5 ms·

NeXT is example 1 of anytime I wonder "have we made ANY progress in desktop". Linux and Windows desktop experience is at best equivalent to x86 NeXTStep deskto

NeXT is example 1 of anytime I wonder "have we made ANY progress in desktop". Linux and Windows desktop experience is at best equivalent to x86 NeXTStep desktop environments (except the OS did have memory leaks). Especially considering that we are talking at the time a 66 - 100 MHz 486 or the first gen pentiums (again maybe 100-133Mhz), small and short hard drives, maybe 64-128 MB of ram. Example 2 is BeOS, although I never used BeOS on its era of hardware to personally comment. However, Jobs tried to make BeOS the basis of OSX, and NeXT was his backup plan. So BeOS must have been pretty compelling.

mattl 4y ago
Amelio, not Jobs
sbuk 4y ago
Jobs had nothing to do with Be. He founded NeXT. Gil Amelio was the Apple CEO when they were working on acquiring BE Inc., which was founded by Jean-Louis Gassée—another former Apple executive. Ironically perhaps, it was reportedly Gassée alerting Apples board to Jobs’ manoeuvring to oust Sculley that saw Jobs fired from Apple.
cat_plus_plus 4y ago
Nah? Today's laptop lasts all day without a charger, lets you watch and edit 4K video, allows you to order food and have it delivered in 20 minutes or shop for pretty much anything you need online, provides access to detailed VR worlds and advanced AI chatbots. There is a lot of work under the hood that makes it possible. Plus there are lots of new computing devices like cell phones, smart watches, voice assistants and smart TVs with entirely new UI paradigms. As for original plugged in desktop with a flat monitor, keyboard and mouse, it's relatively easy to experiment with a new window manager under Linux. So if nothing radically different caught on, maybe current design is already optimum for certain tasks like typing in lots of text. After all a text editor window is already similar to a typewriter made in 1868, not everything needs to change all the time. Microsoft learned this lesson the hard way with Windows 8.

mattl 4y ago

Amelio, not Jobs

sbuk 4y ago

Jobs had nothing to do with Be. He founded NeXT. Gil Amelio was the Apple CEO when they were working on acquiring BE Inc., which was founded by Jean-Louis Gassée—another former Apple executive. Ironically perhaps, it was reportedly Gassée alerting Apples board to Jobs’ manoeuvring to oust Sculley that saw Jobs fired from Apple.

cat_plus_plus 4y ago

Nah? Today's laptop lasts all day without a charger, lets you watch and edit 4K video, allows you to order food and have it delivered in 20 minutes or shop for pretty much anything you need online, provides access to detailed VR worlds and advanced AI chatbots. There is a lot of work under the hood that makes it possible. Plus there are lots of new computing devices like cell phones, smart watches, voice assistants and smart TVs with entirely new UI paradigms. As for original plugged in desktop with a flat monitor, keyboard and mouse, it's relatively easy to experiment with a new window manager under Linux. So if nothing radically different caught on, maybe current design is already optimum for certain tasks like typing in lots of text. After all a text editor window is already similar to a typewriter made in 1868, not everything needs to change all the time. Microsoft learned this lesson the hard way with Windows 8.