Behind the scenes at the NeXT Computer office

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Archival photos from the NeXT Computer offices prompt reflections on the company’s outsized technical legacy — from NeXTSTEP’s role in the birth of the web and early FPS games to its evolution into macOS — and on Steve Jobs’ complex mix of vision, product instinct, and abusive management. Commenters contrast the excitement, diversity of platforms, and in‑person camaraderie of 1980s–90s tech workplaces with today’s more homogenized, remote, and corporate environments, while also noting survivorship bias and the often harsh realities behind the romanticized startup era.

Legacy and Impact of NeXT and Jobs

  • NeXT shipped relatively few machines but had outsized influence: first web browser/server, id Software’s early Doom/Quake work, and the basis for Rhapsody → macOS and successors.
  • Some argue Jobs’ impact is enormous: blending sales, product vision, design sense, and CEO authority in a way that shaped whole industries.
  • Others counter that his role is overstated, calling him primarily a “sales guy,” with engineers doing the real building; pushback notes this understates how critical product vision and ruthless editing can be.
  • His abusive management style is repeatedly described as both exhilarating and traumatizing; some see him as uniquely compelling despite serious flaws.

BeOS vs NeXT and Apple’s OS Direction

  • Firsthand accounts from people who worked at Be and later Apple say BeOS was exciting but immature: missing drivers, shallow implementations, incomplete features.
  • NeXTSTEP/OpenStep is portrayed as far more complete and easier to evolve into Mac OS X.
  • There are stories about failed acquisition talks (high price demands, poor pitching), the possibility of Apple buying both Be and NeXT, and how that might have altered careers and the broader industry.

Work Culture, Nostalgia, and Office Life

  • Many younger readers feel they “missed out” on small, intense, in‑person teams building fundamentally new systems.
  • Veterans describe both genuine magic (shared mission, rapid innovation, LAN gaming) and darker sides (death marches, abusive leaders, boring corporate work).
  • There’s debate over whether today’s environments will be romanticized; some highlight past diversity of hardware/OSes, others stress survivorship bias.
  • Strong criticism of modern open‑plan “cattle pen” offices; cubes and private offices are retrospectively appreciated.

NeXTSTEP UI, Performance, and Modern Revivals

  • NeXT’s UI is widely admired: distinctive aesthetic, PostScript-based rendering, integrated printing, focused small apps, and workflow concepts people still miss.
  • Some recall NeXTSTEP being smooth on well‑specced hardware; others remember painful slowness compared to X11, and joke that an under‑RAM’d modern Mac approximates the feel.
  • Several projects aim to recreate or reinterpret the OpenStep/Cocoa style on modern systems, including new GUI frameworks and “toy” visual recreations.

Hardware, Games, and Security Anecdotes

  • Personal stories include university labs full of NeXT cubes, commercial systems built on OpenStep, and ongoing affection for Doom’s NeXT origins.
  • A few people still run original NeXT hardware as display pieces; plugging them into the modern internet is discussed as mostly low‑risk due to obscurity, but still avoided.

Photos and Site

  • The photo collection is widely praised for quality and historical value, though some images are suspected to be staged.
  • Complaints include sluggish page loading and intrusive traffic/bot checks.