> They said a Unix weenie was code for software engineers who hated what we were doing to Unix (the operating system we licensed)—putting a graphical user interface on it to dumb it down for grandmothers. They heckled Steve about his efforts to destroy it. His nightmare would be to speak to a crowd of them.
The value proposition NeXT found on UNIX, was the same as Microsoft (after they let go of Xenix, thanks to MS-DOS golden goose deal with IBM), a means to an end, the market of companies and universities that wanted something with UNIX in the box.
He also didn’t seem to have an issue borrowing Unix, which obviously has a rich history of research and academia.
Indeed, however many people are too young to remember that he looked down into UNIX, as a bunch of greybeards without taste.
"Why We Have to Make UNIX Invisible."
https://www.usenix.org/blog/vault-steve-jobs-keynotes-1987-u...
"That time I had Steve Jobs keynote at Unix Expo"
> They said a Unix weenie was code for software engineers who hated what we were doing to Unix (the operating system we licensed)—putting a graphical user interface on it to dumb it down for grandmothers. They heckled Steve about his efforts to destroy it. His nightmare would be to speak to a crowd of them.
From https://web.archive.org/web/20180628214613/https://www.cake....
The value proposition NeXT found on UNIX, was the same as Microsoft (after they let go of Xenix, thanks to MS-DOS golden goose deal with IBM), a means to an end, the market of companies and universities that wanted something with UNIX in the box.
"NeXT marketing strategy video (1991)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRBIH0CA7ZU
Note that he wasn't at Apple when A/UX and MkLinux efforts took place.