Your Qwest Leads To MSN

bee writes: "Qwest.net has announced an alliance with MSN that will 'transition' Qwest's dialup and DSL customers to MSN Internet Access. If you're a Macintosh user, you'll be able to continue on Qwest until they figure out what to do with you. Zero mention, of course, is made of Linux or BSD. Here's the FAQ they're pointing their customers to."

Linux Doesn't Get "Transitioned"

[Anonymous DWord]

Eligible Customers:
Currently, the plan is to transition those customers who:

• Have Qwest.net Internet Access using an analog dial-up line, Qwest DSL 256, Qwest DSL Select, or Qwest DSL Deluxe connection and,
• Use the Windows operating system
• 
  Looks like Linux users stay with Qwest.net. You get to keep your Qwest address, too, not like the Windows users:
  
  Your Qwest.net e-mail address(es) will be inaccessible 10 days after you successfully transition your service to MSN Internet Access.

Is there ANY possibility..

[Anonymous Coward]

of windows-using Qwest users switching to another provider out of protest?

I mean, ok, obviously Qwest is happy (or at least satisfied) with throwing out the mac users and the linux users. And clearly the mac and *n?x users are going to have to find something else.

So, my question to the windows-using qwest people: if things turn out the way it looks like they will, and the mac-using and linux-using populace lose their qwest access, will you consider leaving qwest in protest? Or will it just be, hey, they'll accept MY hardware configuration, i'm ok, it isn't my problem?

Microsoft's newest tactic is amazing. In addition to their old tactics, they now have the new and amazing trick of buying customers. That's right, can't get a sufficiently high-quality product (or one that seems solid enough) that you can establish a user base through sheer quality of product? That's alright, you can always buy thousands of users from another ISP, or bribe anyone who is willing to develop for the directx apis or the xbox with gobs of money, so that you BUY an existing user base and create some sort of "momentum" for the platform. (Munch's Odysee will be a strong argument for claiming the xbox isn't vapour. It should be; microsoft paid good money to be able to produce the Oddworld Inhabitants as proof that there is, indeed, third-party support for the xbox. Except if you paid them off, can they *really* be called a third-party?)

Customers are now a commodity, to be bought and sold. Amazing. Customers are now what Labor was 100 years ago. Except this seems somehow .. wierder. Still..

I can only dream...

[Racher]

I can only dream of the days when regular people wake up out of their dreams that what they are being told is good for them, is actually good for them. They public doesn't care about Dimitry, the DMCA, hard drive copy protection, getting switched to MSN, having their government lie to them constantly, being lead by elected followers with records of drug abuse, sexual affairs. Why doesn't the world see what it is doing? Do people really go around believing there is a god? They don't care if IE in integrated with windows, it could be linked into their brain, if the majority tells them it's good for them they would do it.

Well what happens when the majority is wrong?

I can't believe the things people do on a day to day basis, I can't believe that as a race of supposedly sentient beings, we live this way. The drugs, the sex, the violence, the dominating government, the dominating companies. We allow this to happen, we live out our little lives only caring about what is good for us in the short term. Well what is supposedly good for you is not good for you! Most slashdotter's seem to realize this fact because they are sometimes doing something about this messed up system we live in. Most everyone in this world is 'The Man's bitch... They take whatever he want's to shove down their throat. Why can't our world be focused on art and science and the developement of mankind. Why does it have to be the circus that it is.

Personally I am working to help out the world as much as I can in my present state. I am putting myself through college working in a job that produces scientific information that can help our understanding of the universe. My income can is refered to as sub-poverty by the government. But I personally am living quite richly because of my wise choices. I am surrounded by several other students who are being put through college by their parents, who have no job and constantly bitch about their life.

I simply wish I lived in a world full of thinkers and leaders, not a world full of ignorant followers.

If you know of a place, please let me know. Please...

Re:Not that I really care, but...

[celerity02]

Think of it this way. You're a new computer user. You want to check out this thing called 'the Internet'. So you boot up your brand new out of the box computer and see an icon for MSN that gets you "connected to the Internet".

What do you think you'd use? It'd be easiest to just click on that link and follow the instructions. Other ISPs? What's an ISP?

Same reason AOL's going for the link on the desktop sales slant. Newbies will eat it up. They don't care if the connection is crap. It's what they're comfortable with doing. And that's probably all that's really going to matter to them.

Re:Quote time! YAY!

[Enigma23]

I've noticed how sucky this will be for Qwest users. Such gems include:

1) Not being able to keep your own Qwest email address, but having to "transition" (great word that) your address over to MSN Hotmail. Oh, joy!

2) Only being able to transfer over your primary Qwest email address, but "secondary accounts will not be transitioned." But hey, you'll get to "create up to nine e-mail screen names for you and the rest your family" instead of having them "transitioned"...

3) To quote the FAQ "Qwest.net account services will be inaccessible 10 days after you successfully transition your service to MSN Internet Access." That's nice of them isn't it?

4) As icing on the cake, "Since Web Publishing will no longer be available after the 10 day grace period, you should make sure you have a local copy of your Web page(s)." I'm loving MSN more and more as I read through this...

Are We All Having Fun Yet? No, I didn't think so.