Re: Best HW to run NextStep?

[Nathan Saper]

On Mon, Jun 18, 2001 at 09:35:05AM +0200, Laurent Julliard wrote:
> A - Find a NeXT station (cube or pizzabox) that still works. Is this
> reasonable? What version of NeXTstep runs in these machines?

I have a NeXTstation TurboColor running NEXTSTEP 3.3 User/Developer, and it
is one of my favorite machines.  The graphics are beautiful, and the apps
themselves run pretty quickly.  The only time I notice the slow CPU is when
compiling.

I purchased my NeXTstation from Deep Space Technologies
(http://www.deepspacetech.com/).  They were nice people to work with, and my
machine runs perfectly.

> B - While visited the Apple site I realized that NeXTstep (actually
> OpenStep I guess) was ported to Sun SPARC platforms and also to Intel
> platforms.

Actually, NEXTSTEP was ported to more platforms than OpenStep.  NEXTSTEP 3.3
runs on NeXT Black, SPARC, Intel, and HP.  OpenStep, AFAIK, only runs on
Intel, Black, and SPARC.

> The hardware seems to be easy to find but I have several
> questions on that:
>   B.1 - Can the Intel or Sparc version be considered as "compliant" with
> the original flavor?

They were made to be compliant, so you shouldn't have any problem.  Most
NEXTSTEP programs come compiled quad-fat, which means they run on any of the
four platforms.

>   B.2 - Where can I find (CD/download) the NeXTstep OS for these
> machines?

That's going to be tricky.  I don't know of any place that sells NEXTSTEP
for Intel or Sparc.  It's not a supported product of Apple anymore, so you
can't buy it from them.  There are still some copies floating around (I have
two copies of NEXTSTEP for each of the architectures), but there might be
some legal issues with purchasing those...

> Another point where I'm not clear at all is whether NeXTstep ran on
> Macintosh machines at some point or was it just the aborted Rhapsody
> project?

No, NEXTSTEP never ran on Macs.

-- 
[ Nathan Saper (natedog@well.com)  http://www.well.com/user/natedog/ ]
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