NeXT Computers

pl212 · Joined: 31 Oct 2009 Posts: 51 Location: Chicago, IL

Gtnicol has a great set of photos on Flickr that document some early versions of NeXTStep. I wanted to add to those by putting in direct, pixel-for-pixel screen captures. Let's start with 1.0a, which is a revision of 1.0 to fix a few bugs. The initial boot comes up with user "me" and no password, thus bypassing the login screen. The default desktop looks like this:

pl212 · Joined: 31 Oct 2009 Posts: 51 Location: Chicago, IL

Let's move on to the System Preferences. In order of appearance:

mcdermd · Joined: 14 Nov 2011 Posts: 19 Location: Corvallis, OR

I like the "Black Hole".

gtnicol · Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 332 Location: Rhode Island, USA

How are you grabbing these screen shots? If you don't have 0.8 and 0.9, I can create sets for them too.

pl212 · Joined: 31 Oct 2009 Posts: 51 Location: Chicago, IL

Hey all, thanks for the responses. Turns out there is a great way to get screenshots on these early versions -- I'll post the procedure once I'm home tonight and can give exact instructions.

Meantime, here's an interesting question. The images above are "exact", pixel-for-pixel representations of what was drawn to the screen. But the monitor itself was, of course, a CRT, and that technology introduces some interpretation to the resulting image. Even as sharp and crisp as a MegaPixel Display was on the first day, it was nowhere near as precise as modern LCDs.

Take a look at these two images below. The first is the actual pixel data, and the second has a opengl shader applied that tries to mimic some of the characteristics of a CRT:

It's natural to prefer the first one, as it's "sharper" -- but if you think back to the way NextStep was actually used by people before LCD screens, I think the second image is closer. It softens some of the harsher transitions between pixels. Keith Ohlfs was designing for a 2-bit (4-color) display, and he only had two shades of gray between black and white to work with. I think the image on the right may be closer to what he was designing for.

Noth · Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 2:47 pm Post subject:

I agree, the interface looks like it was designed for CRTs and looks better that way, especially for gradients. Ohlfs did a fantastic job, considering the limits of the soft+hardware of the day (this was 1986-88 right?).
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NeXT Cube 040 (NeXTSTEP 3.3), SUN SparcStation5 (NeXTSTEP 3.3), SGI Indigo2 R10000 (IRIX 6.5.22), SGI VSW320 (Windows 2000/Slakware 9.1)