Steve Jobs' Personal NeXTcube Shown at Cartoon Art Museum Fundraiser

[I WAS the one]

If this was Steve's personal cube. It very well might have been the first computer to run what we now call "Mac OS X"

You can still get Next Step. It is available for free download. It is pretty much a 1980's version of Mac OS X.

in Fact, When Steve returned to Apple the OS was part of the deal Steve didn't want Copland OS to be the next OS inside an Apple computer and fight for his NextStep OS / Open Step OS before Bill Gates turn Apple into an HP running Windows too. It was a fight of power and that's how he push OpenStep OS in disguise. Mac OS X was the same OS since day One. only with an eye candy look to fool the ones who knew. In fact even with all the hate to Adobe Flash it was with Flash that he saw Aqua implemented on a prototype version of the new OS X the first time. go figure!

 

[Swytch]

Ironically, the internal expandability of the NeXT Cube was much better than the forthcoming 2013 Mac Pro. The Cube had three free internal NuBus slots, IIRC. And at one foot square (well, one foot cubed) it was smaller than today's Mac Pro. There were actually four slots but the motherboard occupied the first one. You could get a NeXTdimension board to upgrade the system to color, and that would occupy a second slot.

I would have loved if the new Mac Pro was a black cube instead of a black cylinder.

have you even looked at the new Mac Pro specs on the website?
its 9.9in tall and 6.6in wide diameter.
how exactly is that bigger than a foot cube? (12 in by 12in by 12 in)
just look at Jobs standing next to the cube in the video, then compare that to the images of people with the new mac pro, its obviously smaller...

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Not saying they should have copied the NeXT Cube exactly. They could have reworked the internals and gotten away with a single large fan. BTW, the Apple "cube" had no fans at all, and the NeXT Cube had a single large fan in the back, IIRC.

Man, where would Apple and computers be now if Apple never axed Steve Jobs.
OSX back in 1992 would have been HUGE.

 

[Astroexe]

They used FUTURA???;;?/

 

[keysofanxiety]

Oh my God you guys are ridiculous. You don't think the next cube - updated to modern standards - with a square shape that can be stacked?! Or lined up?! Would not have blown the tube away??

You're either working for Apple or just a mind-less fanboy

I'll bite.

That's like saying 'the PowerBook G4 is thicker than the Retina MacBook Pro, so if they used the case from the PB they could make a more powerful system'.

It's just not true. Technology advances continuously, as does heat dissipation technology. The cube would never be able to house a Xeon. Heck, the higher-end PowerMacs at the time had to be watercooled and in that cheese-grater case, because they ran so hot.

/s If you don't think this is an engineering marvel, you're either working for Google or just a mind-less hater. /s

But seriously, it is amazing what they managed to do. I think it'll really sink in once you see the benchmarks/size of the thing in person.

 

[donutbagel]

But a Cube would be harder to cool with one fan.

I for one, find that single fan/heatsink design to be quite amazing.

So do I. I thought the cylinder looked retarded at first, but it's now looking pretty amazing.

 

[Kissaragi]

Its an amazing design for 88. It wouldn't look dated on someones desk today.

I believe the case was made of magnesium too? Pretty futuristic.

 

[hexor]

Its an amazing design for 88. It wouldn't look dated on someones desk today.

I believe the case was made of magnesium too? Pretty futuristic.

And it will burn a brilliant white flame.. see story here: http://simson.net/hacks/cubefire.html

 

[Kissaragi]

And it will burn a brilliant white flame.. see story here: http://simson.net/hacks/cubefire.html

Ah ye, I thought I remembered something like that from ye olde days. Wonder if he wished he didn't burn it, must be worth quite a lot now.

 

[DiscFreak]

Legacy Hardware

The problem is now, Apple is effectively saying "it's external expansion, or bust", to many people who have a hefty financial investment in internal expansion hardware.

Buying a new Mac Pro - for some - probably would involve a large financial commitment, not just for the Mac Pro but also replacing/changing their internal drives & cards to expensive Thunderbolt options. That makes the Mac Pro a much more expensive upgrade than a 'traditional' Mac Pro upgrade would be. And upgrade paths are very important to pro users - far, far more important than having a small, pretty case.

-------------------------------------------

This same argument came up at my workplace...primarily (if not exclusively a PC environment). Talk about the new MP having no expansion cards and the internal upgrade path is largely gone.

So, who needs a Mac Pro with these capabilities? Audio and Video people...I mean really. Anything else you want to do can likely be done perfectly well on your MacBook or an iMac.

If you look at the new hardware for audio and video that is coming out...they are not focused on cards anymore...they are focused on outboard gear with built in processors. My Apogee equipment has the A/D converters built into my outboard gear, so does my Presonus board...all I want is a fast wire to my computer...why burden my computer with the processing power when my outboard gear comes with it.

Getting rid of CD drives, hard drives, and now expansion slots are all very forward thinking and in line with what the pros are using in terms of outboard gear.

Now...what to do with legacy hardware? I have an Apogee Duet Firewire. So, I had to buy an adapter...so what...it still works great.

