Re:NeXTstep Manual, Systems Programming with Objective-C and...
by indymike on Sunday June 05, 2016 @02:33PM
(#11842357)
A NeXT in 1988 was like getting a PC from 1995. The developer tools, os and network stack were like getting something from 2005. Aside the size of the box and monitor, it was a preview of the future. It took the PC industry seven years to come close... but still not quite match the NeXT. Display Postscript and a general purpose DSP (digital signal processor) made for some amazing capabilities (i.e. software driven modem, oscilloscope apps, etc...).
Keep in mind that the NeXT computers came out in 1988 and 1990, 7 to 5 years ahead of Win95. They were powered by Motorola 68030/40 CPU's, which were competitors to the Intel 80386/486, and they included 8-32MB of RAM. When Win95 came out a lot of machines only had 4MB still. They also had a 'megapixel' display with 1120 × 832 resolution. Most PC's were shipping with 640x480 VGA graphics at the time.
Price-wise, a NeXT machine had a base price of $4,995 and you could get a Win95 capable PC for $995. But this of course was years later.