NeXT Station | When Steve Jobs Left Apple - Part 1

[@TomSramekJr]

I had a chance to visit the NEXT facility in Fremont during the early 1990s with a group of technical support technicians and it was, at the time, one of the most advanced production facilities around. I don't recall meeting Steve Jobs, but we did get the full tour of the facility. Good memories!

[@NgoViGiaPhuA]

Tom Sramek, Jr. is the neXT company still around and the building got destroyed yet?

[@RonJohn63]

@@NgoViGiaPhuA NeXT was purchased by Apple.

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you for watching, I'm looking forward to playing with this more once the cable is sorted for capture. Please share your memories or thoughts on all NeXT computers I'd love to hear them. As always you can support The Cave as a Patron (www.patreon.com/RetroManCave) or in the RMC Shop (www.etsy.com/shop/TheRetroManCave). Thank you to MonsterJoysticks (monsterjoysticks.com/RMC) for supporting this episode. Neil - RMC

[@Sinan8052]

Is this on display at the Cave?

[@Oldgamingfart]

There's something ever so slightly Saul Goodman about the young Steve Jobs haha. S'all good yo! ;)

[@lrochfort]

I had one of these babies when I worked at the BBC. The NextStep development environment became XCode in Max OS X. The InterfaceBuilder is very much the same and many libraries and classes are still prefixed NS for NextStep. In the early 2000s I dug the machine out and had it online.

[@markteague8889]

lrochfort I got one off Flea Bay in 1999. There were tons of the slabs going for less than $100 USD. Compiled all kinds of UNIX apps for it. Send mail 8 something or another wound up being taken over as s spam relay and had to shut that down. :( The only limiting factor I ran into was a lack of support for threads. Although Mach supported threads, it was not POSIX compliant. The boxes still functioning today should really have a version of Linux or FreeBSD ported for them to run.

[@NSResponder]

The Interface Builder got a complete rewrite around 2003. It's been changing ever since, and today it's a major pain in the ass to even do the simple "connect a slider to a textfield" demo that Steve used to do all the time.

[@StrangerHappened]

@@markteague8889 Maybe you need to do something like "How to install Linux on a vintage 68K Mac"? (Both Macintoshes and NS had 68040 chips.)

[@markteague8889]

@@StrangerHappened LOL … I wouldn’t have much of a clue about installing Linux. In theory, it would be possible. Although by today’s standards they are cripplingly slow machines, they did have some pretty kool hardware in them. Especially, if you have the NeXTDimension board for video. It would take a community effort to implement a Linux kernel and distribution capable of running on NeXT black hardware and fully exploiting the available peripheral devices. As an alternative, the “Previous” emulator of NeXT black hardware was a very interesting project. Last time I checked, It seemed to have been abandoned. It’s the way these things go. Someone is working on a graduate computer science degree and gets interested in emulation, then they finish school, get a real job, begin a family, and they no longer have time to play with such intellectual curiosities.

[@StrangerHappened]

@@markteague8889 Should Linux be necessarily slow on 68040 though? Those CPUs were the beasts of their time, super fast. Linux itself is a kernel so by default it should not be that slow even if it has gotten fatter since the 1990s when its first version was released. Some barebone GUI shells from the KDE/X-Window family of projects should not run much slower than native NS GUI in its *basic* functions. But the idea of developing stuff to actually use anything else beyond the 68040 CPU and the very minimum video driver support seems to be hopeless since it would be a major effort for a purely hobbyist thing that the NS fan community is now.

[@GabrielAndroczky]

Let's also not forget that Tim Berners Lee invented the World Wide Web on a NeXT computer! The NeXT computer and NeXTSTEP (and later OpenSTEP) was a really revolutionary powerhorse at its time. Also let's not forget that when looking at macOS today, we're in reality pretty much looking at NeXTSTEP evolved :)

[@RMCRetro]

Yes indeed, I hint at this in the intro but we'll go into more detail in part 2 on Tims work

[@GabrielAndroczky]

Yep, I just discovered this is Part 1 :))) cool

[@LambdaCalculus379]

And id Software developed Doom on NeXT!

[@GabrielAndroczky]

Oh yes!

[@MaddTheSane]

There's source code out there of a Quake editor for NeXT OS.