I have an older iMac that I've stripped down and I continue to have my old FW drives (and this older Apogee Duet) attached to that with legacy ports (i.e. FW)

If you are going to live on the edge and get the latest computer (i.e. the new MP), then you have to update the other things as well.

The points made here are good, but my frustration with some folks on here is that they are quick to find ways why some device will not work for them...then don't buy it! If you want to use legacy hardware like cards and FW well then, don't upgrade your computer. Wasn't it working just fine the day before the new thing came out?

 

[DaveN]

Great looking hardware. Appreciated it's appearance alongside Tim Berners Lee during the Olympics opening ceremony last year (at last, something for the geeks at a sports event!)

Great OS as well, as ably demonstrated by Steve. Cool to think I'm typing this on the direct spiritual successor of NeXTSTEP.

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Is there any emulator or virtualisation software for OSX that NeXTSTEP will run on/in? I owe it to my 20yo self to give it a try

I have an old PC/next step or it may have been open step by then box I've been itching to start up. It wouldn't boot because it requires an AT keyboard and may require a PS2 mouse. I bought the system from a reseller in colorado and think I also installed some word processing software on it. I'm in the process of moving but hope to get it going in a month or so. I'll post some photos if I get it running.

 

[topper24hours]

I'll bite.

The problem is - different users have different needs/preferences. I still use a G5 at home, so I love the fact that the Mac Pro is so tiny by comparison while being orders of magnitude faster. But for others a tiny workstation is about as useful as a massive laptop - it's just not what some people need.

It's great that Apple are being innovative - and I love that Apple are back doing some really clever engineering again - but if it's not something that some users need, innovation counts for nothing to them. An innovative fork is no use, if you're trying to eat soup.

You could say "these users should go elsewhere, buy a PC". But Apple should be grateful to have users like them - these are people who want to buy Apple products (usually, very high-end Apple products) and will ignore other vendors and wait to see what Apple releases. The problem is now, Apple is effectively saying "it's external expansion, or bust", to many people who have a hefty financial investment in internal expansion hardware.

Buying a new Mac Pro - for some - probably would involve a large financial commitment, not just for the Mac Pro but also replacing/changing their internal drives & cards to expensive Thunderbolt options. That makes the Mac Pro a much more expensive upgrade than a 'traditional' Mac Pro upgrade would be. And upgrade paths are very important to pro users - far, far more important than having a small, pretty case.

Personally though, I'd bite your leg off for a new Mac Pro. (No offence! )

Ok, I'll bite back. ;0)
I think saying that some people "need" a bigger PC is staying mired in legacy thinking... I think 99+% of all workstation users would LOVE some extra space & don't mind their boxes getting smaller.. shoot, if we could make the whole thing invisible, save the external connectors.. that would be preferable, yeah? With the RIDICULOUS amount of expansion ports, I'm at a loss what the drawbacks would be. I reject the assumption that anybody buys one of most expensive workstations on the planet & immediately wants to open it up and put in old legacy drives and cards from yesteryear.. That seems laughable. So, beyond needing a spot to put your coffee cup, I don't see why anybody would think they need a bigger workstation.

 

[AndyDiamond]

Internal storage?
Big deal.
Sure you need an OS drive but beyond that most pros these days have external storage - they don't pump their desktops full of drives as much as they used to.
When you upgrade a computer you usually keep the external drives right?
Or take the internal ones out of the box you are selling and put them into cases.

As long as you can easily upgrade the RAM - that's all you really need.
Looks like the MacPro has four DIMM slots so if they make 64GB modules at some point then...

 

[topper24hours]

Oh my God you guys are ridiculous. You don't think the next cube - updated to modern standards - with a square shape that can be stacked?! Or lined up?! Would not have blown the tube away??

You're either working for Apple or just a mind-less fanboy

Umm.. nice try. Apple tried a cube pc, look it up- g4 cube. It was an epic failure. Hey smart guy.. I have an idea! Maybe the Apple engineers are even MORE clever than you!! Maybe it's cylindrical because it has one single fan.. Do those come in square? You tell me, k? Hmm, maybe since they're 1/8 the volume you wouldn't need to stack them b/c even a single layer would take 1/8 the space. I don't know.. you seem to be the expert. Although, despite your snarky comment, I do not work for Apple.. Maybe YOU should hit up jobs.apple.com, with all your epic understanding of what is best in engineering the perfect workstation.. I'm sure they'll snap you up to fix this kerfaffle of a product.

 

[flottenheimer]

Ironically, the internal expandability of the NeXT Cube was much better than the forthcoming 2013 Mac Pro. ...

The thought of internal expandability is beautiful. —You'll seldom need to buy a new computer, since you can just upgrade its components to the latest and greatest.
But, with all technologies and standards constantly being improved — busstandards, RAM standards, I/O standards, connectors, processors etc — at serious pace these days, I think internal expandability makes less and less sense.
Save for, perhaps, RAM and in some cases storage.

