The discussion about the lack of a "modern" web browser got me thinking about what you can really do with a NeXT machine in this day and age. I am not disputing the issue of keeping such an important system/software combination working for posterity, so no "because we need to" type answers. I know that some of you here use your systems daily, and I thought it would be interesting to hear what you use it for.
Hopefully it will be fun for everyone.
On the old forum there was a nicely developed thread on this topic... unfortunately my answer has changed little. Mostly I tinker on my slab. I do a bit of writing (personal, journal and initial business drafts of things). For fun I enjoy the couple of games on there (the asteroids'esk game I have is amazing). That pretty much covers it.
I would also love to here what other people are doing with their NeXT machines. Share and amaze =)
I mostly use mine for IRC. I do run apache on it, but with it being hurricane season I dont like to leave my cube up 24x7. The only 'commerical' software I have for NeXT is softpc, and Ive loaded it up with battletech, but honestly its like 8086 speed.
I guess if anything its like having access to a VAX in the 1990's with BSD 4.3.
Oh, and UAE (the amiga emulator), and doom are almost usefull on it ;)
I use my slab for document editing, doom, nethack, mp3 playing while doing other stuff, also connect to my various shell accounts with it. i do a lot of my web browsing from SDF via SSH using elinks.
As soon as I get my mathematica copy I just bought, I'll probably start using it for school math stuff.
once I get broadband back up nad going, I may run a personal site off it.
I have my kids mess around with Wetpaint and play that asteroids game too
Until a couple of years ago my main box was first a HP 712/100 running NEXTSTEP 3.3 and later on a PC running OPENSTEP 4.2 for mail, document editing etc. But now I rarely fire up my OPENSTEP box, because the limitations are too high or my needs are different (multimedia stuff etc) and I mainly use Ubuntu linux and OS-X for my home server (a Mac Mini which servers ftp, ssh, MP3s (MyTunesRSS)..)). I still miss NeXTMail and the clear GUI of NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP. But I receive a lot of mail and NeXTMail lacks filtering (yeah, can be done with procmail). Maybe some cool coder will expand EnhanceMail some day. Tiger Mail s...cks. because Apple dropped the mbox format and I don´t like to store my mail archives in a prpietary format, so I switched to Evolution and Pine.
I still prefer Write Now for casual word processing tasks and Framemaker is my default app for page layout.
Plus I play the billards game for NeXT on my Dimension cube.
The main thing I use my OPENSTEP system for is Geomview, but I also have a number of other math apps I use on it. I also use Create, FrameMaker and Diagram quite a bit.
It is sitting next to my main school system as both are aimed mainly at doing math stuff.
As I have about 7 computers that I tend to use regularly, browser compatibility isn't something that I've spent much time worrying about. I generally only use one system for both browsing the internet and e-mail, so the amount (and type) of browsing I do with the other systems hasn't played that big a deal for me. OmniWeb 3 in both Rhapsody and OPENSTEP work fine for the small number of places on the net that I go to on those systems.
But I have tried to make sure that my sites are NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Rhapsody friendly... after all, what would be the point of having sites on those operating systems if those systems couldn't even visit. I register a handful of OmniWeb 2 and 3 visits every week, so I know that someone must be stopping by using one of those systems (besides me when I test updates).
This topic really got me thinking.. I always loved something about the NeXTstations.. and I really wish I could still use use one.
Just this week the department next door was tossing out an SGI Octane, so I picked it up thinking I could use it for MATLAB and some image processing through imageJ... (for work)... but at 225 mhz its just too slow and they don't make MATLAB for IRIX anymore... So now at least it gets to continue working as an FTP server...
This is sort of the same story my NeXTStation has had. I got one in undergrad, in '97 and it was fantastic I did all my classwork on it, web browsing, email, programing in C... as Omniweb got too old (1999) I was able to Xhost netscape from the UNIX lab to keep me going...
Off campus DSL let me use my NeXT (just download and compile DHCP) and suppliment with roomates netscape off of linux. I even ran a webserver for a while off of it.
That was great. So was "simon says"...
Over the last few years things like getting a digital camera, ipod and web have sent the poor machine to the back of the bus.
Now I guess I could use it at school as an xterminal, but at 10 megabits, its kind of slow... and 16 bit color is hard too..
So all I have now is the next logo from a broken mouse glued to my cinema display to keep me happy.
But at least I see reminders of NeXTSTEP in OS X every day!
...I should really get a macmini and put it in a nextstation case. :)
I have a couple Cubes in the yard. They make a great stool.
Quote from: "nextime"I have a couple Cubes in the yard. They make a great stool.
Ha Ha .... that's a good one. Now just have to wait for a defibrulator to restart the hearts of half the people on this board, since they just went flatline.
I used to have a chair built out of Mac II machines that I got from a local mac repair dealer. They had so many cases that they started building furniture out of them for their retail storefront. Sold it to someone who had picked up another one and wanted a matched set.
Chef