NeXT

Next, Inc. (later Next Computer, Inc. and Next Software, Inc. and stylized as NeXT) was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets. NeXT was founded in 1985 by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs after he resigned from Apple the same year. NeXT introduced the first NeXT Computer in 1988, and the smaller NeXTstation in 1990. Sales of the NeXT computers were relatively limited, with estimates of about 50,000 units shipped in total. Nevertheless, its innovative object-oriented NeXTSTEP operating system and development environment were highly influential.[2]... Apple Computer purchased NeXT on December 20, 1996 for $429 million and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock,[3] and much of the current MacOs X system is built on the OPENSTEP foundation.[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT