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The NeXT Information Archive

Posted by pudge on from the if-next-was-next-and-next-is-mac-then-mac-is-next dept.

z80 writes "I've started to scan all the NeXT-related material I can get my hands on and put it online. Others are more than welcome to participate to gather more information, articles about and other printed stuff about NeXT Inc., NeXTSTEP and Openstep, as well as other related products from NeXT. This great OS is the foundation on which Apple and the Mac will be built on for years to come and it would be fun if more Mac users would learn about where it comes from."

15 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. What I want to know is... by Snafoo · · Score: 2

    What protocol do the old NeXT cubes use for UI peripherals? I picked up a petite, sexy, never-used NeXT keyboard at my university's 'slough-sale' for about $10CD (about $0.2 american, I'm sure). But I haven't been able to get it to work 'out of the box' with PS/2 ports (it has a mini-DIN 5 connector). Is it ADB? Or do I have to reverse-engineer the protocol myself?

    --
    - undoware.ca
    1. Re:What I want to know is... by AK47 · · Score: 2, Informative

      My Nextstation has an ADB keyboard and mouse.

    2. Re: What I want to know is... by jarehart · · Score: 2, Informative

      Some of the later NeXTstations had ADB interfaces and peripherals. The earlier ones used, AFAIK, their own proprietary interface. The 5 pin DIN sounds like the older style to me. If the mouse is rectangular (not rounded) it is the older style.

    3. Re:What I want to know is... by mr100percent · · Score: 1

      Do they have ethernet? I'd love to get my hands on one on eBay if that's the case.

    4. Re: What I want to know is... by jarehart · · Score: 1

      Yes, they all at least have 10Base-2 (thinnet) connectors and the later NeXT machines have 10Base-T (RJ-45) connectors as well.

  2. C & D yet? by Raskolnk · · Score: 1

    Make sure you post the contents of the cease and desist letter when you get it - oh... probably 15 minutes from now.

    --
    Don't blame me, I get all my opinions from my Ouija board.
    1. Re:C & D yet? by z80 · · Score: 1

      No C&D yet. It's been up since the first week in april. I don't if Apple actually cares. It not any secrets posted there but interesting documentation and marketing material which might be fun to watch. Hopefully they will let this one pass even though I'm a bit nervous about it.

      --
      -- http://z80.org - all opinions, all the time --
  3. *sigh* by wizbit · · Score: 1

    This great OS is the foundation on which Apple and the Mac will be built on for years to come

    oh, for chrissakes. the mac survived for over 15 years without a hint of heritage from NeXT - in fact, it was quite the opposite, NeXT was founded by Jobs after his ousting from Apple. NeXT was hampered by typically "Steve" problems that were possibly ahead of their time, like a network-booted OS and lack of a disk drive in their NeXT cubes.

    regardless, only in OS X's "yellow box" or "cocoa" or whatever the hell you want to call it does Apple show some sign of latter-day NeXT inheritance. WebObjects is still largely proprietary, and is only used as a medium-sized in house business solution. Objective-C is nice, but only in writing "Cocoa" apps that can take advantage of OS X-specific features like antialiased text and the Services menu and so forth.

    Java is well-supported on the platform and the majority of the OS X native apps being produced today are using the Carbon APIs, not Cocoa. The mach microkernel, darwin, Java, Classic support and Carbon... there's more to the OS than NeXT legacy, and there's more to Apple than OS X.

    I'm all for cleanly-written slick Objective-C apps like OmniWeb, but this is by no means the future of the Mac.

    1. Re:*sigh* by Guy+Harris · · Score: 2
      The mach microkernel, darwin, Java, Classic support and Carbon... there's more to the OS than NeXT legacy,

      Just out of curiosity, why is the Mach microkernel in that list? As I remember, NeXTStEP used it, so, as far as I know, it is part of the NeXT legacy of OS X.

  4. Here's a kindred spirit by AK47 · · Score: 2, Informative

    This reminded me of something I found a while back, a scan of the NeXT Network and System Administration Manual. Good one to add to your collection.

    1. Re:Here's a kindred spirit by Blackstealth · · Score: 1

      The NSA manual is amazingly useful. Particularly when you're running NeXTStep 3.3 on an HP PA-RISC system and are trying to connect it to not only a linux box, but a few macs and a small netware network. It's quite suprising how well NeXTStep fits in this environment.

  5. How would you know? by jbn-o · · Score: 1
    I'm all for cleanly-written slick Objective-C apps like OmniWeb

    How would you know how "cleanly written" OmniWeb is? For its entire history on NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP OmniWeb was proprietary. Have they made it Free Software, did you hack on it, or are you just guessing?

    --
    Digital Citizen
    1. Re:How would you know? by AK47 · · Score: 1

      Not entirely Free Software, but go to their website and you can download the frameworks that OmniWeb uses. Very useful stuff.

    2. Re:How would you know? by tyrione · · Score: 1

      Um.. Openstep is a Standards API. Try checking out GNUStep som time. And since I worked at NeXT and helped support Omniweb and a myriad of other apps you're damn right its a very cleanly written application.


      Lighthouse Software that was swallowed up by SUN is a classic example of How NeXTSTEP/Openstep/Objective-C API's helped influence the direction of Java.


      Carbon was written primarily by the ex-NeXT engineering folks to bridge the Gap and to pacify all the prior Mac Pundits that their legacy would not be forgotten- that takes about 2 seconds to figure out that it would have killed the company otherwise.


      WebObjects 5.x is not Proprietary. Its pure Java. If you don't like that and do not have a clue about EOF and all the other Foundation API's re-written from Objective-C/Cocoa for Java than I suggest you read before you speak, next time.


      All the "NEAT Anti-aliasing", etc crap Comes from WindowServer Code that was never released in Openstep and was being developed for Openstep 5.0 code name MECCA, that got scrapped when we at NeXT switched from Operating Systems to WebObjects based Web Solutions Company. You would know a bit more perhaps if you actually were around folks in the Community during all the negotiation times which Apple was floored by what we at NeXT demonstrated from software NeXT never released and which is being added to MacOS X.


      Quartz is one example and its not where it should be but then again OS X has to swallow and deal with Carbon and the non-native Objective-C based Workspace Manager that everyone in the Apple World calls, "FINDER."


      Just a few thoughts.


      Oh and a final thought, if anyone knows their history they should notice that Omnigroup is not creating any NEW application Paradigms outside of OmniWeb, they just recreated almost All the Applications minus some very cool applications like, Concurrence, Quantrix, TaskMaster, VarioData, etc."

      For apps that I can magickally forsee being recreated by other companies check here:

      www.peak.org/next/

      And if you have the fortune of running Openstep 4.2 on some older hardware those applications are quite useful.

  6. Not Free Software at all, actually. by jbn-o · · Score: 1
    Not entirely Free Software...

    If it weren't for the no-sale clause in section 3 of the license ("3. You may not charge a fee for the Software...") it could qualify as a non-copylefted Free Software license. As it is, it's not Free Software at all.

    --
    Digital Citizen