Inspired by another thread I started long ago on another site, I thought it would be great to to start a thread on NeXT history and folklore.
We're an ever sharing group of enthusiasts and once we're all gone only bad takes and wrong history will be left about NeXT like the issacson book.
I'd love to get folklore about the company a bit like Andy hertzfeld's `folklore site that has so many first and 2nd hand tales about the Mac's early days.
NeXT in many ways is more important and interesting. Not only did doom, the www and modern operating systems like macOS iOS come directly from next step, in many ways it was the most important development time for Steve.
In some ways the next years for Steve are like the missing years for Jesus where we have no idea how both grew to become the ment they were. With Steve he went from a raging toddler to a savvy and strategic business man. it is an important history that I hope will be shared and not forgotten.
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/steve-jobs-unveiled-the-next-computer-on-this-day-in-1988-the-cube-would-be-used-to-develop-the-www-doom-and-quake
A great bit of NeXT history archeology in this separate thread that one of NeXTs biggest customers (of hardened "tempest" versions of hardware) was the NSA by our great
@Rhetorica :
https://nextcommunity.net/forums/index.php?msg=252
Here is some interesting history on the microsecond of how NeXT ran on AIX:
https://www.osnews.com/story/29649/the-curious-case-of-nextstep-on-aix/
http://ps-2.kev009.com/AIX-support-faxes/references/aixtips.txt
This history is super interesting. Short TLDR version is Steve Jobs jedi mind tricked IBM into licensing NeXTstep 1.0 for IBM systems early on. The agreement Steve did not give IBM licenses to upgrades, which they did not appreciate/understand when they entered the agreement. By the time IBM got NeXTstep going on their machines, NeXTstep 2.0 was out. IBM tried to get Steve to let them use the new version, but Steve said, pay me 1zillion dollars or something crazy, and IBM said get bent and gave up on it.
When I got my black hardware I got it from an engineer that worked at NeXT, then Apple, then Google lol. He was a true glory days of Silicon Valley engineer guy. I still email him occasionally. I should really ask him if he would be willing to share some of his stories from working at NeXT.
Dooo itttt! :D
A great find of multiple interviews with ex-NeXT people by
@jeffburg from this thread:
https://nextcommunity.net/forums/index.php?topic=55.0