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Previous: A NeXT Computer Emulator
- cbmuser 4y agoThat's not the proper homepage, this is: > http://previous.alternative-system.com/ http://previous.alternative-system.com/ Also, the homepage at unixdude.net is not distributing the sources which is a GPL license violation.
- suprjami 4y agoHave you asked for the sources? GPL does not require proactive distribution, that's just the common way people avoid handling many individual requests.
- zanethomas 4y agoThis might be a previously unknown bit of NeXT and Windows history. While Windows 3 was in development I was in the next building working on os/2. (not bragging <g>) I spent a lot of time in a lab that had a lot of hardware. One day a NeXT machine showed up in the lab. The next day there was a line of Windows developers waiting for their chance too look at it. (we'll forget the fun I had grabbing a screen shot of the desktop which i then left displayed full screen) It was a mere matter of days before a build of Windows with 3d buttons came out, and the rest is more history.
- hoc 4y agoAh, back then when we were scientists and not app developers and were happy about building tools for our own contexts. This has such a calming feeling to it.
- azinman2 4y agoOn mobile I just get a splash and that’s it. Is there something more to this?
- vandahm 4y agoOn desktop, you can use the top navigation to get to the substance of the site. On mobile, it hides the nav so you can't see it. Try these: https://previous.unixdude.net/about.html https://previous.unixdude.net/about.html https://previous.unixdude.net/screenshots.html https://previous.unixdude.net/screenshots.html https://previous.unixdude.net/download.html https://previous.unixdude.net/download.html https://previous.unixdude.net/version-history.html https://previous.unixdude.net/version-history.html
- saagarjha 4y agoYou can tap in the top right to get the menu.
- fortran77 4y agoTurn the phone 90 degrees
- vandahm 4y ago> For running Previous you need a copy of the NeXT ROM. I have an old NeXT machine that works and has NeXTstep running on it. How can I extract the ROM from it and use it to run this emulator?
- Quequau 4y agoIf you don't already have a device for reading and writing EPROMs it's probably easier to just download ROM images from the internet.
- homarp 4y agopreviously discussions https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19084769 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19084769 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8745943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8745943 this forum is where the dev discussion is happening http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=2642.0 http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=2642.0
- xigency 4y agoThank you for the previous Previous discussions. Im looking forward to the next Previous NeXT computer discussion.
- balaji1 4y agoplease be a browser based emulator :fingers_crossed:
- saagarjha 4y agoIt’s not browser based…but with the magic of WebAssembly it should be possible to make it so.
- pjerem 4y agoGood luck for seo but I like the name :)
- sgt 4y agoFor a second I was looking at the Previous Screenshots and thought: Well, I want to see the current ones. Where.. oh..
- BoardsOfCanada 4y agoSo what OS does this emulator run on? Windows, macOS, Linux?
- squarefoot 4y agoFrom the archive structure it appears MacOS only; I can't test it however.
- saagarjha 4y agoDefinitely works on macOS, I think Linux too. It’s SDL-based.
- formvoltron 4y agowhere the ROM at?
- richrichardsson 4y agoNo one is going to point you directly at "warez", but it's really not difficult to find them yourself.
- formvoltron 4y agoAnyone out there defending NeXT ROMs? Anyway you are right... easy to find.
- richrichardsson 4y agoI got told off on here for using Amiga ROMs that I had downloaded, despite the fact I own several Amigas!
- snvzz 4y agoThe shills for the rats that are fighting for AmigaOS rights are the worst. They pop up in every forum. Reminder any and all money given to these rats ends up in lawyers hands[0]. They don't even pay the developers. 0. https://sites.google.com/site/amigadocuments/ https://sites.google.com/site/amigadocuments/
- 4y ago
- rcarmo 4y agoIn case you want to have a NeXT-like experience on Linux, I’ve had good fun with NEXTSPACE: - https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace Alas, the developer is Ukrainian, and hasn’t committed anything in a long while. But maybe someone could help out?