[@mmille10]

"What will the future be like? Here's a quote from George Orwell: 'Imagine a boot stomping on a human face--forever.' Not so nice." LOL

[@Horzuhammer]

Once again RMC satisfies my niche computing-interests. :) Thank you - this is quickly turning into one of my favourite channels on KZbin. Can't wait for pt. 2.

[@RMCRetro]

Horzuhammer there are dozens of us 👍

[@srtgrayfrance]

If you visit CERN, they have the original NeXT Cube used by Tim Berners-Lee to develop HTTP on display. Also, do you know what the SIMM socket in the middle of he motherboard is for?

[@RMCRetro]

The empty slot is to upgrade the DSP memory. You can take it from 24 to 96 kilobytes according to the owners guide.

[@alritedave]

srtgrayfrance Video memory?

[@TheMonthlyJack]

They had it on display at the Science Museum in London back in 2014.

[@RunTimeRecruitment]

We should be thankful to Steve Jobs and NEXT otherwise the internet may have looked very differet

[@alritedave]

RunTime No porn?

[@TheDarkHour684]

Steve Jobs reading Orwell's vision of the future from Big Brother '1984' and realizing halfway thru the quote what he was reading is absolute GOLD. Hahaha

[@adam872]

I lusted after NeXT machines as an undergrad in the early 90's. Man I loved those things. I took a detour into Sun and SGI systems for about a decade and a bit, which was very enjoyable, but I still have a soft spot for NeXT Step. It's cool that it lives on in OSX, which I use at home and work every day.

[@little_fluffy_clouds]

My favourite computer system of all time, thanks for making this video. In the 90s, I bought a relatively affordable secondhand NeXTcube with the NeXTdimension graphics accelerator board while I was at university, using all my savings, some money from my parents and a large portion of my student loan. It was a gorgeous machine on which I learned to program in Objective-C using ProjectBuilder and InterfaceBuilder. Later, I traded it in for a 486-based Intel GX workstation which ran OPENSTEP faster than the older NeXT hardware did, and as a bonus, I could dual-boot into DOS and Windows. I still keep my copy of the OPENSTEP Mach 4.2 OS and my apps running under VM emulation to this day, such a refined looking GUI.

[@Dr.D00p]

Sponsorship!!! You're in the big time now :)) and well deserved, IMO. Thanks for all the hard work making the content, and it is MUCH harder than many realise making this stuff, especially when you have to do the day job as well.

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you Martin! :D

[@markteague8889]

Hear, hear!!!

[@enricovanderswanlake364]

I love the calm voice and music for these videos and all the nerdy details

[@GordonjSmith1]

I was working for a software research company in the UK (its offices overlooked Buckingham Palace Gardens) when we got one of the very first of these machines, the academics and engineers were blown away. It was seriously different from anything they had worked on, and none of us could keep our hands off it. This was not just a fast PC, nor was it a copy of a 'mini computer' in a box, it really worked in a way that mirrors the difference between Apple and 'WinIntel' machines today. A remarkable 're-think' about how to think about data. Bravo 'NEXT'!

[@MrGollywock]

Top quality video as always. Videos like this one, the soviet Sinclair one or the Minitel one (as a frenchman it was really appreciated) really let the quality of your work shine. You've quickly become my favorite retro tech channel, and you're constantly getting better. Thank you!

[@RMCRetro]

Very kind thank you sir. These will always be my core format as I see it, with a few other style videos inbetween to keep regular content coming while I take my time researching these. I'm glad you enjoy them.

[@lactobacillusprime]

Looking forward to the second part. Quite an enigmatic system that I was aware of back in the day - but deemed unobtainable and the stuff of legends, much like the purple Sun workstations - I had to make due with the 'fresh' compile it yourself Linux on a 386/486 system back then. Loved how complex Linux was compared to MS-DOS and what was possible with it.

[@75slaine]

Same here. It was actually NeXT’s unobtainium quality that got me into Linux and the direction of my whole career. So I guess I owe NOT owning this system a lot :)

[@markteague8889]

All of us wanted a more powerful OS in the early 90s. Linus was just too stubborn and dumb to realize that he couldn’t write his own. ;). It also helped that he had Andrew Tanenbaum as a mentor.

[@IrwinCespedes]

Such a beautiful review, and your comments are awesome! Part two will be a next step!!!!

