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[Macam]

This was posted on Ars' forums and much like the 1984 Mac introduction video that was recently floating around, I found this was utterly fascinating. Perhaps far more so because it truly shows the origins of OS X, some functionality we're only now seeing gaining traction in operating systems over ten years later, and puts into perspective just how trite OS advances were the last few years comparatively.

You can download a low res or high version of the approx. 30 minute video here: http://www.openstep.se/jobs/

 

[Templar Wizard]

related to Jobs, is there a good bio online somewhere? which deals with the personal life of the man in addition to the business.

not a kiss assy one.

very interesting vid btw

 

[fart]

once a salesman, always a salesman

 

[Macam]

related to Jobs, is there a good bio online somewhere? which deals with the personal life of the man in addition to the business.

I'll see what I can dig up later today as I'm curious myself.

I just finished watching the video entirely, and it's amusing to see Jobs' characteristic trademarks in there: a jab at Microsoft, his ever present "mere mortals" phrase, BLAMO!, and, oddly enough, a little Pixar reference at the end.

 

[ckohler]

related to Jobs, is there a good bio online somewhere? which deals with the personal life of the man in addition to the business.

I totally recommend:
The Second Coming of Steve Jobs

I have the audio book from Audible.com. It covers his fall from grace after the NeXT flop, his "second coming" to Apple up to present day. It's very in depth and doesn't pull any punches. Also, it has tons of great behinds the scene history about the formation of Pixar, the iMac, the infamous Apple/Microsoft deal, etc.

 

[Drozmight]

It probably cost $1000 per copy.

 

[ckohler]

$10.85 smartass.

 

[Drozmight]

:-(

 

[tedtropy]

related to Jobs, is there a good bio online somewhere? which deals with the personal life of the man in addition to the business.

not a kiss assy one.

very interesting vid btw

If you are at all interested in the history, downfall and uprising of Apple and Jobs, you need to read this book. It gives Apple props for its innovation, but is ruthless in noting the many flaws of the people behind it, Jobs especially...

 

[pnjtony]

Ahhhh....the scrolling on the right freaks me out!


So why didn't NextStep catch on? Pricey?

 

[FortNinety]

Anyone ever catch that TNT movie Pirates of Silicon Valley? It was a great film that traced both Jobs' and Bill Gate's early days. And the guy who played Steve Ballmer was spot on.

 

[ge-man]

Anyone ever catch that TNT movie Pirates of Silicon Valley? It was a great film that traced both Jobs' and Bill Gate's early days. And the guy who played Steve Ballmer was spot on.

I did when it first premiered. It was far more entertaining than I expected it to be. I wonder if it's on DVD because I would definately buy a copy for myself.

 

[Phoenix]

So why didn't NextStep catch on? Pricey?

nextStep caught on in very small circles but for the most part there was nothing really driving people to Next. Pretty much the concepts in Next made their way into OSX.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

We had the Next OS on the computers at the first college I went to, it was very strange to use. The biggest quirk I remember had to do with the fact that the majority of the computers on campus were B&W. At first I just attributed this to costs, but I found that any picture you saved on those computers would be B&W on the color monitors as well! I have no idea if the colors were built into the OS or what.

It was a decent OS, seemed kinda rare at the time (according to professors). Near the end of my freshman year everything was chucked in favor of Win95 which had just been released.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

Next Machines had miserable price/performance rations. We had a few where I worked, mostly to try out. There were some great innovations, expecially to the UI, but they were just slow compared to Sun machines, Macs, or PCs.

 

[aoi tsuki]

At first i was thinking how amazing the NeXT environment was, then i realized how much more amazing it was that the features that were available only to corporate users a decade or so ago are now available to home users running the most basic of hardware. It really is amazing though how much of NeXT made it to OSX, and to a lesser extent XP.

And i love Job's trademark dry sarcasm... "slash f... such a great interface." :lol

 

[Timbuktu]

Anyone ever catch that TNT movie Pirates of Silicon Valley? It was a great film that traced both Jobs' and Bill Gate's early days. And the guy who played Steve Ballmer was spot on.

It's a shame that the film ended where it did though, when Jobs looked like a loser. So much has happened after that. It'd be better if they ended with the announcement of the iMac, just to signal Jobs' 'second coming'. If there's to be a biopic made of anyone in the industry, it'll have to be Jobs. Sure, he isn't exactly Howard Hughes, but his life so far is still fascinating, and he's still got such a long way to go.

 

[Templar Wizard]

but after the movie, Jobs drove a jeep in a few good men and then took over Goose's job in a hospital.

thank you for the book suggestions my friends.

 

[Laurent]

THANKS ALOT! And it's fast download too...

related to Jobs, is there a good bio online somewhere? which deals with the personal life of the man in addition to the business.

not a kiss assy one.

very interesting vid btw

I recommend watching Pirates of Silicon Valley, no ass kissing there...

 

[ckohler]

If you liked Pirates of Silicon Valley, you'll also like the PBS documentary that spawned it:
Triumph of the Nerds

While a bit dated, it has actual in-depth interviews with Jobs, Gates, Woz, Balmer etc. telling their stories.

 

[Timbuktu]

I'm just reading ckohler's recommendation, 'The Second Coming of Steve Jobs' (thanks a lot ckohler!) and it just shocks me how close Nextstep was to stopping the MS monopoly. If only IBM, Dell or Compact had lisensed Nextstep *sigh*, it would almost be like having OSX in 1990, 'it would have been game over for Microsoft'... history now.

 

[Jotaro]

If you liked Pirates of Silicon Valley, you'll also like the PBS documentary that spawned it:

While a bit dated, it has actual in-depth interviews with Jobs, Gates, Woz, Balmer etc. telling their stories.

Jesus, I imported the freaking DVD from Amazon.com and got raped by paying 50 us bucks! It was worth it, it is my personal favorite documentary ever.

I hope Cringely will do a follow-up like he promised.

 

[maharg]

I'm just reading ckohler's recommendation, 'The Second Coming of Steve Jobs' (thanks a lot ckohler!) and it just shocks me how close Nextstep was to stopping the MS monopoly.

Um, I don't know what the book says to give that impression, but from the outside looking in at the time, it never stood a chance. It was never positioned as anything other than a high end workstation system. The Intel version of NEXTStep, specifically, was retailed for somewhere significantly north of $1000.

OS/2 was far better positioned to make a difference in the industry, sold for a better price, and actually did pretty well before IBM basically lost interest during a restructuring, among other influences, that killed it completely.

 

[fse]

awesome find