- hestefisk 4y agoAfterStep was also a nice NeXT like experience. I don’t think it’s maintained anymore. I used to run it on RH 5.0 back in the day (ca. 1999).
- nickhodge 4y agoI think the western world is sending all its spare munitions as we speak.
- rebolek 4y agoUnfortunately, not enough ammunition.
- prmoustache 4y agoLike NsCDE [1], these kinds of old school environments are nice an all until you fire up a modern browser or an app made for Gnome and you end up in a kind of aesthetic mess. [1] https://github.com/NsCDE/NsCDE https://github.com/NsCDE/NsCDE
- HeckFeck 4y agoWe have hope on the horizon. The Ladybird browser won't look so out of place on classic UIs when it reaches maturity.
- squarefoot 4y agoAlso Windowmaker. I have been using it for years back in the day, and just to be sure reinstalled it a few minutes ago to check how it behaves today: no problems whatsoever with Firefox, LibreOffice, Gimp, Handbrake, and other modern apps. Using it right now to write this post with Firefox, in fact. Not that I didn't expect it to work since the last stable version is dated 2020 and the GitHub repo is quite active (last update 3 days ago). Nostalgia aside (I was lucky enough to attend a real NeXT demonstration in 1994/1995) WindowMaker has been literally a life saver over 20 years ago when I had to build a desktop for ~50 remote points of sale in which the operator could only perform a few tasks, and setting up it as a locked "kiosk on steroids" with a fixed dock that could open only the 4-5 needed apps allowed them to do their jobs without distractions or exposing the unnecessary/dangerous parts of the system. https://www.windowmaker.org/ https://www.windowmaker.org/ https://github.com/window-maker/wmaker https://github.com/window-maker/wmaker
- xattt 4y agoIf the photo shows the intended layout of the workstation, NeXT seems terrible for ergonomics. Too much looking around the corner to see what you’re typing.
- lol_catz 4y agoI'm still running windowmaker
- b112 4y agoHeh! I ran the same for the first decade of Linux use. Now I am sad.
- TazeTSchnitzel 4y agoI dream of getting a PlayStation 2 Linux kit and setting up the GUI. I believe that was the default desktop environment!
- nunodonato 4y agoevery couple of years I go back to check how's windowmaker/gnustep. Too bad the progress seems to have stalled and the support for some modern features is lacking, I would definitely be open to give it a go again
- badsectoracula 4y agoNote that Window Maker and GNUstep are two completely different projects with two completely different teams. It is just that using GNUstep with Window Maker gives a mostly consistent look (and feel, for the most part, though there are differences) if you use GNUstep's NeXT-like theme (GNUstep supports theming).
- pmarreck 4y agoI just noticed I can install this on NixOS. NixStep, here we come!!
- pmarreck 4y agoOK so I have windowmaker running on nixos but some windows such as Firefox can't be dragged by the titlebar, only resized. What do?? other questions: sometimes right-click for context menu requires a click and hold, other times it doesn't. configurable?
- 4y ago
- ar9av 4y agoMy favorite old UNIX UIs are 4Dwm, Rhapsody, and NEXTSTEP's for sure. However I do think working in modern macOS is pretty nice; I honestly like the Ventura redesign a lot, though that may be an unpopular opinion(?).
