We recently learned, through the Apple CEO of the time, the details of the day when Apple fired Steve Jobs. And we also saw how Steve moved forward and created NeXT, keeping his intense and charismatic personality, along with his comic touches, such as having to move his parked Porsche to secure the future of his new company. A company that, even if we don’t realise it, has become the technological foundation of everything we use today.
NeXTSTEP, the basis of macOS and the entire Apple ecosystem
When Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985 and invested 12 million dollars of his own money to build NeXT, his goal was clear: to create the most powerful computer for universities and research centres, accompanied by an operating system offering capabilities and tools that, at the time, felt like science fiction.
NeXT launched several computers, such as the NeXT Computer and the famous NeXT Cube, but the real gem was its operating system, called NeXTSTEP. NeXTSTEP was built on the Mach and BSD kernel, derived from UNIX, and already offered multitasking, memory protection and a graphical interface ahead of its time. These were features that Apple did not yet have in its own systems, and they were essential for developing professional and scientific applications.
Steve Jobs knew this was the "next step" towards the future. And so it was. From that era of Jobs at NeXT came an operating system with so many good ideas that, decades later, we still use them every day.
NeXTSTEP, the legacy we use every day without knowing it
When looking at NeXTSTEP screenshots, even from early versions like 0.8, we immediately recognise innovations we still see today. The omnipresent Dock, the Finder’s column view and the menus at the top of the screen were born here. Even the mail app, the trash in the Dock and the small details in the services window are elements that survive in all macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS and watchOS systems. In other words, the entire visual experience we associate with Apple also has direct roots in Jobs’ work at NeXT.
Apple quickly saw the potential of this work by Jobs and his company. That is why, in 1997, it decided to buy NeXT for 429 million dollars and 1 500 000 shares. The objective was to transform NeXTSTEP into the new MacOS X, with its emblematic X representing 10.
Since then, every version of macOS we have used —as well as iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS and the entire ecosystem of devices— has relied on those foundations that Steve Jobs built outside Apple.
Steve Jobs was always one step ahead
Every time we open the Dock on our Mac, switch to the Finder’s column view, or interact with the architecture of all Apple operating systems, we are unknowingly using concepts that originated with NeXTSTEP. The “next step” that Jobs took away from Apple but that nevertheless ended up shaping the core of the company we know today.
More than three decades later, the same spirit we saw in those black-and-white screens of the 90s is still alive, showing us that, no matter where he was or which company he led, Steve Jobs kept designing the technological future we all enjoy using.
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