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Devices and hardware

NeXT computer

Summary

The NeXT Computer was a workstation made by NeXT, the company Steve Jobs founded in 1985 after leaving Apple, and unveiled on October 12, 1988. Tim Berners-Lee used a NeXT machine at CERN in 1990 to write the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, and the first web server, and the same machine hosted the first website. NeXT left the hardware business in 1993, and Apple bought the company, completing the deal on February 7, 1997.

Web Building Encyclopedia · Devices and hardware · Last reviewed October 22, 2026 · 8 min read

What the NeXT computer was

The NeXT Computer was a high-end workstation, a powerful desktop computer for technical and scientific work, made by NeXT, the company Steve Jobs started after leaving Apple. It was the machine on which Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web browser and the first web server at CERN in 1990.12

Jobs resigned as chairman of Apple on September 17, 1985, after a power struggle inside the company, and founded NeXT, Inc. to build workstations for higher education and business.3 The Computer History Museum describes the new company as launched soon after he left Apple that year.4

Jobs unveiled the NeXT Computer at a launch event in San Francisco on October 12, 1988.56 It cost $6,500, a price the Computer History Museum says limited its sales.6 The museum lists its notable features as an optical storage disc, a built-in digital signal processor that made voice recognition possible, and object-oriented programming languages that made software easier to write.6

The hardware

The case was a one-foot (305 mm) cube of die-cast magnesium, which gave the machine its nickname, the Cube. NeXT developed it with the higher education sector, and the company intended it to be “the first computer of the 1990s.”1 The Science Museum in London lists its main parts:1

  • a Motorola 68030 processor, with a 68882 coprocessor for faster mathematics
  • a Motorola 56001 digital signal processor (DSP) for sound and other media work
  • two custom input and output controllers that took work off the main processor
  • a magneto-optical drive, a rewritable disc read with a laser, with a hard disk as an option
  • a 17-inch MegaPixel monitor showing 1120 by 832 pixels in four levels of gray, with built-in speakers

NeXTSTEP

The machine ran NeXTSTEP, a Unix-based operating system (the core software that runs the computer and its programs).1 The Centre for Computing History, a computer museum in Cambridge, England, describes NeXTSTEP as object-oriented and multitasking.7 Object-oriented means programs are built from reusable software parts, called objects, that each bundle data with the code that works on it.

CERN notes that the first web browser was written in Objective-C, a programming language, using Interface Builder, a NeXT tool for laying out windows and menus visually.2

How a NeXT came to CERN

Berners-Lee proposed getting one of the NeXT machines. His supervisor, Mike Sendall, approved the idea and suggested he use it to try out his concept of a global hypertext system, meaning linked documents spread across many computers.8 W3C’s timeline of the early web dates Sendall’s approval of the purchase of a NeXT cube to September 1990.9 The ACM’s Turing Award biography instead says Sendall authorized the work in May 1990, justifying it as a test of the NeXT workstation.10

The formal project proposal that Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau submitted on November 12, 1990 gave the machine a clear job. Its first phase called for “a browser on the NeXT using the NeXTStep tools, as a fast prototype for ideas in human interface design and navigation techniques.”11

The same proposal listed a NeXTStep software engineer among its roles, with Berners-Lee’s initials against it, and planned other browsers for terminals, the Macintosh and X Window workstations.11

Berners-Lee has explained why the NeXT suited the work. It came with an application builder that produced menus very quickly, and with ready-made parts for a WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) word processor. He only had to add hypertext, which he did by extending NeXTSTEP’s Text object.12

In his account, those tools let him finish in a couple of months what would have taken about a year on other systems.12

The machine that ran the first browser and server

On the NeXT, Berners-Lee wrote both halves of the first web system. One was the browser and editor he called WorldWideWeb, which he later renamed Nexus so it would not be confused with the web itself. The other was the server software, httpd, which ran in the background and answered the browser’s requests for pages.122

His FAQ says he began writing the code in September 1990 and moved into a larger office, where he kept the NeXT. Before the first page was served over HTTP at the end of 1990, his machine opened pages as local files, so it was both the first browser and the first server.13

The machine had a network name. W3C’s timeline says the first web server was nxoc01.cern.ch, later called info.cern.ch, and that the first web page went online in November 1990.9 By Christmas 1990, both WorldWideWeb and the simpler line-mode browser could be demonstrated.9 Berners-Lee dated the first edition of WorldWideWeb December 25, 1990, although he notes he was not working that day and prepared it before CERN’s Christmas closure.12

The NeXT’s hardware shaped what the first users saw. NeXT screens of the time were grayscale, so the first edition of the browser was entirely grayscale. Each program’s menu sat in the top left corner of the screen, where NeXTSTEP placed it.12

When a CERN team rebuilt the browser in 2019, it found that the MegaPixel monitor’s pixels were wider than they were tall. The browser’s default text styles used NeXTSTEP’s Helvetica and Ohlfs fonts. Ohlfs, a monospaced font by designer Keith Ohlfs, was never reproduced outside NeXTSTEP.14

The NeXT also hosted the first website, which was about the World Wide Web project itself.1516 A handwritten warning in red ink on the machine told people not to switch it off, because it was running as a server.17

