NeXT Hardware (Diagnostics) Utilities

This directory contains a number of utilities for (obsolete) NeXT hardware, including some diagnostic utilities. These utilities were used inside former NeXT Inc. to check hardware. Some of the utilities (like NDbootscreen, which makes the boot messages appear on the B&W monitor in ND setups) are useful for ordinary users.

I have decided to put these onto the net, and I am going to be open about it. Most of this document is meant to convince people that that is a good move.

These utilities were never meant to be distributed outside NeXT. NeXT, however, stopped making hardware years ago, and also support for NeXT hardware is not available anymore. This means that existing users of NeXT hardware are more or less stranded in the (luckily rather unlikely) case that they have hardware problems.

Older NeXT systems are still in demand. And some NeXT systems from former NeXT employees have hit the market. Some of those contained these utilities. As I said, these utilities were never meant to appear outside NeXT, but in the end they did (some of them, like the diagnostics and NDbootscreen program already were widespread before I got this set). And recently, someone sent this set to me.

Now, formally, NeXT (now owned by Apple) can stop this distribution of the former NeXT hardware utilities, but I suspect and hope that they will not. Having these in the public doesn't hurt Apple a bit and there are even positive aspects. But of course, Apple lawyers may think otherwise, in which case I will remove these utilities from this site. It's their stuff after all. It's just that it has no worth for anybody, except owners of obsolete NeXT hardware. I suspect and hope that this action of putting these up for ftp will not appear high on Apple's priority list (and if it does, there is something pretty amiss, as Apple has more important issues to contemplate if you ask me).

There are still people nowadays who use and love PDP-11 or Sun3 computers. None of them will contemplate using those computers instead of more modern offerings to do serious work. There are people still using NeXT computers (I am one), but in a few years most of these computers will be curiosities and maintained just for fun, just like those old PDP-11 and Sun3 machines. Serious use will move to more modern hardware offerings, like Apple's PPC computers (provided of course that they run an OS that is close to NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP). The publication of these utilities will enable those old computers to be kept running for as long as possible. That way these computers will remain living examples of how far ahead some ideas of erstwhile NeXT were. Some might  even consider them as answers to the question "where is that Apple hardware excellence of today compared to a few years ago coming from?"

Anyway, with this I hope to do something positive and I sincerely hope that Apple (if they find out about it) will condone it. If they have their priorities right and they do, they'll really be "thinking different" in my opinion.

A final word of warning:

These utilities are without any warranty. I have read reports that some might even seriously harm your system. Therefore: take extreme care when using them.

June 1998, Gerben Wierda
Gerben_Wierda@RnA.com

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con·done \ken-'doÅn\ vt  con·doned; con·don·ing
[L condonare to forgive, fr. com- + donare to give Ð more at DONATION]
(1857)
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1sym·pa·thet·ic \,sim-pe-'thet-ik\ adj
[NL sympatheticus, fr. L sympathia sympathy]
(1644)
3: given to, marked by, or arising from sympathy, compassion, friendliness, and sensitivity to others' emotions áa sympathetic gestureñ

large-mind·ed \'laÈrj-'mõÅn-ded\ adj
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Ð large-mind·ed·ness n 

1think \'think\ vb  thought \'thoÇt\; think·ing
[ME thenken, fr. OE thencan; akin to OHG denken to think, L tongeÅre to know Ð more at THANK]
vt
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~ vi
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PS. In case you wonder why I did not try to get approval from Apple first. That is because I think Apple has more important things on its mind and any such low priority request will most likely get 'no' as the most cost-effective answer, not because of serious consideration, but simply because of the lack of time and money for serious consideration and the cost without benefit for Apple if they have to move officially on this issue. With this mode of operation, I am just making 'yes by condoning' the most cost-effective answer and probably sparing them a lot of time and money (at least I hope). I think this is a win-win situation.