[@joeconti2396]

Cannot wait for part 2. Always been fascinated by these boxes.

[@marcelofrau8818]

Finally a NeXT computer! Man, I need to see the part 2.. You can also show all the open sources alternatives that shown up after the NeXTStep OS, AfterStep, WindowMaker and a lot of other unix software that came inspired and based on the NeXT computers. This reminds me that the very first HTTP server on the world was on a NeXT computer.

[@Stormbolter]

My first contact with the Next computers was in a MacWorld '92 issue that talked about the status of the NeXT company and their "pizza boxes". Never heard they were called a "slab" until I saw your video :)

[@TheFlyingScotsmanTV]

I spent my first 4 years in IT writing RAD applications on NeXTSTEP and Openstep at BT Laboratories. 1994-1998. Caught the end of NeXTSTEP (on P60s) and then we spend a couple of years running OpenSTEP on SUN RISC stations, and on some PP200s. I then spend 2 years doing WebObjects on OSX Server on mac pros for some web design houses through the dotcom boom. The SW was revolutionary - EOF was just lightyears ahead of anything else out there - when java came along with J2EE many years later, it was pathetic - and remained a joke compared to EOF imho for 10 years+ . The power of the graphical UI designer, compared with EOF let 4 of us turn out industry level apps in 2 weeks, that would take 20 people 6 months in other parts of the business. It's a real shame it didn't take off more at the time. Webobects lasted a bit longer - and again, into 2000 it was still in a class of its own for controlling relation data, and knocking complete 3 tier apps out the door quickly. Of course I'm sure you're going to go on to explain the reverse take over of Apple by NeXT/Jobs, and the origins of OSX (OSX Server which I mention above being the first, often forgotten, step to where we are now - it was openstep on MAC basically) - and now objective C lives on on apple and iOS - though EOF and WOF are pretty dead - which is a pity because frankly they were the ferrari to java's lada when it came to enterprise frameworks. I only got rid of about 10 massive NeXTSTEP 3.3 manuals and CDs about a year ago after finally deciding that they were more junk that priceless artefacts - but I'll always have a soft spot for NeXT.

[@gorkskoal9315]

my condolences Did you you use solaris or one of the other sun os's?

[@MindFlareRetro]

Fascinating history, and a great cliffhanger. I can't wait to see it fire up.

[@thespacemonkeyist]

A NeXT box was used by Tim Berners-Lee to develop the first the Hypertext protocol. It can be argued that the first web page was developed on a NeXT box.

[@DaleDaviesUK]

Loved this episode, can't wait for part two! 😁

[@Slurkz]

Nice! Thanks. Looking forward to part two. 💜

[@SledgeFox]

Such a fascinating and well presented video, thank you so much!

[@Nlogax]

Beautiful. Can't wait for the working system in part 2!

[@devvynully]

Oh no. RMC left it on a cliffhanger. Now I need to wait a week for closure.

[@FintanMoloney]

Really enjoyed this video - thanks for putting it together

[@beachsandinspector]

Thank you for this informative video, I look forward to the next one, all your videos bring back fond memories. Cheers from Perth in Western Australia

[@johnknight9150]

Hello, fellow Perthite.

[@LegendaryGauntlet]

Chipset DMA architecture was a hallmark of the Amiga. Also worth mentioning is the NeXT has indeed found a lot of comfy spots in research centers such as the CERN, where they were used for important stuff i'm quite sure you'll mention in the next episode :P

[@RMCRetro]

Indeed, Mr Berners Lee was working at Cern when he came up with something. This unit is on loan from the Physics Dept of Oxford Uni so who knows what it may have processed

[@jessepatterson8897]

that's a 50 pin 10/MBs scsi port, so it was actually high speed when it came out. Those cards were 3-500$ alone back in the day.

[@reallybrokenalways]

Did my degree on the Second Gen NeXT and indigo from SG.

[@JoseLuis-79]

excellent video! NeXT Station was a great computer!!

[@sergo40]

Great content! Can't wait for part 2!

[@LambdaCalculus379]

This is one machine I'd love to get ahold of! It's one of the nicest Unix workstations out there! Great video! Can't wait to see the, ahhh... NeXT part! 😉

[@MartinAlejandroLiguori]

Now this is a very good video. Looking forward for the next one.

