Got to mess around on a working NeXTCube :)

[Sehnsucht]

Just a quick story here for those who'd be interested:

I went to visit a friend the other day and discovered his dad's stash of old computer equipment in his basement. There were several broken iMac G4's, a few beige PowerMacs, a Quadra, and a few other old Compaq PCs. So I was digging around (well actually more like snooping) and found an old black mouse with the NeXT logo on it, which made me realize that there must be a NeXT computer buried somewhere in all this crap. And sure enough, I found everything: the monitor, the Cube itself, keyboard and mouse. It was really cool and it actually powered on and booted up! (Unfortunately I had no camera with me at the time.) My friend thought I was nuts thinking it was so cool...he said "Geez why are you freaking out it's just a sh***y old computer that my dad saved!" But considering how old it is and the neat stuff it could do that no other computer could at the time, it is cool. It's so much like Mac OS X! When you enter a wrong password, it "shakes" the window...to remove an icon from the dock, you click and drag it off and it disappears. I was only about 5 years old when this computer was originally purchased, but I'd probably have wanted one if I'd known about them at the time.

Does anyone here have a NeXT computer or have you owned one before? Inquiring minds would like to know.

 

[diamond.g]

Just a quick story here for those who'd be interested:

I went to visit a friend the other day and discovered his dad's stash of old computer equipment in his basement. There were several broken iMac G4's, a few beige PowerMacs, a Quadra, and a few other old Compaq PCs. So I was digging around (well actually more like snooping) and found an old black mouse with the NeXT logo on it, which made me realize that there must be a NeXT computer buried somewhere in all this crap. And sure enough, I found everything: the monitor, the Cube itself, keyboard and mouse. It was really cool and it actually powered on and booted up! (Unfortunately I had no camera with me at the time.) My friend thought I was nuts thinking it was so cool...he said "Geez why are you freaking out it's just a sh***y old computer that my dad saved!" But considering how old it is and the neat stuff it could do that no other computer could at the time, it is cool. It's so much like Mac OS X! When you enter a wrong password, it "shakes" the window...to remove an icon from the dock, you click and drag it off and it disappears. I was only about 5 years old when this computer was originally purchased, but I'd probably have wanted one if I'd known about them at the time.

Does anyone here have a NeXT computer or have you owned one before? Inquiring minds would like to know.

That is sweet, did you ask if you could have it? (Maybe even pay something for it)

 

[hitekalex]

Does anyone here have a NeXT computer or have you owned one before? Inquiring minds would like to know.

My company was one of the largest NeXT step users during the 90's. We used them as both user desktop, as well as back ends running business applications. When I was hired, I was surprised to find a black NeXT machine on my desk - it was way ahead of Windows 3.x which was a prevalent desktop OS at the time.

Believe it or not, we still have a few NeXT servers running in production..

 

[vga4life]

I owned and used a NeXTstation as my primary home computer for 8 years. I was using an old '030 based NeXT Computer in a digital music synthesis class in college, and liked the OS - I was already familiar with UNIX. Even though the beast was horribly slow and outdated even by the standards of the time (1995) it still had some tricks up its sleeve with its onboard DSP.

I basically got sick of having to go to the synth lab to work on my projects and found the comp.sys.next.marketplace USENET group, discovering that I could pick up a working NeXTStation for under $300 as the CIA was dumping their black hardware onto the surplus market. (By late 1995, NeXT hardware had been discontinued for over 2 years.) I bought one - a late (ADB) mono non-turbo NeXTStation and used it through college. Later, I traded up to a NeXTStation TurboColor with a NeXT Laser Printer. I finally sold it in 2003 after buying an eMac - the NeXTStation was great and still usable for just about everything I needed except web browsing and Photoshop.

8 years of use (late 1995-2003) out of $800 (total) worth of surplus computer equipment that was made in 1993 - talk about bang for the buck!

 

[Macpropro80]

I owned and used a NeXTstation as my primary home computer for 8 years. I was using an old '030 based NeXT Computer in a digital music synthesis class in college, and liked the OS - I was already familiar with UNIX. Even though the beast was horribly slow and outdated even by the standards of the time (1995) it still had some tricks up its sleeve with its onboard DSP.

I basically got sick of having to go to the synth lab to work on my projects and found the comp.sys.next.marketplace USENET group, discovering that I could pick up a working NeXTStation for under $300 as the CIA was dumping their black hardware onto the surplus market. (By late 1995, NeXT hardware had been discontinued for over 2 years.) I bought one - a late (ADB) mono non-turbo NeXTStation and used it through college. Later, I traded up to a NeXTStation TurboColor with a NeXT Laser Printer. I finally sold it in 2003 after buying an eMac - the NeXTStation was great and still usable for just about everything I needed except web browsing and Photoshop.

8 years of use (late 1995-2003) out of $800 (total) worth of surplus computer equipment that was made in 1993 - talk about bang for the buck!

28 cents a day! My mac pro probably uses that much in power in an hour!

 

[MacsRgr8]

That is so cool..!!!

I have a nice collections of cool Macs (TAM, Cube, Color Classic, Quad G5.. etc.) but, I am looking for a NeXTCube!
The origin of Mac OS X....

I do have a version of OPENSTEP running in VMware, so I can occasionally take a look at it..

 

[Sehnsucht]

That is sweet, did you ask if you could have it? (Maybe even pay something for it)

Yeah I offered the guy $100 but he demurred. I think he's planning on taking excellent care of it so he can sell it to a collector in another five years for a tidy sum.

Believe it or not, we still have a few NeXT servers running in production..

Really? Are they original NeXT hardware or newer severs running NeXTSTEP?

Sorry but I must add: Everything Steve Jobs touches turns to gold.

 

[DZ/015]

The Nextstep/Openstep OS is still used in the semiconductor manufacturing industry on older equipment by Lam Research. It works.

 

[hugodrax]

Arent we running NeXT workstations today but with the Apple logo.

 

[pprior]

I remember the first time I saw a NeXTcube - man those things were sweet. I never actually got to use one, but they had one in the computer department when I was in college. What a work of art that thing was.