What is the origin of the stream created by Jobs and continuing to the current macOS / iOS "NeXTSTEP"

ByGerben Wierda

If you follow the source of the technology currently in use, you may arrive at an unexpected place. In the case of Mac, the source of the OS is not inside Apple, the OS that was created when Jobs who was "exiled" Apple was outsideNeXTSTEPIt reaches to.

The Deep History of Your Apps: Steve Jobs, NeXTSTEP, and Early Object-Oriented Programming | Computer History Museum
http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/the-deep-history-of-your-apps-steve-jobs-nextstep-and-early-object-oriented-programming/


Steve Jobs in January 1984, "Macintosh"To the world. At that time, Jobs was at the forefront of its sales activities, as Macintosh discount sales were being offered to universities and educational institutions. Biochemist who won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry when participating in the luncheon of Stanford UniversityPaul BergJobs who encounters the idea of ​​"to make a computer (workstation) that can conduct genetic modification experiments".

In the Christmas season in 1984, Apple took stock of the Macintosh out of demand forecast and posted the first deficit. Jobs who were deemed to be responsible for the confusion of these companies will be forced to resign in 1985. Actually Jobs thought about making a company to shape the idea obtained from Dr. Berg before he resigned, resigned just as a ship in transit, except for one share of Apple shares he owned All sold, devoted to the establishment of the company.

What was made like this is "NeXT"is. Originally workstation development was planned to be done, but we will also make an operating system (OS) on our own "NeXTSTEPHas been created.

OS "NeXTSTEP" and NeXT's computer was the state-of-the-art technology at that time, the price of the first NeXT Computer launched in 1988 was $ 6,500 (about 1.1 million yen at the time), improved NeXT Computer NeXTcube released in 1990 was very expensive with $ 10,000 (about 1.4 million yen at that rate). At that time I was working at CERNTim Berners-LeeIt is famous that this NeXTcube developed the world's first web server "httpd" and the world's first web browser / HTML editor "WorldWideWeb".

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NeXT's hardware business failed commercially due to expensive price and initial functional problems, and it became handsome in 1993, but since NeXTSTEP was a highly evaluated OS, NeXT and Sun and Macro Systems jointly developed "OPENSTEP" which excludes the kernel part from NeXTSTEP. In March 1996, the software business continued, such as "WebObjects" was born as the world's first web application server.

It comes back to Apple here. After Jobs came out, CEO John Scully promoted the development of the PDA terminal "Newton" as a new pillar. Thought itself was advanced, it was one that came to a mobile terminal later, but failed as a business. We also did business such as letting manufacturer make Macintosh compatible machine by giving license of Macintosh, but system is different rival as PCPC / AT compatible machineFar from robbing the share of Macintosh, Macintosh compatible machines will threaten the threat of market share.

From the end of the 1980's to the 1990's, Apple negotiated a merger with various companies, but after finishing the CEO Gil Amelio, who is aiming for Apple rebuilding, it is finally able to take on new moves. One of the policies laid out by Amelio was renewal but renewed OS of Macintosh which was obsolete. Originally in-house production was planned, development is difficult and external procurement is decided. NeXT's "NeXTSTEP" and "OPENSTEP" led by Jobs appeared as candidates there.

The candidate was narrowed down to whether it is finally "OPENSTEP" or "BeOS" of Jean-Louis Gasser who left Apple from opposed to Newton promoted Scully. Gasse lightly finished comparative presentation of BeOS, as it was seen in advance, but Jobs would have been reminiscent of the appearance of later years "Prepare to prepare in advance We did a presentation "and won the adoption.

In MACWORLD EXPO held in San Francisco on January 7, 1997, Jobs who returned to Apple with OPENSTEP made a 20-minute speech.

NeXT, OpenStep and the return of Steve Jobs to Apple - YouTube


In this speech, Jobs is demonstrating the technology which becomes the origin of the software development system "Cocoa" later used by developers of iOS applications. But this was not the first time in 1997, it was what NeXT made in 1988.

In 1979 back in time, Jobs visited Palo Alto Research Laboratories in Xerox, where a computer equipped with three modern living technologies "graphical user interface (GUI)", "object oriented programming" and "computer networking" I saw "Alto".

Jobs thought that the GUI got lost his eyes and could not understand the other two things, but in NeXTSTEPObject-orientation, And is making a path to application development for modern macOS · iOS.

Mr. Alan Kay, who is called "father of personal computer" and who produced Alto, has issued a famous word "to invent it, the best way to predict the future", but in 1988 Was Jobs who made NeXT who was creating "the future" with the future visible in Jobs?