GUIs
Site News

Xerox
Visi On
GEM
Deskmate
GEOS
Desqview/X
AmigaOS
RISC OS
BeOS
QNX
OS/2
Apple
Linux/Unix
Windows
Win Shells
Misc GUIs

GUI Timeline
GUI Sites
Location: GUIs > Apple > NeXTSTEP 0.8


NeXTSTEP 0.8 Control Pannel
I couldn't find any kind of preferences or control panel application. But this "demo" program shows an example of a display  control panel. Looks a lot like the Windows 9x Display Settings.

NeXTSTEP 0.8 Applications
This screen shot shows a few of the included applications. Scroll bars are on the left! (works for me!)

This version of NeXTSTEP includes an e-mail client, a word processor called "Write Now", and a large digital library.

The mail app has an interesting feature for voice messages. When he first presented NeXTSTEP, Steve Jobs made a big deal about attaching sound and video to e-mail.

Funny thing is that even though we can still attach sound or videos to e-mail today, few people do. Well, except for the links to Youtube videos of Peter Griffen farting.

Unfortunately, networking does not yet work in Previous. But in 1988 NeXTSTEP already had built in TCP/IP networking, and was designed to make use of networks. In fact, the first web browser was designed for NeXTSTEP!

NeXTSTEP 0.8 Interface Builder
The Interface Builder application gives a good idea of the standard user interface controls available under NeXTSTEP. These include buttons, check boxes, radio buttons, text boxes, list boxes, and scroll bars.

NeXTSTEP 0.8 Open Dialog
While the methods for opening a file are not constant through all of the 0.8 application, a number of them use this common dialog that strongly resembles that of MacOS.

NeXTSTEP 0.8 Games
A couple more "demo" applications. A poker game, and a 3d flight simulator.

NeXTSTEP 0.8 Console
In the Workspace Manager menu, there is a "Console" item. Applications or background processes may display non-interactive errors or information in this window.

NeXTSTEP 0.8 Unix Shells
NeXTSTEP also includes a terminal application, that starts a Unix shell (specifically "csh"), and lets you mess around with all the Unix stuff under the hood.

The same Terminal application still lives on in MacOS X.

NeXTSTEP 0.8 Really Quit?
This silly character appears in the exit confirmation for a number of the demo application.

NeXTSTEP 0.8 Shutting Down
Shutting down NeXTSTEP. In Previous, you use the F10 key to simulate pressing the power button. After confiirmation, it will perform a typical Unix shutdown.

In conclusion, while NeXTSTEP 0.8 does a good job of grafting a newer modern desktop on to Unix, many of the Unix sharp edges cut through.