20 years ago, Apple bought NeXT • Hacker News Board

Re: 20 years ago, Apple bought NeXT

#211

Post by wiredfool » Wed, Dec 21, 2016, 11:26 AM UTC

mootothemax wrote: post #186

generj wrote: post #4

My father's most regretted financial move is ignoring his weird thought to buy 10 shares of Apple stock at this time.

>My father's most regretted financial move is ignoring his weird thought to buy 10 shares of Apple stock at this time. And how long would he have held on to them before selling? That's the really fun part of trading: it's one thing to see a profit, and quite another to bet on whether it's as good as you're going to get, or go 5x - 10x - 100x higher.

Personally, I was planning to buy at $12 in the dark days when the Book Value was about Market Cap (~4B). Then it popped to 19ish, and I decided that the easy/big money was done.

Did that with Tesla too. And Netflix.

Re: 20 years ago, Apple bought NeXT

#212

Post by nothis » Wed, Dec 21, 2016, 11:28 AM UTC

chmaynard wrote: post #73

wl wrote: post #2

The standard snark is that NeXT bought Apple for -$400 million.

When I joined Apple Software Engineering in 2001 as a writer, the first thing I noticed was that former NeXT people ran the company, made the important decisions, and believed fervently that the new Apple would be wildly successful. Oh, how right they were.

>Oh, how right they were.

Well, there's a sentence you don't hear often, nowadays!

Re: 20 years ago, Apple bought NeXT

#213

Post by jackgavigan » Wed, Dec 21, 2016, 11:31 AM UTC

m_mueller wrote: post #139

I copy from a comment of mine from last week. In case you wanna procrastinate on a fascinating story about how Apple transitioned to NextStep's stack without completely annihilating their already weak developer base, here's a few links: You get a corporate drama, a human drama and a tech drama all wrapped up in one series of presentations: Jobs' return (as a consultant) 1997, promoting technologies from NeXT. Watch b…

> Jobs, the man with a plan.

Not just a plan but the Plan, which Apple has followed ever since. It's fascinating to watch this section of Jobs's 1997 comeback presentation, knowing how successful this strategy was with the iPhone and the App Store: https://youtu.be/4QrX047-v-s?t=7m40s

Re: 20 years ago, Apple bought NeXT

#214

Post by riprowan » Wed, Dec 21, 2016, 11:49 AM UTC

cturner wrote: post #193

brians wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So where's the $15k super machine for today? I'd absolutely look to pay that for something with a similar advantage over a MacBook Pro.

Computing has changed. For CAD, games, a/v production, you still need a workstation. But the workstation is now obsolete in major fields that it once dominated. Industrial simulation: these days the optimal approach is to get access to CPU is to crunch on headless servers, ideally in the cloud. Expand and contract computing power on a needs basis. Front-office development: Objective C and Interface Builder was much b…

What if I'm one of the tens of millions of people who do CAD, photo editing, and A/V production?

Re: 20 years ago, Apple bought NeXT

#215

Post by riprowan » Wed, Dec 21, 2016, 11:50 AM UTC

chmaynard wrote: post #73

wl wrote: post #2

The standard snark is that NeXT bought Apple for -$400 million.

When I joined Apple Software Engineering in 2001 as a writer, the first thing I noticed was that former NeXT people ran the company, made the important decisions, and believed fervently that the new Apple would be wildly successful. Oh, how right they were.

Can't tell if sarcastic or serious.

Re: 20 years ago, Apple bought NeXT

#216

Post by riprowan » Wed, Dec 21, 2016, 11:51 AM UTC

pfarnsworth wrote: post #21

I was applying for jobs back in 1997, and during that time they had a huge career fair called the Brass Ring fair. Employers from around Silicon Valley would have booths and hire people on the spot. I distinctly remember Apple's booth being completely barren, they were practically dead to most engineers. How the tables have turned since then. The big question is, Apple's path appears to be following the path after St…

I remember teaching classes in 1992, when Apple was clearly the engineering leader. How the tables were turned by 1997.

Re: 20 years ago, Apple bought NeXT

#217

Post by riprowan » Wed, Dec 21, 2016, 11:52 AM UTC

Apocryphon wrote: post #9

It would be great if someone wrote an article about the alternate histories where Apple chose other strategies. For instance, what an Apple-Be merge would have resulted in, what kind of products and tech. And how NeXT would have lasted without Apple.

What if Apple hadn't built the Mac but had gone all-in on the Apple ][gs years earlier?

Re: 20 years ago, Apple bought NeXT

#218

Post by jlebrech » Wed, Dec 21, 2016, 12:00 PM UTC

and this guy missed out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Louis_Gass%C3%A9e#1991.E2...

Re: 20 years ago, Apple bought NeXT

#219

Post by truth_sentinell » Wed, Dec 21, 2016, 12:04 PM UTC

SeanLuke wrote: post #150

freehunter wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's 100% true. It's the book Steve Jobs had written as his official biography, so it's de facto the official biography. It doesn't matter if there is a better book, and your aggressive tone is not helping your argument.

"official" and "definitive" are not synonyms.

In this case they're, because he ain't reviewing and approving another biography.

Re: 20 years ago, Apple bought NeXT

#220

Post by cha-cho » Wed, Dec 21, 2016, 12:53 PM UTC

pilsetnieks wrote: post #208

cha-cho wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sent him an email from a NeXTStep configured PC in around 1996/97/98 stating I had some window GUI ideas that would give him a distinct advantage over Windows. As I recall, his reply was terse, along the lines of: ~~~ What are they? sj ~~~ I was doubtful it was actually the man himself responding. I thought it was some email administrator trying to steal my ideas (I was 20yrs younger then). I proceeded cautiously a…

So you were okay with Steve Jobs personally stealing your ideas but not with his assistant doing so?

To my young mind, it was more about someone else taking credit for my wonderful ideas. My naive thinking was that Steve Jobs would be dazzled for sure. He'd probably want to hire me or pay me a million dollars, but some other person checking his email or administering the email server... how could I trust them? I was young and foolish and had spent too much time acquiring and configuring a NeXTSTEP compliant SCSI drive and SVGA card.