 

[spetznatz]

I've seen the NeXT cube that Tim Berners-Lee used at CERN to develop the World Wide Web at the Science Museum in London. Gave me goosebumps…

 

[AnonMac50]

Great looking hardware. Appreciated it's appearance alongside Tim Berners Lee during the Olympics opening ceremony last year (at last, something for the geeks at a sports event!)

Great OS as well, as ably demonstrated by Steve. Cool to think I'm typing this on the direct spiritual successor of NeXTSTEP.

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Is there any emulator or virtualisation software for OSX that NeXTSTEP will run on/in? I owe it to my 20yo self to give it a try

I ran OPENSTEP on VMware Fusion a couple of years back, so it should be doable. I just don't remember how I did it.

 

[Gemütlichkeit]

I watched a video on youtube of someone doing a legit run through of the OS and I was really impressed. What that OS was doing at that time was blowing everything else out of the water. We're talking 5-6 years before Windows 95.

 

[whooleytoo]

Ok, I'll bite back. ;0)
I think saying that some people "need" a bigger PC is staying mired in legacy thinking... I think 99+% of all workstation users would LOVE some extra space & don't mind their boxes getting smaller.. shoot, if we could make the whole thing invisible, save the external connectors.. that would be preferable, yeah? With the RIDICULOUS amount of expansion ports, I'm at a loss what the drawbacks would be. I reject the assumption that anybody buys one of most expensive workstations on the planet & immediately wants to open it up and put in old legacy drives and cards from yesteryear.. That seems laughable. So, beyond needing a spot to put your coffee cup, I don't see why anybody would think they need a bigger workstation.

To some extent it is legacy thinking, but I don't see anything wrong with that. If change brings a big improvement, then great! If it's change for the sake of change (or for form over function), then it's bad.

Any user whose existing setup has internal drives and PCI cards will have to (sooner or later) move to external/Thunderbolt solutions or move to another platform. Moving to the MacPro mean not just replacing their Macs but also many of their (costly) peripherals. There's still a limited number of Thunderbolt devices out there - so the devices they need might not be out there - and what is out there is generally more costly. Sure, dropping the legacy ports on the iMac really helped push the adoption of USB; but the MacPro is a much more marginal device. We're still talking about much smaller volumes.

Then you have the external clutter with the extra Thunderbolt & power cables; and the extra power-points required in your workspace. And as awkward as the old MacPro was, I'd much rather lift that from one desk to another than a new MacPro and a handful of external devices and cables.

It'll be interesting to see how Thunderbolt devices stack up against their internal expansion bay/PCI slot equivalents.

So, IMO it's potentially a lot of inconvenience, with little gain. Other than "It's a very cool, tiny box", and "it's new, so it must be better", neither of which means much to professional who's just looking for an upgrade path.

I do understand that for some, this machine is ideal. The only thing that'll probably stop me getting one is the price.

 

[phoenixsan]

Aside.....

the design and computing discussion, this venerable piece of hardware, per se was showed in a fundraising. Good use of old technology, IMHO.

 

[Rainer101]

NeXTSSTEP on Mac

Great looking hardware. Appreciated it's appearance alongside Tim Berners Lee during the Olympics opening ceremony last year (at last, something for the geeks at a sports event!)

Great OS as well, as ably demonstrated by Steve. Cool to think I'm typing this on the direct spiritual successor of NeXTSTEP.

----------



Is there any emulator or virtualisation software for OSX that NeXTSTEP will run on/in? I owe it to my 20yo self to give it a try

Years ago there existed a solution on Parallels Desktop. I would appreciate to get a working solution too. Problem was the installation of the monitor driver for me. It would be nice to run programs like FrameMaker, Lotus improv on a Mac again, since those programs are still not available for OS X, over 20 years after running on NeXTSTEP.

 

[ShinySteelRobot]

And at one foot square (well, one foot cubed) [the NeXT Cube] was smaller than today's Mac Pro.

have you even looked at the new Mac Pro specs on the website?
its 9.9in tall and 6.6in wide diameter.
how exactly is that bigger than a foot cube? (12 in by 12in by 12 in)

Have you even read my post?

Specifically, I said today's Mac Pro, not the recently-announced one you can buy sometime in the future. I'm talking about the one you can go buy in an Apple store today. I.e., the current one.

today
adverb
on or in the course of this present day

future
noun
1 (usu. the future) the time or a period of time following the moment of speaking or writing; time regarded as still to come

 

[spetznatz]

Anyone remember the NeXT DIMENSION graphics board? Serious power for the time... more powerful than the cube itself...

http://www.kevra.org/TheBestOfNext/...re/NeXTdimensionBoard/NeXTdimensionBoard.html

 

[G4er?]

I'm sure they took weighing it down into consideration when plugging a lot of stuff into the mac pro's cylindrical design so it won't tip over and would have a lower center of gravity.

So they had to make it heavier just because of the less stable shape?

"Hey it tips over." "Can't we make it a more stable shape?"
"Na, just make it heavier."

 

[whooleytoo]

So they had to make it heavier just because of the less stable shape?

"Hey it tips over." "Can't we make it a more stable shape?"
"Na, just make it heavier."

That seemed to be the approach they took with the existing Mac Pro. Heavy, tall and with a narrow base.