The story of NeXTSTEP

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NeXTSTEP an object-oriented, multitasking operating system created by NeXT Computer, Inc. a company founded in 1985 by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs.

The NeXTSTEP 3.3 Desktop.

NeXTSTEP was created on the base of Mach microkernel and BSD Unix system code. NeXTStep was oriented to work in a graphical environment. It had a very well-prepared, intuitive user interface, based on object-oriented architecture, quite different from both the most popular then Microsoft Windows 3.1 and Mac OS.

A Brief Tour of NeXTSTEP — Software Showcase

The core operating system, application execution model, and application framework that was created at NeXT in 1989–1992 is still alive and well inside macOS.

Steve Jobs demoing the NEXT operating system. Many of the features shown here are now in macOS.

The NeXT Computer was launched in October 1988 at a lavish invitation-only event, “NeXT Introduction — the Introduction to the NeXT Generation of Computers for Education” at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California. The next day, selected educators and software developers were invited to attend for a $100 registration fee the first public technical overview of the NeXT computer at an event called “The NeXT Day” at the San Francisco Hilton. It gave those interested in developing NeXT software an insight into the system’s software architecture and object-oriented programming. Steve Jobs was the luncheon’s speaker.

During the first NeXTWORLD Expo, Steve Jobs previewed NeXTSTEP 3.0 and some hardware. Date: January 22, 1992 Location: San Francisco Civic Center, San Francisco Steve was 37 years old.

NeXT shipped at least a dozen major versions of NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP for various platforms between 1988–97; below are a few of the most notable:

• NeXTSTEP 0.8 (1988): The first version to ship with NeXT hardware, included with the NeXT Computer.
• NeXTSTEP 2.0 (1990): This release introduced support for color graphics, floppy disks, CD-ROM, the first appearance of Terminal.app, and more.
• NeXTSTEP 3.1 (1993): The first release to support x86 processors, allowing NeXTSTEP to be installed on generic IBM PC-compatible hardware.
• NeXTSTEP 3.3 (1995): The last version before the OPENSTEP rename. It supported the Motorola 68K, Intel i386, PA-RISC, and SPARC platforms.
• OPENSTEP 4.2 (1996): The final version in development before Apple bought NeXT.

In February 1997, after the purchase of NeXT by Apple, it became the source of the popular operating systems macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXTSTEP
https://simson.net/ref/NeXT/nextworld/
https://web.archive.org/web/19970412194822/http://www.next.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20110718162529/http://www.skytel.co.cr/bsd/research/1992/0908.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT