 43 was a full page ad for "AmigaOnLine". Wow...it's been done!... I thought. Whoopee! Closer scrutiny revealed that although the name was the same as the one I used in my pieces, this "AmigaOnLine" is a creation of QuikPak with assistance by Amazing Computing/Amiga magazine. Not what I had in mind.
The ad provides very little information except to promise "finally, an "AOL" service Amiga users can live with!". The Web site is there, but in skeleton form at this time. Inquiring minds want to know what, if any, resemblance this proposed service will have to the real AOL with its incredible communications tools such as Instant Messages, Buddy List, Chats, graphics in e-mail, etc. What browser will it use? What will it cost for unlimited access? What OS/CPU will it require?
Hats off to QP for attempting something. I sincerely hope it is an "AOL" service I can live with. Lots of unanswered questions at this stage. I'll be back next month with a review of AmigaOnLine.