> Users are then to download and install the AIM client software, which AOL does not charge for I suspect if this sentence was written today, the author would

> Users are then to download and install the AIM client software, which AOL does not charge for I suspect if this sentence was written today, the author would not mention the download was free. In fact, they would only mention the price if the download wasn't free. It's an interesting change in expectation where in the 90s there was far more of an acceptance/expectation to paying for software as compared to today. I suspect Google changed expectations with Gmail (it provided an order of magnitude more storage for free compared to paid email providers), but that's only a guess. I would be interested in learning more about how the consumer expectation changed over time.