
NeXTSTEP on the HP 712 Part 1: Installation - bluedino
https://blog.pizzabox.computer/posts/hp712-nextstep-part-1/
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supernintendo
There's a certain mythical quality to old technology. The original NeXT
Computer was launched the year before I was born and to this day I have yet to
come across (in real life) any of the computers produced by NeXT during their
eight year run in the hardware industry. A more foundational (and perhaps
elusive) machine that evokes this feeling is the Xerox Alto, a computer I have
also never seen in person but have a certain fondness for after watching
videos of it [0].

If you ever research NeXT on the Internet you'll find articles and threads
about how the company "failed" [1]. One might make the argument that NeXT's
acquisition by Apple is something that almost every tech startup in 2020 could
only dream of. But even more important is how the creative and technical ideas
realized by the company would go on to leave a permanent imprint on computing,
with NeXTSTEP being the catalyst.

Thank you and anyone else helping to preserve that history.

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H79_kKzmFs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H79_kKzmFs)

[1]
[https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=762640](https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=762640)

~~~
cmrdporcupine
I _almost_ convinced my parents to buy me a cube as a HS graduation present.

~~~
lallysingh
They were all for it until they saw the price?

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cmrdporcupine
I seem to remember it being basically a deal of co-signing a loan and helping
with a deposit and considering it part of my first year uni tuition. But it
really was way too expensive.

Ended up getting a 486 50mhz and running very early (like pre 1.0) Linux on
it. That scratched a bit of the itch :-)

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pedrow
It's not as cool as running on vintage hardware but for anyone interested in
seeing what NeXTstep was like, it can be run in a VM. I followed the
instructions here[0] for VirtualBox.

[0]: [http://stuffjasondoes.com/2018/07/25/installing-nextstep-
os-...](http://stuffjasondoes.com/2018/07/25/installing-nextstep-os-openstep-
on-virtualbox-in-2018/)

~~~
sigzero
Thanks for that. I might try that. It's been a loooong time since I have used
NeXTSTEP.

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jasoneckert
We had a fleet of HP 712s running NeXTSTEP and the Objective-C developer tools
at the University of Waterloo in the 1990s. The hardware + NeXT licenses were
less than half the cost of the NeXT hardware and ran much faster. Plus, it ran
much faster on PA-RISC than on NeXTSTEP/486.

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cpach
I didn’t know one could download NeXTSTEP from the Internet Archive. That’s
great!

[https://archive.org/details/NextSTEP_3.3_RISC_Sun_SPARC-
HP_P...](https://archive.org/details/NextSTEP_3.3_RISC_Sun_SPARC-HP_PARISC)

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kjs3
I have an HP 16702B logic analyzer (wonderful thing), which is really an HP
712 class workstation embedded in a stack of logic analyzer boards. Wonder if
this will run on it.

~~~
LargoLasskhyfv
The question is what it is running now? A minified HP-UX booting a single
_App_ , or something else entirely?

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racingmars
It runs HP-UX, and the logic analyzer software is an X11 application. The HP-
UX install on the system even starts up a VNC server, running the logic
analyzer app, so you can use it over the network!

~~~
LargoLasskhyfv
Interesting! Now i want one.

~~~
kjs3
Yes, you do. Just don't drive up the price on second-hand cards for the rest
of us. :-)

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doublerabbit
Just the GUI is what makes me nostalgic. I've never used Nextstep but
something about the GUI in those screen shots just brings awe.

I click the start menu on Windows 10 and presented with a bloated view of
cortana among other junk. I click the systems icon in Gnome and it's almost
the same.

It's as it made sense, simple and kind to the user.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
I think it is still one of Linux Desktop's largest mis-steps that
GNUStep/WindowMaker was not embraced as the One True DE. Now it is basically a
dead project.

~~~
linguae
I also think that the lack of community interest in GNUstep was a missed
opportunity. More of my thoughts on the matter can be found at
[http://mmcthrow-musings.blogspot.com/2019/06/some-
thoughts-a...](http://mmcthrow-musings.blogspot.com/2019/06/some-thoughts-
about-gnustep.html).

With that being said, GNUstep is still being worked on. It’s currently roughly
compatible with Mac OS X Tiger’s version of Cocoa. While this is far behind
macOS Catalina, I’ll be honest and say that Mac OS X Tiger with some security
updates can hold its own against modern operating systems. There’s even a fork
of Firefox called TenFourFox that’s available for PowerPC Macs running Tiger.

What I personally believe is that GNUstep needs a suite of compelling
applications in order for it to be more strongly considered. There are a lot
of GTK and GNOME applications, and there is also a compelling collection of QT
and KDE applications, but where is there a GNUstep web browser, office suite,
image editor, photo library manager, etc.? GNUstep is less compelling in a
world of GTK and QT apps. But if more GNUstep applications were written, then
that may convince other developers to put in the work necessary to create a
desktop distribution based around GNUstep and it’s applications. I was
impressed by the now-defunct Étoilé project which attempted to revamp GNUstep
in many ways.

Anyway, I still think GNUstep has some potential, and there’s a window of
opportunity for the project to gain more support, especially in an era of
increased disappointment over Windows 10 and macOS.

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rcarmo
I loved "my" NeXT Cube when I was in my late college years. I've tried various
flavors of GnuStep over the years and settled on Elementary for my Linux boxes
largely because it is as "simple" as macOS, but the stark (almost brutalist)
look of the NeXT and the way menus worked are something I miss.

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kazinator
In the mid 1990's, I ported Quake to a HP/715 running HP-UX 9 or 10 (can't
remember which). Though obviously not using any of the x86 assembly routines,
the frame rate was playable.

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trimboffle
I wonder what would have happened if Steve Jobs priced Next products at the
level that normal people could buy them.

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simonh
NeXT would have gone bust almost immediately.

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trimboffle
Why?

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simonh
Because they would have been operating at a loss. Unless they could magic down
the cost of manufacturing their products, there's no way to magic down the
price they had to charge customers.

~~~
icedchai
NeXT operated at a loss for most of its life anyway, eventually got out of the
hardware business entirely.

See [https://computerhistory.org/blog/next-steve-jobs-dot-com-
ipo...](https://computerhistory.org/blog/next-steve-jobs-dot-com-ipo-that-
never-happened/)