[@NicholasMarkovich]

Couldn't help but notice Tom Scott is a patron.

[@lancelotxavier9084]

While at Next, Jobs screwed over his friends, colleagues and people who believed in him all while making backroom deals with Apple to save his own skin. We sacrificed our precious grants in research only to be screwed over by Jobs just a year later. To makes things worse he made things proprietary and made the Mac version of Nextstep incompatible, leaving his loyal customers abandoned on a island.

[@alerey4363]

and he screwed Woz, who found during mid flight that his partner and cofounder at apple backstabbed and screwd him with the Atari breakout design profits; the world is better without jobs

[@75slaine]

Awesome stuff. Always wanted a NeXT Station. Ran OPENSTEP on my Pentium 90 for a while. Can’t wait for Part 2

[@stevef6392]

"Hi, I'm Steve Jobs, and the Woz makes computers." Fixed that for him.

[@guspaz]

To be fair, Woz never worked at NeXT. NeXT may have been a failure as a hardware company, but their operating system (NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP) was certainly a great success, since it lives on today with the name "macOS" and "iOS".

[@TheRealDioBrando]

Woz never worked at NeXT and the tech from NeXT now powers both Mac OS X and the iPhone. Woz is overrated.

[@guillermosempron5776]

And Jobs was a fraud.

[@doomslayerdave]

You think any of that would exist if it weren't for the Apple II and that propelling the brand into relevance? You know why Apple bombed in the 1990s? Because they pushed an overpriced platform that lacked backwards compatibility, color graphics and any kind of upgrade path. The Mac is overrated and Apple bombed when they listened to the terrible advice of abandoning their customers' current investments and needs. The Apple IIGS should have been the real future. Instead Jobs and the dolts after him saw dollar signs and some kind of phantom elitism they thought $3K monochrome machines would bring. Of course Mac OSX now runs on Intel because someone finally realized the way they were doing things was garbage.

[@YourTVUnplugged]

Jobs was not a fraud... You're thinking of mr billy gates! The code theif (he actually can't code for shit like I was previously deceived into thinking as a kid, man can't believe I ever looked up to him [mr gates]) and eugenicist that masquerades his eugenics program as philanthropy! what a cruel sick joke! But regardless I still had the intuition or stroke of luck to pick instead of gates, Steve Jobs for my class project / class report! :D Truly was a genuine guy and sucks we had to lose him so early! A shame his envisioned usage case of the next step machine never came to fruition and cured cancer... or it was swept under the rug and cure discoverer killed so the cancer industry(it is an industry and they are not only avoiding cures but actively stamping them out when they catch wind of them and their discoverers) can maintain it's immense profits at the expense of human lives! Kind of puts the Jobs read Orwell quote into perspective doesn't it? Well your legacy will not be lost Steve, we will get that cure out there just the person that discovers it has to be wise and not think the industry is just going to step aside and let a cure get in the way of their profit margins ,and just open source the information spread far and wide instead! The only way cancer is going to be cured is by forcing the industry to acknowledge a cure, they will never acknowledge one themselves so they have to be forced to recognize it... If everyone knows it, and knows it's a truly successful way to eliminate it, then they just can't deny it and they must stop bogus failure chemo and administer the real cure! :D We got this Steve! :D

[@lemagreengreen]

Oh that's some good RetroManCave. When are we going to get an SGI episode? They're my favourite, unattainable (at the time) workstations.

[@RMCRetro]

I dream of those gorgeous indigo workstations. One day my friend. One day

[@lemagreengreen]

Looking forward to it, know you'll do a great job of it. Loving the video, very interesting subject.

[@Applecompuser]

I want to note that I really like the production style of your videos. They seem very polished. Thanks for the great work.

[@RMCRetro]

That's kind thank you!

[@osgrov]

Ooh, a NeXT! Almost 30 years ago, I remember flipping through the pages of BYTE magazine seeing their review of the original NeXT Cube. I've been in love with it ever since. Never managed to pick one up though, sadly. A few years later I got to play with some NeXTstations at university, but that wasn't the same thing.. Probably a better computer, but nowhere near as good-looking as the Cube, hehe. Top quality content, I'm eagerly awaiting part 2! :) Cheers

[@ordinosaurs]

Oh my... To this day I have a Sparcstation 20 running natively NeXTStep 3.3, but running it on the black hardware is a dream...

