Title: NeXT history and folklore thread
Post by: user341 on June 01, 2023, 01:29:33 PM
Post by: user341 on June 01, 2023, 01:29:33 PM
I thought I'd start a thread on the lost (and hopefully found) history of NeXT, it's community, members, and everything around it.
From another thread, the problem is, NeXT history is PIVOTAL in so may ways (Doom, modern Object Oriented development, the WWW, the iPhone's operating system, etc.), yet, all the biographies basically have nothing about what NeXT was really like. I worked at NeXT and it was one of the most eclectic and cool environments ever. Steve Jobs went into NeXT a lunatic, and came out as one of the most savvy businessmen of all time. WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT BLACK BOX changed everything in the world in so many ways.
I hope this thread will be a place where people can share their stories and experiences in and around NeXT so we can truly save that hugely important and completely unwritten part of history.
There were a few posts from this (https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?msg=29813) thread that inspired the start of this thread.
Hopefully Rob will move some of his stories here, but importantly, hopefully others will add their stories here too! And any stories you find from around the internet.
From another thread, the problem is, NeXT history is PIVOTAL in so may ways (Doom, modern Object Oriented development, the WWW, the iPhone's operating system, etc.), yet, all the biographies basically have nothing about what NeXT was really like. I worked at NeXT and it was one of the most eclectic and cool environments ever. Steve Jobs went into NeXT a lunatic, and came out as one of the most savvy businessmen of all time. WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT BLACK BOX changed everything in the world in so many ways.
I hope this thread will be a place where people can share their stories and experiences in and around NeXT so we can truly save that hugely important and completely unwritten part of history.
There were a few posts from this (https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?msg=29813) thread that inspired the start of this thread.
Hopefully Rob will move some of his stories here, but importantly, hopefully others will add their stories here too! And any stories you find from around the internet.
Title: NeXT history and folklore thread
Post by: cuby on June 01, 2023, 01:43:15 PM
Post by: cuby on June 01, 2023, 01:43:15 PM
This is a great idea - thanks for starting the thread!
I'm interested in the technical history of the early days at NeXT - which decisions were made regarding the hardware (68k machines, DSP, ...) and software (Mach, ObjC, ...) platform and why, which alternatives were considered? How did the developers at NeXT bootstrap the system? We know that Sun 3 68k-based workstations were used, as shown in the picture below, but was development work done using SunOS or a Mach port to Sun 3 machines (I think that there are old SunView icons visible on the screen)?
I would really love to be able to obtain the 0.6 pre-release of NeXTstep which supposedly ran on Sun 3 workstations. No idea if a copy of that ancient version still exists somewhere.
I'm interested in the technical history of the early days at NeXT - which decisions were made regarding the hardware (68k machines, DSP, ...) and software (Mach, ObjC, ...) platform and why, which alternatives were considered? How did the developers at NeXT bootstrap the system? We know that Sun 3 68k-based workstations were used, as shown in the picture below, but was development work done using SunOS or a Mach port to Sun 3 machines (I think that there are old SunView icons visible on the screen)?
I would really love to be able to obtain the 0.6 pre-release of NeXTstep which supposedly ran on Sun 3 workstations. No idea if a copy of that ancient version still exists somewhere.
Title: NeXT history and folklore thread
Post by: pTeK on June 01, 2023, 11:21:57 PM
Post by: pTeK on June 01, 2023, 11:21:57 PM
Yes Rob, it would be great to read about your stories. When you applied to NeXT, What the interview process was like, what the training as a sales rep was ....