An operating system developed by Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer. For a comparative analysis with other current operating systems see PC/Computing Special Report (1994). NEXTStep is a leader in GUI interfaces and has some native applications software such as Word Perfect and Mathematica up and running. The future of NEXTStep was uncertain until Apple Corporation purchased the OS for $400 million in 1997 with the intention of making it the core of the future Mac and PowerMac operating systems. a revolutionary operating system from Apple Corporation that is based upon NEXTStep technology. Apple plans to deliver two operating systems for the next several years. First will be the Mac OS, which we will continue to upgrade and improve to support the current Macintosh customers worldwide, approximately 60 million users. Second will be a new OS based on NeXT Software's operating system technologies, NEXTStep and OPENStep. The powerful and advanced NeXT technologies are years ahead of competitive offerings, and will provide the foundation for a new OS, code-named
Rhapsody. In addition to leveraging the NeXT technologies,
Rhapsody is designed to run Mac applications through a Mac OS compatibility environment. Rhapsody's user interface will combine elements from both the Mac OS and NEXTStep, but will be closer in look and feel to the Mac OS Finder. We realize that customers need a consistent interface in the two operating systems to deploy them throughout a single organization. It's important for training and ease of use. One of the advantages of NeXT's technology is the easy support of multiple user interface paradigms. (See also
Operating system and
Rhapsody.)