[@NCommander]

I've done a fair bit of technical poking under the hood of late NeXTstep/OPENSTEP. If you have questions on some the technical underpinnings of NeXTstep and how it made the journey to Rhapsody, Mac OS X Server 1.0, and then OS X, I'd be glad to point you in the right direction. Seeing a popular channel talking about NeXT stuff is awesome. It's a pretty interesting technical history.

[@RMCRetro]

If you don't mind messaging me on twitter @theretromancave it's always good to have a 2nd opinion before release or even a talking head to improve the video thanks

[@marybergquist8017]

What a peach of an episode. Gone but not forgotten, every time I see that "http" prefix or all of the Objective-C classes with the mysterious NS dangling off.

[@cbmsysmobile]

Oh, I love the irony of Steve Jobs talking about "pulling the price point down to where it is affordable for people"

[@HikariMagic20]

I had the luck of being able to play around on the NeXT Station "SLAB" that my dad had while I was growing up. It was a lot of fun, or at least my memory recalls it as such.

[@kron520]

5:20 I'm glad that his dream became reality...

[@purrbox7514]

Wow, awesome video, can't wait to see it go head to head with a 486!

[@doalwa]

Man, those Next machines were a thing of beauty! And Nextstep lives on in modern day OSX and iOS.

[@brianboni4876]

I was a scientific and industrial user of NeXT computers. You should be able to get that Intel version running or a huge range of Intel hardware, just make sure you have a compatible SCSI card and the rest should be easy as I remember. One of the final machines I had from NeXT was a Nixdorf dual Pentium Pro, it seemed blazing fast but the cubes with the video card that cost more than the machine was my favorite. For our uses we compared them to visual workstations from HP and Tektronix and NeXT was about one quarter of the price and way more compatible and loaded with options the others charged extra for. We also used SGI machines but the advantage of NeXT was how well it talked with everything else and how easy it was to patch together your own tools and make them look like a professional application. All these tools came with the machine, even a compiler which was a big deal at the time. Not only did you get all that but I had the business card and telephone number of an engineer at NeXT who specialized in making NeXT machines work in our industry and I could call him directly with questions or ask him to review my code, try that today.

[@steveofx23]

Looking forward to the NeXT part!

[@alphaLONE]

Very very nice! Can't wait for Part 2! Hope you'll get to check out Sun and SGI workstations

[@randywatson8347]

The IBM ps/2 E was called a pizzabox too.😁

[@DeadReckon]

I like thta you went through the trouble of replacing the thermal paste on the CPU, old systems can die horribly because of decayed thermal compounds and pads. I setup my Dad a computer with a 1st generation Core i7 1366 socket system, the chipset was running obscenely hot, I noticed this when I also noticed I forgot to plug the CPU fan back in. The thermal paste had turned to cement and the heatsink was no longer making proper contact with the chipset. That motherboard is only 7 years old and the paste had already bought the farm, I'd hate to think what lives under the lid of CPU's.

[@alritedave]

Dead Reckon I replace my desktop's thermal stuff every year roughly. Ironically though my laptop is an iBook G4 from 2005, so the thermal compound on that must be powder by now lol.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Went through that trouble when I replaced paste on a Voodoo 3 last year. Hard as glue. One of the things besides checking (and sometimes replacing) the power supply when old machines are menat to keep working.

[@quantumfoam42]

Such a fascinating system. Thanks for taking the time to talk about it.

[@HistoricNerd]

I remember trying to convince my parent to pick one of these up......because clearly a black case is the best computer.

[@electronash]

HistoricNerd Boo! haha How's it going? ;)

[@HistoricNerd]

Going good man, Still doing Army Stuff, But I'm heading home next month so streams will start up again.

[@alritedave]

HistoricNerd You again!! Hey!!

[@NeilGrevitt]

Great video!! I'm inspired to try installing NeXTSTEP or OpenStep on my SparcStation 20!

[@HerringandChips]

Wonderful stuff again. Can’t wait for the NeXTStep!! ;)

[@bmmcwhirt]

The OpenStep of your stride is giving away and spoilers are revealed, maybe it's time for a GnuStep. (It's late here, thats the best I could do)

[@HerringandChips]

A mans gotta Gnu, what a mans gotta Gnu.

[@tarstarkusz]

Go buy a new Apple and you are buying the NeXT Step. OSX is what NeXT would have become. OSX is essentially a name change.

[@TheSteveSteele]

The Motorola 68040RC running at 33Mhz or 40Mhz was a smooth running CPU for those operating systems that ran on it back then. To this day I remember it as being one of the more snappy and responsive CPUs I’ve used. I owned several Mac Quadras, with the 650 and 840AV being great for the time. My university had a few NeXT workstations for electronic composition. I’d like to get my hands on a NeXT Cube. As far as I’m concerned I think NeXT is Jobs finest moment. Obvious saving Apple will always be seen as his legacy, but the foundation and footwork was all done at NeXT. The GUI is just as fresh in 2018 as it was in 1988. 30 years! That says a lot. Especially the decision to include a Postscript Display GUI. The portability of the NeXT microkernel was responsible for Apple’s ability to port the OS from workstations, to iPods, to iOS to Watch OS, etc. and multiple CPU architectures. Really smart work NeXT did. Luckily Jobs had the Apple brand name to expose the world to this great tech convergence.

[@georgelewisray]

Well done, Thanks!

[@xPLAYnOfficial]

I really want one of these, along with a Vectrex.

[@alexmute4546]

2019, still using that Wharfs bar, under E.

[@Bakamoichigei]

I've always loved 13w3 connectors... You see one of those, with its three _chonky_ RGB pins, and you just _know_ the hardware its on is _serious business._ 😂👍

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Of note - because NeXT systems use the same keyboard and mouse connector as the Mac, you *CAN* use the power button on a Macintosh ADB keyboard to turn it on. And that "sound box" was necessary for color monitors - the monochrome NeXT systems used a single cable for audio, video, and ADB, so had a custom connector, and all the plugs for audio and ADB were on the monchrome monitor itself. (I have a NeXTstation Turbo monochrome with matching display - it has no "sound box". Mine have the older style keyboard and mouse.)

[@SuperJet_Spade]

This is an interesting part of Steve Jobs' history that I never knew about

[@cbmeeks]

Can't wait for the NeXT video..... (sorry, I couldn't resist).

[@alanpwhelan]

Eagerly looking forward to part 2 ⏰👀

[@Ichinin]

Funny how NextStep got merged into MacOS... i saw someone on youtube trying to get an image out of that box, that was a journey in itself. Those XC68040, I've seen them being used in ICS for industrial applications. Have looked at some of those NEXT boxes on eBay but they are WAY too expensive to collect, I got an offer before for 6 SUN boxes for $150 a few months ago. Not the same - but it paints a picture how expensive it is to collect rare puters - a NEXT is not something you buy on a whim.

[@NSResponder]

The soundbox exists because NeXT couldn't get their monitor suppliers to put those components inside the monitor enclosure. Steve was not happy about that, but by the time the color machines were under development, Sony and Toshiba weren't willing to front the engineering expense to make a custom unit for NeXT. All they were really willing to do was put them in a black enclosure.

[@FintanMoloney]

Hi Neil, I watched this video when you first posted it but watching it again today as its so well put together. I really would like to get my hands on one of these systems and all the documentation you showed. I think it would be great to do some programming on it however I'm scared to look at the prices on eBay lol

[@jecelassumpcaojr890]

XC68040 would indicate an engineering sample, if I remember correctly, instead of MC68040 for a production part.

[@amaxamon]

2:30 - Jobs obviously didn't know how to use the card catalog! I also doubt he ever read Shakespeare.

[@raenfox]

I find this interesting. I believe my Apple Performa had the same CPU. It did have a larger HDD but with all the additional components, the NeXT Station is obviously more powerful.

[@pauledwards2817]

Looking forward to part 2 as I never got to see the 68040 second series in action. Even at the time people thought the 68030 was suffering a bit. Interested to see how well they go as great examples of systems that have strong supporting hardware too. Have a PA-RISC machine that runs Nextstep 3.3, an 80Mhz version, the mid range one, want to see how that would compare, it certainly does not have the great supporting cast of chips, no DSP for a start. Plus, unlike the Next boxes the plastic has all aged and become brittle, they were meant to be cut down to a cost but were still out of reach of all but the few.

