NeXTSTEP

Last Updated on: 7th October 2023, 06:49 pm

Web site: (not active)
Origin: USA
Category: Desktop
Desktop environment:
Architecture: Intel x86, Motorola 68000, SPARC, PA-RISC
Based on: UNIX
Wikipedia: NeXTSTEP
Media: Install
The last version | Released: 4.2 Pre-release 2 | September 1997

NeXTSTEP – an object-oriented, multitasking operating system created by NeXT Computer, Inc. a company founded in 1985 by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs.

This system was created on the base of Mach microkernel and BSD Unix system code. NeXTStep was oriented to work in a graphical environment. It had a very well-prepared, intuitive user interface, based on object-oriented architecture, quite different from both the most popular then Microsoft Windows 3.1 and Mac OS. The visualization engine was based on Postscript, which on one hand made it very demanding in terms of hardware (considerable demand for memory) and on other hand an ideal solution for industrial and designer workstations.

NeXTSTEP 1.0 was released 18 September 1989 after a couple of hits in 1986, and last Release 3.3 in early 1995, and previously worked only on the Motorola 68000 CPU family (especially the original black boxes) and the generic IBM compatible x86/Intel, Sun SPARC , and HP PA-RISC. About the time 3.2 releases NeXT teamed up with Sun Microsystems to develop OpenStep, cross-platform implementation of the standard (for Sun Solaris, Microsoft Windows, and NeXT Mach kernel version) based on NEXTSTEP 3.2.

In February 1997, after the purchase of NeXT by Apple, it became the source of the popular operating systems macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

The NeXTSTEP screenshot’s author: Gürkan Sengün; source: Wikipedia; License: GNU GPL.