- Welcome to NeXTcommunity.
Recent posts
#31
Marketplace / Re: NeXT eBay Finds!
Last post by Rhetorica - Oct 08, 2026, 06:05 PMQuote from: ZombiePhysicist on Oct 08, 2026, 04:46 PMhttps://ebay.io/m/w1esowYou killed it!
Wow
Also we do have a whole board for this stuff!
#32
Software / Re: Comnetix used NeXT in 1994...
Last post by Rhetorica - Oct 08, 2026, 06:04 PMFrom what I can tell that tab strip is a private NeXT framework; the assets for it are in /NextLibrary/PrivateFrameworks/NeXTApps.framework/Versions/A/Resources. I wonder where they got the code? Was there a version in MiscKit? 👀
#33
Virtualization / Re: SPARC frustrations and hop...
Last post by Rhetorica - Oct 08, 2026, 06:00 PMQuote from: Protocol 7 on Oct 07, 2026, 10:05 PMPR1 had HPPA support but no SPARC while PR2 had SPARC but no HPPA.
That is an amazing fact and a gorgeous PR2 screenshot. Absolutely something for the wall of fame.
#34
Marketplace / Re: NeXT eBay Finds!
Last post by ZombiePhysicist - Oct 08, 2026, 04:46 PM #35
Software / I've completed the first miles...
Last post by onionmixer - Oct 08, 2026, 12:29 PMhttps://github.com/onionmixer/openstep-kernel-remade
Even though it was booted using Qemu-NeXT, referenced some other kernel code, and AI did all the heavy lifting... it finally boots up!
I'm not entirely sure if 100% of the functionality has been fully restored, but I verified binary-level identity against the original kernel (unmodified pure 4.2) and successfully confirmed it boots.
I still need to analyze and restore the binaries for the m68k and SPARC kernels to make the restored code even more robust, but for now, I'm just glad to have a solid baseline kernel reference for future research.
After this, I'll probably take a look at the Patch 4 kernel and add whatever is missing if needed.
While working on this, I had Claude check out various rumors about SMP in Mach 4. Personally, I'd love to improve things like the thread model and SMP... but modernizing the threads would require restoring several other libraries alongside OPENSTEP's libc, so... I've decided to put that task off to the distant future.
Even though it was booted using Qemu-NeXT, referenced some other kernel code, and AI did all the heavy lifting... it finally boots up!
I'm not entirely sure if 100% of the functionality has been fully restored, but I verified binary-level identity against the original kernel (unmodified pure 4.2) and successfully confirmed it boots.
I still need to analyze and restore the binaries for the m68k and SPARC kernels to make the restored code even more robust, but for now, I'm just glad to have a solid baseline kernel reference for future research.
After this, I'll probably take a look at the Patch 4 kernel and add whatever is missing if needed.
While working on this, I had Claude check out various rumors about SMP in Mach 4. Personally, I'd love to improve things like the thread model and SMP... but modernizing the threads would require restoring several other libraries alongside OPENSTEP's libc, so... I've decided to put that task off to the distant future.
#36
Marketplace / eBay: NeXT Cube (Germany)
Last post by don_apple - Oct 08, 2026, 10:17 AM #37
Software / Re: List of NeXT-related repos...
Last post by ptek - Oct 08, 2026, 09:32 AM #38
Software / Comnetix used NeXT in 1994 to ...
Last post by ptek - Oct 08, 2026, 09:25 AM In May 1994 a six developer team from Comnetix used NeXT (x86) to develop software for the Boston Police Department which was deployed February 1995 and was fully compliant with the FBI's new certification process at the time.
I would be interested to know how much RAM they were using in their development machines. The NeXT vs SUN developer video from 1991, both machines had 32MB RAM. I wonder why they didn't use jutify on their paragraphs :/.
These pages were leeched from http://next.z80.org
I would be interested to know how much RAM they were using in their development machines. The NeXT vs SUN developer video from 1991, both machines had 32MB RAM. I wonder why they didn't use jutify on their paragraphs :/.
These pages were leeched from http://next.z80.org
#39
Virtualization / Re: SPARC frustrations and hop...
Last post by Protocol 7 - Oct 07, 2026, 10:05 PMThe PR2 release of OPENSTEP 4.0 had SPARC support. Here it is in action thanks to Jade's QEMU fork, emulating a SS20 with a CG14 framebuffer and the max 448MB RAM.
PR1 had HPPA support but no SPARC while PR2 had SPARC but no HPPA.
PR1 had HPPA support but no SPARC while PR2 had SPARC but no HPPA.
#40
Virtualization / Qemu-i386 fixes
Last post by jade_nekotenshi - Oct 07, 2026, 07:17 PMFor a long time there's been an issue with the mouse on qemu-system-i386 which, as far as I know, has made it essentially impossible to run NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP on it. I just put in a fix for that in my qemu fork (see the SPARC thread), and it's working for me. Mac users, and anyone else who needs to use Qemu and can't use Virtualbox, please feel free to test it out!