[@pelgervampireduck]

I don't understand his "sales angle", I mean what was he trying to sell that a PC or a mac couldn't do? having an enciclopedia pre-installed?. he talked like if his selling point was "this computer has information!, you can search for an author and it displays information!". it doesn't take special hardware to do that. I would be like "ok steve, but tell me how is this superior to another computer? tell me the specs, the cpu speed, the ram, the hard disk capacity, does it have cdrom? how does it perform compared to a 386 PC?".

[@crumplezone1]

You are getting very good at this Video filming lark Neil and more power to you, an excellent first part , I await the 2nd installment with much impatience :)

[@mikethemaniacal]

this really helps put Serial Experiments Lain in perspective

[@dlarge6502]

And today I still enjoy using Window Maker on GNU/Linux as my desktop. This is a window manager that is part of GNUStep, the Free Software re-implementation of Nextstep API's. Before Window Maker I used AfterStep, which is very similar.

[@LaskyLabs]

A fan? In a computer Steve Jobs worked on? Impossible.

[@digitalranger4259]

I saw this in the college bookstore, took a look at the software available, and bought an Amiga 2500 instead. Liked the Next, but there was so much more software for the Amiga.

[@Kholaslittlespot1]

Still have a NeXT keyboard and some add on boards I dumpster dived for in the 90s. Actually a nice looking keyboard!

[@MichaelGGarry]

John Carmack of iD wrote Wolfenstein 3D etc on a NeXT black cube......

[@okramando]

VERY excited about this!

[@brentboswell1294]

I remember the one and only NeXT station at my university that was accessible to students...It ended up being a glorified Unix terminal, because there wasn't much software for it. This was president world wide web...

[@xKynOx]

I had to use one at work (have no idea what system) but it was years afterwards,it was used for warehouse stock check i think it came out of the office.

[@SergiuszRoszczyk]

What a great introduction:-). One of the most visible parts are MacOS foundation and Objective-C, still present in current generation Mac and iOS devices.

[@mhoppy6639]

Re quote at the end (!) jobs was indeed NOT always right about everything (g4 cube anyone?) but with his reality distortion field he certainly believe that he was. Ps I loved the g4 cube BTW - it was a beautiful beast. Finally for more on Jobs rough and smooth (and at times his personality was decidedly “rough” read Walter Isaacson’s wonderful biography which really captures the essence of the man.) Great video(s) as well. Thank you RMC. 😀

[@edeggermont]

Great music choice for the opening of the box

[@DaraM73]

I’d love to see a revival of the brand, and look, of NeXt

[@amerigocosta7452]

I had no idea that NeXT monitor was manifactured in Italy by Philips. Good old times when Europe actually manifactured technology. Looking forward to see the second episode as it will be as close as many of us can get to a computer like this!

[@RMCRetro]

Thanks! Yes NeXT had a dedicated and pretty much fully automated manufacturing plant in the US for the machines themselves capable of producing 150,000 units a month. NeXT sold 50,000 computers in its entire lifetime.

[@threadthathasnoend1212]

2:19 Napoleon Dynamite

[@RMCRetro]

There he is!

[@F0r3v3rT0m0rr0w]

knoticed that too lol

[@phaandorpertwee6981]

awesome, yes I saw him too!

[@TheDavo10001]

Gosh!

[@JSparrowist]

Checked the comments to see if I was the only one who spotted him. I was not disappointed!

[@MsJinkerson]

he did a good job with the onboard battery making a socket instead of solder on

[@wigrysystems]

Wow, where did you managed to get this beauty from. I already was afraid I missed it from some of your donation un-boxing videos :) Anyway, absolutely marvelous gem and a piece of computing history.

[@RMCRetro]

This has kindly been loaned to me by the Physics dept at Oxford University

[@Maniac536]

John Carmack loved NEXT. He would make game engines on them

[@alritedave]

I love this channel!!

[@northof-62]

It's a good thing that Linus Torvalds started his Linux project. Steve Jobs was all about proprietary everything. No wonder the free IBM PC standards won.

[@IdeaBoxful]

Tim Berners Lee creates the WWW on a Next station. The MacOSX of today has its beginnings in this machine..