“The reason I am a Mac user, and an avid one at that, is Steve Jobs. But not in the way you might think. Yes, he co-founded Apple and is the father of the Macintosh, but those aren’t what I’m speaking of. It’s Jobs work after his oust from Apple that has put me behind the Macintosh at which I now type. It was called NeXT,” an anonymous writer reports on Mac on Intel. “I have managed, tonight, to grab my OPENSTEP 4.2 CDs, beta 4 of Parallels Workstation software, and an OPENSTEP boot floppy from Apple and get OPENSTEP 4.2 installed on my 2.0GHz MacBook Pro. The install went with very few hitches, the system is very responsive (far more responsive than NEXTSTEP on my NeXT box), and thanks to OPENSTEP’s VESA drivers, the display runs at very high resolution and in true color.”
Full article with screenshots here.
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I don’t get it. What’s the point?
Does anyone know if there have been head-to-head comparisons between OS-X Tiger and NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP?
It would be interesting to know the degree of progress achieved from those roots…
Just curious-
Aside from the novelty of installing NeXt. Are there any applications that warrant it’s use?
I have an old B/W NeXt box but no OS install CDs. Picked it up when an agency closed. It runs but… I think it’s like a 33Mhz processor.
what’s there to get, j? The guy is obviously a NeXT fan and seeing all the hoopla with multiple OSes wanted to see if it was possible. So I guess the point is he just wanted to do it for shits and giggles. I don’t think he was like “Finally, all that NeXT software that I couldn’t use for the last two decades, FINALLY I CAN”
Soon people will be saying they can boot the first Mac OS ever made on their new MacTel so they can run all those 30 year old programs again.
I tried to get my Atanasoff-Berry Computer to boot on my Intel iMac, but I couldn’t find a place to put the punch cards. Bummer!
What I want to see are Cocoa Frameworks for Windows (called Yellow Box in the past). If I could write software for the Mac that also works on Windows, then it would save me a ton of work. The NeXT environment–that became OS X–is so much better than any other development platform. Unfortunately if a company wants to write common code for both the Mac and Windows, C++ (and its libraries) becomes the language of choice. It’s fine as a lowest common denominator, but not nearly as slick as Objective C with Cocoa.
Just imagine the R & D dollars that could be saved if a developer could write software using the XCode tools on a Mac and deliver for both platforms–the Mac would get all the best software first. The world would quickly forget about the .NET pseudo code disaster.
@ Drunk Cheney >
Lotus Improv was truly a beautiful spreadsheet app (not often you see those words in the same sentence) and Interface Builder was quite pretty in its own right. Actually, I’d love Apple to acquire Improv from IBM (God knows they’re not going to do anything with it) and incorporate it into iWork – I’d love to see Ballmer’s face (and that’s definitely not something you see in many sentences).
One of the other apps I remember on the old NeXT systems was a document management app created by some East Coast ISV that was way ahead of things like Documentum and the like.
“Soon people will be saying they can boot the first Mac OS ever made on their new MacTel so they can run all those 30 year old programs again.”
Mac introduced Jan 1984. Maybe 22 year-old SW, but even the first Apple would be pushing the 30 year envelope.
—-
Yes. An off-the-shelf ready spreadsheet addition to iWork would be delicious.
MDN Magic Word: (ssshhh.. quiet please…) “here”, as in, “Here Kitty, Kitty… here, kitty kitty…”
The NeXT Cat is coming…
Lotus Improv was the best Spreadsheet app I have ever used. It was simple and intuitive. However, it was only for the NeXT box, and never ported over to intel hardware version of OpenStep.
I agree with MCCFR that Apple should include it with iWorks, HOWEVER, even if Apple would buy it from IBM, it would have to be completely rewritten. Apple should try to get the rights to the UI of Improv from IBM and write it from scratch. I for one would buy that App.
>>I don’t think he was like “Finally, all that NeXT software that I couldn’t use for the last two decades, FINALLY I CAN”<<
Two decades? It was less than 10 years ago that NeXT was bought by Apple. Besides, he could have been using a PC to run this software during that time.
SOme of the best software ever created for NeXT was internal company software. If Apple bought next, they would own all of that software, and I am sure they have the apps to create an Office-like suite that runs in parallel with OS X and is compatible with Windows Office extensions. Is it possible that Steve is going to give the Apple community the final straw that breaks Micro$oft’s back? An Office suite for Christmas. Suite!
You don’t know the history of NeXT computers. I do.
But you’re missing the point that I was making. I’m saying he didn’t do this out of utility. He did it to say he could.
Totally cool. It’s like we’ve got VirtualPC all over again, only with no slowdowns.
AL, Improv was ported to Windows in 1992.
http://infocom.cqu.edu.au/Staff/Michael_O_malley/web/mooses_review_page_lotus_improv.html
At a whopping 12Mb, any re-write shouldn’t be a deal killer.
At MWSF, I got on my soapbox and spoke with an iWorks team member about adding Improv, but of course they couldn’t comment in any way. I suspect their arrangement with M$ concerning continuing support for Office on OS X has a lot to do with it, as His Steveness was the reason Lotus released the app in the first place. We can dream, though.
> MCCFR: Thanks for the feedback.
> DrDude: Atanasoff-Berry Computer! Now that is F-ing funny.
Anyone know how many pounds a gig of punch cards would be?
@ Nickbob>
Can I suggest that the next Macworld you attend, you take a printed copy of this and the link you posted and ‘harass’ the same guy.
One man thinking Improv was a cool product is one thing, several people has the making of a trend.
BTW, the only problem with that link was having to see Improv’s beauty corrupted by the tasteless dreck that is Windows. It’s impossible to express a shudder through a keyboard and that’s no bad thing.
This is so cool!
Oh and by the way, Jobs wasn’t the father of the mac, Raskin was.
Wait…in response to rasterbator’s comment, diddn’t Apple already buy NeXT? Isn’t that how Jobs came back to the company?
Hey MCCFR~
That fellow at MWSF was quite attentive so far as it went, but for all I know he might very well have heard that it is going to be released when 10.5 arrives; he’s simply not in a position to say anything one way or another. But this isn’t something a public groundswell could make happen anyway, even if we could cause one to happen. Steve J has a history with this app, so whatever he’s decided about it in the current enviroment isn’t likely to be changed. The good news is that he was once its biggest fan. But with all the politics involved (the rights being owned by jilted processor provider IBM and detante with M$), it’s sadly merely a pawn. Hopefully it will get played.
Here’s another good link on the beginning.
http://simson.net/clips/91.NW.Improv.html