Replies

NeXT was Steve Jobs' venture when he was in exile from Apple. It went nowhere commercially. If it had, things might have been a lot different.

I realize this, however, it doesn't change the fact that NeXT lives on in Mac OS X. Commercial flop then, contributing factor to a modern operating system now.

Except that the OS X GUI is done a bit better.

Quite a bit better, but implementing and extending many of the same concepts.

I never meant to minimize NeXT's contribution to Mac OS X. It's why I like it.

Consider it a preemptive strike on Microsoft fanboys who claim that anything without market share is automatically worthless.

I'm a Unix guy. I was drawn to WindowMaker before I knew it was based on Jobs' NeXT work. I'm delighted to have a similar (and vastly improved) interface, seamlessly integrated with X11 and running on top of my beloved Unix.

I first did computer UI work in 1987 (on top of SunOS). The holy grail has always been a UI that appeals and works with hardcore programmers (me) and novice appliance type users (Mrs. Altair). Today that seems to be pronounced "Leopard" or "Snow Leopard".