- fsckboy 4y ago>However I do think working in modern macOS is pretty nice I have hated the Mac interface from day 1, for very simple reasons: 1. I want my file-edit-windows menu on every window, not sharing the top of the screen (the whole promise of the personal computer was that I could have what I want, why can't I have this? fuck Jobs and Jony and anybody who substitutes their own preferences for yours and then claims to be a high priest) The reason is, I have multiple app windows open, and I routinely look from one app to another, and then I look where I want to click, simultaneously moving the mouse and clic... if my app does not have the focus, the whole eye and arm movement was a wasted expensive set of motions, now i'm even forgetting what I wanted to do while figuring out where I have to go click to get the focus moved. the icing on my UI cake is using focus-follows-mouse. I don't require it, but I like it and it is antithetical to the one-size-fits-all everybody-must-conform Apple way. 2. I want a three button mouse. period. I don't want to learn gestures, click in special places, and I don't want my different OSes to be different in ways that don't need to be. Would it really hurt Apple's feelings if I could have menus where i want them? Yeah, and if you like where Apple's menus are, why can't you have them? UX designers are so narrow in their thinking. The whole promise of personal computers was... F J & J
- hyperjeff 4y agoThere’s no helping with your first complaint (UI philosophy difference), but fwiw you can both have focus-follows-mouse (for either the whole OS or just Terminal, both work great) and multiple button support (I use a 4-button trackball with other fancy bits). That said, despite being able to hack lots about the system, it would definitely be nice to have deeper modifications allowed. Alternate kinds of menus, pointers and windows would be nice, where users could experiment with new UI concepts, etc. I personally really miss NeXTSTEP’s tear off menus, which were in early OS X builds until Aqua got rid of them.
- speed_spread 4y agoShould have been PrEV.
- gattilorenz 4y agoThat's indeed what's on the logo: https://previous.unixdude.net/images/prev-logo.png https://previous.unixdude.net/images/prev-logo.png
- electroly 4y agoThe logo is "PReV". OP asked for "PrEV". I think OP is wrong and the logo is better with the same lowercase "e" as the original NeXT logo, even though it's in a different place in the logo, but different strokes for different folks.
- speed_spread 4y agoAm OP, you're right, PReV is way better.
- gattilorenz 4y agoNice, I didn’t realize the issue could be how it’s capitalized, thanks for pointing it out
- sumtechguy 4y agonice! I think that MAME also has a NeXT emulation in it as well. Not sure how far along it is though. Think they had it booting most of the basic demo stuff but I could be confusing it with another bit of hw they had recently got running.
- itomato 4y agoIt can also boot Plan9 over the network from another Previous instance, if you’re into that.
- johndoe0815 4y agoPlan 9 for NeXT works well in Previous with a 9p server running on the emulation host or a different machine on the net. Previous support for NeXTstep includes an NFS and NetInfo server in Previous itself. The equivalent emulation of the 9p protocol is not yet available, however. Also note that the most recent version of Plan 9 for NeXT is the second edition (http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/plan9/history/plan9-2e.tar.bz2 http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/plan9/history/plan9-2e.tar.bz2). Updating the code to use the new graphics system introduced in the 3rd edition is on my to-do list... Shameless plug - the 9th International Workshop on Plan 9 takes place in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, this April: http://iwp9.org http://iwp9.org Btw., NetBSD is also supported in Previous now, but there has been a regression after NetBSD 5.2.3 that we have only been able to identify and fix recently (it seems that there are not a lot of NeXT NetBSD users left...) thanks to the great support by Izumi Tsutsui. So NetBSD 9.3 currently needs a number of patches as discussed on the NetBSD/next68k mailing list (http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-next68k/ http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-next68k/), but 5.2.3 should work out of the box.
- TomMasz 4y agoIs there any real documentation? I have NeXT ROMs but no matter which one I use it crashes immediately.
- johndoe0815 4y agoIt usually works pretty well - do you get any output at all? Some more details would help. Which OS are you trying to run Previous on? Did you compile the code yourself or did you use a prebuilt binary?
- TomMasz 4y agoIt was a configuration issue between the machine being emulated and the ROM I was using. I found it by chance poking around in the config since there was no indication of what the problem was. Now I have to figure out everything else.
- Simplicitas 4y agoWas expecting this to leverage QEMU
- rbanffy 4y agoAm I the only one disheartened not to find a Git repo?
- snvzz 4y agoYou're not the only one.
- itomato 4y agoThey use SVN, and some of us have had various git forks going for some time. I have two for example, one to patch the old Harari UI with proper font and color, and two more which package Previous for Raspberry Pi; one via Debian and one with Buildroot.
