NeXT stands out in Mac incarnation

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Dan Gillmor <dgillmor () mercurynews com>
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 09:36:54 -0700
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Fyi, latest column

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5676137.htm

NeXT stands out in Mac incarnation


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ed on Sun, Apr. 20, 2003

NeXT still stands out in its Mac incarnation
APPLE ACQUISITION, OS X BRING APPLICATIONS THAT PROVIDE PHOENIX-LIKE
SOFTWARE REBIRTH
By Dan Gillmor
Mercury News Technology Columnist

During the past few weeks, I've installed a batch of new programs on my
Macintosh computer running the OS X operating system. In this case, however,
``new'' is a relative term.

All share a legacy from NeXT -- the technology Apple Computer acquired in
1997 as the foundation of what became OS X. NeXT, founded about a decade
earlier by Steve Jobs, was so advanced for its time that the world is still
catching up in some ways.

NeXT hardware was expensive and never sold very well. The NeXTStep operating
system disappeared entirely for several years as Apple assimilated it.

But software developers loved what they could create with the NeXT platform.
And for many, OS X has meant a phoenix-like rebirth.

Some, like the Omni Group (www.omnigroup.com) in Seattle, were ready to jump
to OS X pretty much the minute Apple's modern platform hit the street a
couple of years ago. Others, such as AquaMinds (www.aquaminds.com) in Palo
Alto and Circus Ponies (www.circusponies.com) in San Francisco, have just
arrived in the market.

NeXT's lure, especially as it matured during the company's relatively brief
life, was a combination of things. The operating system was sturdy, and the
graphical way it interacted with its users was coherent and logical.

NeXT's technology was also way ahead of its time in the tools it offered
developers. Programmers could assemble applications with relative ease,
using powerful building blocks that were part of a sophisticated toolkit.

In bringing the NeXT technology into the heart of the modern Mac
environment, Apple has maintained the guts of the old NeXT architecture
while simultaneously extending and enhancing it. Some in the former NeXT
community worried that Apple, trying to accommodate its legacy customers,
would create a Frankenstein, but that hasn't happened.

``The Mac is now the NeXT with a lot of cool new technology,'' says Andrew
Stone of Stone Design (www.stone.com) in Albuquerque, an early NeXT and OS X
developer.

Almost all of the biggest traditional Mac developers, including Microsoft
and Adobe Systems, have rewritten their applications for OS X.

But the technologies that made NeXT attractive a decade ago are giving a leg
up not just to the former NeXT developers -- though they have the easiest
task in updating their work in the most modern ways -- but also to a group
that could be the foundation of tomorrow's Apple developer community.

Stone sees the modern Mac architecture and programming toolkits enabling a
``samurai'' model of software development. That is, the tools and platform
make it possible for a significant number of individual programmers or small
teams, not just corporate behemoths, to create seriously innovative
applications.

That's the case with AquaMinds' NoteTaker software and Circus Ponies'
NoteBook. Both are based on code that powered the NoteBook software for
NeXTStep that was sold by now-defunct Millennium Software Labs. Scott Love
of AquaMinds and Jayson Adams of Circus Ponies were partners at Millennium,
and now compete in tiny companies that are creating some interesting
technology.

NoteTaker and NoteBook are designed for collecting a variety of information,
including text files, Web pages and even audio recordings, and organizing
them in a coherent and searchable way. I've licensed both products, and look
forward to seeing how their features diverge over time. (I also hope there's
enough of a market to support both.)

I'm also partial to LaunchBar, a must-have utility program from another
small outfit, Objective Development (www.obdev.at) in Vienna, Austria. The
company dates from 1991, when the NeXT machines first became available in
Europe. LaunchBar was a NeXT application, but Objective Development has
other products and continues to write new software, enthusiastically using
the new Mac platform.

``The whole system has been way ahead of its time,'' says Norbert Heger, a
partner, echoing a familiar refrain.

Omni is no giant, but in the OS X (and former NeXT) space it's big enough,
boasting about 25 employees and a variety of products.

Wil Shipley, Omni's co-founder and president, says he knew he was seeing the
future back in 1989, when he first encountered the NeXT platform. The name
is different and the technology has been advanced, he says, but the concepts
are the same.

Shipley says his company had its best sales day by far last week when it
launched the latest version of OmniGraffle, a charting and diagramming
program. ``I think we're starting to hit critical mass'' with OS X, he says.

Andrew Stone may have the best view of the landscape. His company had an
early NeXT application called TextArt, which is now called Create for Mac OS
X and is one of a batch of products Stone Design sells for graphic artists
and Web site designers.

Stone Design also sells an application that OS X developers use to let
potential purchasers download and try out software before buying a license.
Stone says he has about 25 customers for that product, and new developers
are finding the platform worth the effort.

``My vision is 100 or so shops like ours pushing the envelope,'' he says.
``OS X is just getting going.''
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Dan Gillmor's column appears each Sunday and Wednesday. Visit Dan's online
column, eJournal (www.dangillmor.com). E-mail dgillmor () mercurynews com;
phone (408) 920-5016; fax (408) 920-5917.

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