To modify or not .... that is the question ....

I probably know the answer to this, but I will ask it anyway.

See my threads in the black hardware and Next work logs for the background that lead to this poll.

Chef

Hacks to the 'original' hardware I don't mind. I just hate gutting a machine to pop some other hardware in it. It's just not right :P

Quote from: "helf"Hacks to the 'original' hardware I don't mind. I just hate gutting a machine to pop some other hardware in it. It's just not right :P

So if I fabricated a machine from the ground up in the style of NeXT hardware, pained it black, and attached a NeXT logo, you would be ok with that?

I submit that if NeXT had continued its hardware business, a machine like this would have been made.  The PowerPC chip would have been the natural transition from the m68xx, as it was for apple.  I only want to explore this avenue, and create a "what if" machine that I can use.

I guess we will agree to disagree on this one, which is why I created the poll.

Chef

I'm torn... as a history dork (and therefore somewhat of a purist), I have a bit of an issue with any modifications.  But the computer dork and what-if guy enjoys the well intentioned hacks (advancing things with the best intentions and theories of the creators).  

Basically, i love the G3 project... but my heart stops a bit everytime I see a hard-hacked cube.  Enough said... and remember, just my personal take.

ha, yes I may be ;)

Actually, if you do this mod well i tmay be pretty cool. Specially to run rhapsody/OSX on.

NeXT moved out of hardware and to implementing their OS as a portable toolkit.

A "what if" machine could be a white x86 system with, say, 3 ISA and 2 PCI slots, like some ELoneX's were - Showroom (http://goldfish.elonex.co.uk/)
(ELoneXs looked like white NeXTs as much as their website still looks "NeXTy")

Then you could add RCN's M56000 DSP (http://www.rcn.de/dsp/index.html) boards and custom software, such as their DSP2-4 (http://www.rcn.de/dsp/DSP2-4.html)  board, the 5xM56000 Quint56 (http://www.rcn.de/dsp/Quint56.html) board, or their credit card sized embeddable M56000 MiniMod56 (http://www.rcn.de/dsp/MiniMod56.html).

As for a Dimension board, I know of no such addon but with hardware advances since 1996 it shouldn't be too hard to build a system with capabilities well beyond those of NeXT's hardware.

There are companies that provide PPC CPU boards for PCI systems, for PPC and x86 motherboards, as well as SPARC CPU boards. A "What's NeXT" with multiple CPUs ? :)

If you're careful about upgrading Openstep or Rhapsody components, or willing to hack one of the BSD's, you could use GNUstep with it's growing support for Cocoa and userinterface customisation options.

With some research, a person could build something that SJ didn't dream of, and won't horrify NeXT, Openstep, or Rhapsody users :)

Good luck

Hacking cubes to pieces and putting PC mobos in them like case modders I find very saddening, though I guess it's each to his own.

NeXT for me as an aura about which I think stems from the time I was a kid.  I remember reading about the NeXTcomputer 1988 or somthing and what I read really blew me away, at about this time I was playing around with Commodore Amigas, and it stuck in my mind to such a powerful extend that when I actually saw a cube in the flesh for the first time I was surprised by it's diminutive size.  I work away and when I get to play on my NeXTcube I always makes that same memory come back to me.  It's my view that the purest NeXT experience is to be had on NeXT M68K hardware and from that I surmise that it should be left alone.

It's a bit like hacking a TAM or a BeBox, it's just so cool to start with that it would be a shame to alter it.

That said, I would put in any "approved" add-ons like a Pyro or a Nitro, I was looking at fitting a Nitro in my slab as I know where there is one but I offered 3K for it and he didn't want to sell.