- pmarreck 4y agoWhere would I find a version I might be able to run on NixOS? (If I have to write a nix file to build it, that's fine as long as it's a fairly standard build process.)
- itomato 4y agoHere are the build instructions: http://previous.alternative-system.com/index.php/build http://previous.alternative-system.com/index.php/build
- ixtli 4y agoNot gonna lie: i upvoted this for the name :)
- Smrchy 4y agoI am looking for a way to run Lotus Improv - which was a cool piece of software back then. Did anybody get this to run?
- spitfire 4y agoYes, improv and lighthouse design quantrix (a pixel perfect clone after lotus killed improv) work fine in previous. Quantrix is also a fat binary so you can run it on x86 nextstep or openstep under in a vm.
- csdvrx 4y agoI've head about improv and I'd like to try it (or quantrix) How would you start it in this emulator?
- pmarreck 4y agoJust a Mac app? It doesn't even say anywhere on the page that it's Mac-limited. I wanted a Linux version...
- Maursault 4y ago> It doesn't even say anywhere on the page that it's Mac-limited. Where does it say macOS? I see no mention of any supported platform. FWIW the x86 version of OPENSTEP 4.2 has been running in virtual machines for some time.[1][2] Previous emulates the NeXT hardware and Motorola processor, and maybe some are interested in that. Personally, I'm really not, but it's an interesting use of emulation (which really only becomes useful when emulating a current platform on another, such as x86 on Apple Silicon or vice versa). [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAF0xdIiI20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAF0xdIiI20 [VirtualBox tutorial] [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVCxfoG8bv4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVCxfoG8bv4 [VMWare Tutorial]
- pmarreck 4y ago> Where does it say macOS? I see no mention of any supported platform. That was exactly my point when I said: > It doesn't even say anywhere on the page that it's Mac-limited It says nothing about the OS it runs on, which IMHO is lame.
- Maursault 4y ago> That was exactly my point when I said: > > > It doesn't even say anywhere on the page that it's Mac-limited If I said "it doesn't say anywhere that it only runs on OS/400," then this implies that it stated somewhere that the software runs on OS/400 just as your statement implies it runs on Mac. Where did you get Mac from in the first place if the about doesn't mention it?
- dfox 4y agoLast week I've spent some time trying to make OpenStep run in qemu, but gave up after few hours. Apparently there is some incompatibility with how qemu emulates CD drive.
- spitfire 4y agoFor anyone wondering nextcomputers.org has the necessary rom files available in their file section.- Along with just about all the public ally available software ever made. It’s really a treasure trove.
- lockhouse 4y agoThank you! Any recommendation on the best one to use with Previous? It looks like it supports a lot of models.
- spitfire 4y agoI mean the ultimate model is either a turbo cube with dimension board, or a turbo colour station. The turbo cube dimension had dual monitors (one colour one bw) in 1989 which was cool. Myself I just run a turbocolour station.
- stevedekorte 4y agoCan someone get this running on the Web with WASM?
- eatmyshorts 4y agoDoes it also emulate the wickedly slow I/O times of the CD/RW drive (er, Canon Magento Optical drive, apparently)? I seem to recall waiting really long for anything to read or write to that thing, despite the wonder of having a CD that I could erase, with 660MB of storage.
- soferio 4y agohttps://youtu.be/BpMODQBdTBE https://youtu.be/BpMODQBdTBE Retrospective partly about NeXt with Steve Jobs.
- garganzol 4y agoJust take a look at the buttons in window title bars - they have box shape with a very distinguishable 3D effect. NeXT design language was evidently borrowed by Windows 95. Which is a good thing, I still miss that level of clarity.
- guessbest 4y agoIt looks like windows got rid of the shaft of the arrow with the change from win 3.0 to win 95. https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/1/20943552/scroll-bar-visual-history-30-years https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/1/20943552/scroll-bar-visua...
- sedatk 4y agoI wish it was capitalized as PReViouS or were just called PReV. :)