Volume III
The Road Not Taken
While Apple struggled through the 1990s, Steve Jobs was building something extraordinary just down the road. These two machines represent a parallel universe — the computing future that almost was, and eventually became macOS.
The Workstation
The Narrative
NeXT's 'affordable' workstation was $5,000 retail. It ran UNIX, used Display PostScript for the screen, and proved concepts that wouldn't reach mainstream computing for another decade.
NextStation
Very RareNeXT • 1990
Acquired new in 1998, right after college graduation, for $50. The NextStation was NeXT's 'affordable' workstation — $5,000 retail. UNIX underneath, a Mach microkernel, Display PostScript for the screen. Every web server concept we use today was proven on these machines. This one has been running, in some form, ever since.
The Cube
The machine Steve Jobs built after Apple fired him. It ran an OS a decade ahead of its time, on hardware that Apple would eventually buy the whole company to acquire.
NeXT Cube
Very RareNeXT • 1990
The machine Steve Jobs built after Apple fired him. $6,500 in 1990. An optical magneto drive, a built-in DSP chip for audio, a 68040 running at 25MHz. The OS — NeXTSTEP — was so far ahead of its time that Apple bought the entire company in 1997 just to get it. Every concept in macOS traces back to this cube.