Those neXts were a lot of fun.
Posted on 08/06/2011 12:53:42 PM PDT by RightOnTheLeftCoast
...August 6 marks the date the first-ever Web page went online, powered by the world's first-ever Web server, situated at http://info.cern.ch. Assembled by Sir Tim Berners-Lee using a NeXT computer, the browser was also an editor, enabling an interactive Web experience.
Unfortunately, with the exception of NeXT machines, most computers just weren't capable of handling all these features, which is why a browse-only Web was born. Who ran NeXT? Steve Jobs. It was his next step project after losing a battle for control of Apple, all those years ago...
It is interesting that Berners-Lee used a NeXT computer both as the server and as the tool with which to write the first browser. Not only did the NeXT architecture allow him to create an interactive experience which we didn't really see come to fruition for years online, but that experience had to be whittled down in order that other platforms could participate...
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.computerworld.com ...
An intriguing article follows below (also visit the link for some engaging comments).
But first, for those unschooled in the history: NeXT was the company founded by Steve Jobs after he lost control of Apple in the mid-'80s. NeXT briefly and unsuccessfully manufactured wonderful, high-end Unix workstations with many novel graphical and user-interface technologies and some really innovative programming tools, known as NeXTSTEP. Never a big seller, the NeXT workstation and its widely-admired software were favorites among certain academic strains of computing cognoscenti, such as Berners-Lee. Meanwhile, the Jobs-less Apple grew increasingly needful of an operating system for the new Internet era. It was unable to successfully develop a successor to the classical MacOS, which was suffering the same painful transition into a networked world that Windows did. They purchased NeXT, and Darth Jobs re-entered the Death Star, so to speak (and if that brings to mind Vader's talents for mentally strangling unresponsive managers, you aren't far from the mark). Apple grafted a Mac face onto the NeXT OS, and hence commenced the company's technical renaissance. Today, developers beavering away at iPhone and iPad apps string together function calls with names like NSthis and NSthat, with the "NS" prefix connoting a heritage dating back to NeXTSTEP, and the lovely screens of iDevices and Macs display through technology descended from NeXT's Display Postscript rendering engine, and so on. All in all, today's Apple's computing and iDevice offerings bear a much closer technological resemblance to NeXT's machines--the machines that facilitated Berners-Lee's invention of the Web, 20 years ago today--than to pre-OS X Macintoshes.
Amid all the terrible news lately, it's heartening to consider how much worse things would be without the free communications enabled by the World Wide Web. FR is an excellent case in point.
Incidentally, as this article ends with a Google focus, some punchy and somewhat profane commentary on Google and its dominance of the Web is at http://brianshall.com/content/google-are-pussies ...it's an enjoyable read, if uncomfortable for Google fans.
Ping, and bring all your friends.
Congratulations Al Gore!
I would say that automobile, electricity and World Wide Web are the three best inventions in the history of the World. Nobody can live without a computer anymore. Cars have them, TVs basically, everything. We would be so screwed if the computer system just died.
|
Lies! All lies! Everyone knows it was Algore who put up the first web page.
Good point, but Westinghouse, Edison, Tesla and Steinmetz’s inventions made it available to us plebes.
Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet [Paperback]
Traces the beginnings of the Internet far before the first web page was concieved. The Internet had to be established first. The date written about in this article is without much meaning.
electricity I think was the number one invention as far as impact, and I think trains came in toward the top even though they aren’t that much important any more.
Those neXts were a lot of fun.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
You are correct that the Internet had to be in place first. It is the delivery mechanism for networked applications. But the Web is the application that allowed the masses to use the Internet. People don't use the Internet protocols directly. They don't invent applications like FTP or Usenet. But they can easily use a Web browser. So I think it appropriate to note the beginning of the World Wide Web and the man who invented it.
What I had forgotten is that Berners-Lee had used a NeXT computer. The early Internet used mostly Unix machines as servers because BSD Unix put the TCP/IP protocols of the Internet into the operating system, and Unix could be ported easily to a lot of different hardware. NeXT was a version of BSD Unix. And NeXT is the basis of Apple's Mac OS X. So the Internet and the Web is also the story of the success of Unix.
That's like saying that the Model T was meaningless because internal combustion engines and roads already existed. For a great many people over the last 20 years, the Web and the Internet have been synonymous, and the commercial development of the 'Net would not have happened without HTML and HTTP. Amazon.com could never have grown up on Gopher. eBay couldn't happen on Usenet.
As a bit of a digression, the mobile computing is taking us backward in a way -- more and more online functions are going back to purpose-built applications rather than running everything through a browser, though most of those apps have a browser under the hood.
Now the cheapest computers quickly load graphics-filled pages. It's wonderful now.
Hey I like them too, but it might be a stretch to say they're the best. For me, the best inventions are the modern toilet, refridgerator and remote TV control. Oh, also cold beer.
But first, for those unschooled in the history: NeXT was the company founded by Steve Jobs after he lost control of Apple in the mid-'80s.
I certainly remember NeXT.
My first unix shell account, internet access and real live email address was in 1989(ish) on a NeXT cube at the Microcomputer Resource Center in the Union at UIUC. (Yes, junior, there was an Internet before there was a World Wide Web.) Access was via a modem bank somewhere (I still remember the number -- (217)333-4000). 68040 processor, and a whopping big 16MB RAM, supporting multiple users. And, pretty darn cool to sit at the console itself (though it could be awful draggy with people using it).
NeXT was a thing of beauty.
Hehe...I remember watching television with a group of people, and we always had one person sitting near the knob to change the channel when needed...:)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