NeXT machines and the early web beyond CERN

Few people owned a NeXT. CERN’s 2019 history says the company sold only a few tens of thousands of machines, which is why CERN built a second browser, the line-mode browser, that worked on ordinary text terminals.2 CERN’s short history makes the same point: the original browser ran only on the NeXT, so its audience was small.17 The line-mode browser was written by Nicola Pellow.18

When Berners-Lee announced the project on the Usenet newsgroup alt.hypertext on August 6, 1991, he described the NeXT hypertext editor as a prototype that could also browse internet news, and pointed others to the line-mode browser, which ran on almost any system.19

NeXT owners were still among the first to take up the web. At the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in California, Paul Kunz, whom the lab describes as a fellow NeXT enthusiast, saw Berners-Lee’s work in the fall of 1991. On December 12, 1991, SLAC put up the first website in North America.20 SLAC’s archives hold two NeXT computers from that work, including one Kunz used as the lab’s original production web server.20

Ties ran the other way too. The 1992 list of people on the web project noted that Jean-François Groff, who had joined the project at CERN in September 1991, had gone to work for NeXT Europe.18 By January 1993, browsers called Midas, Erwise and Viola were available for the X Window System, and CERN had an alpha version of a Macintosh browser.9 In September 1993 NCSA released working versions of Mosaic for X, Windows and the Macintosh.9 The web no longer depended on one kind of computer.

What happened to NeXT

NeXT did not last as a hardware maker. The Centre for Computing History records that NeXT withdrew from the hardware business in 1993 and was renamed NeXT Software, Inc. It also worked with Sun Microsystems, which announced an investment in NeXT in 1993, on OpenStep, a version of NeXTSTEP’s programming layer that ran on other operating systems.7

On December 20, 1996, Apple announced that it had agreed to buy NeXT Software for $400 million.21 Apple’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission describes the price as $350 million plus about $50 million of assumed debt.22

Apple said parts of NEXTSTEP would become integral features of the next major version of Mac OS, citing the system’s maturity, networking, multitasking, protected memory and ability to run on everything from portables to servers. It also highlighted two NeXT development environments, OPENSTEP Enterprise and WebObjects, for business and for internet and intranet applications.21

The deal brought Jobs, NeXT’s chairman and chief executive, back to Apple, the company he had co-founded in 1976.21 Apple completed the purchase on February 7, 1997.23

The Computer History Museum describes technologies from Jobs’s NeXT years as the foundation of later Apple platforms, and credits that era with a role in the early development of the World Wide Web.4

Preserving the first web server

Berners-Lee’s NeXT has been kept as a historical object. CERN’s IT department describes it as the original web server and says it is still at CERN.16 CERN’s 2013 press release on the web’s anniversary said the same.15

In August 2009, a team from the Association aBCM in Lausanne checked over the machine at CERN and made an image of its hard drive, with Robert Cailliau observing. Copies of the image went to Cailliau and Berners-Lee.24

For the web’s 25th anniversary, the Science Museum in London put what it called Tim Berners-Lee’s NeXT cube on display on March 12, 2014, with a plan to move it to the museum’s new Information Age gallery that autumn. Its curator, Tilly Blyth, wrote that a torn sticker was the only sign of the machine’s history.25 The museum’s permanent collection also includes a NeXT Computer system, object 2008-5019, credited to the National Media Museum in Bradford.1

These sources do not name the model of Berners-Lee’s own machine: CERN calls it a NeXT computer and the Science Museum blog a NeXT cube.1625 The specifications listed earlier describe the NeXT Computer as the Science Museum catalogs it, not necessarily his unit.1

In February 2019, for the 30th anniversary, a group of developers and designers met at CERN to rebuild WorldWideWeb so that it runs inside a modern browser.26 CERN lent the team a NeXT computer, which they used to capture the original letter shapes with the Grab screenshot tool and then trace them into vector fonts.14

Timeline

  1. CERN team rebuilds WorldWideWeb to run in a modern browser, using a loaned NeXT26
  2. Science Museum in London displays Berners-Lee's NeXT cube for the web's 25th anniversary25
  3. Association aBCM services the first web server and images its hard drive24
  4. Apple completes its purchase of NeXT Software23
  5. Apple agrees to buy NeXT Software for $400 million21
  6. NeXT leaves the hardware business and becomes NeXT Software, Inc.7
  7. SLAC, home of NeXT enthusiast Paul Kunz, opens the first website in North America20
  8. Berners-Lee offers the NeXT browser-editor and other code by anonymous FTP19
  9. Date Berners-Lee gave the first edition of the WorldWideWeb browser12
  10. First web server, nxoc01.cern.ch, and first web page go online on the NeXT9
  11. Mike Sendall approves the purchase of a NeXT cube for Berners-Lee9
  12. Steve Jobs unveils the NeXT Computer at $6,5006
  13. Jobs resigns as Apple chairman and goes on to found NeXT3

What it means for your website

The first website ran on one desktop computer in one office. The parts have changed since 1990, but the jobs they do are the same.

  • A server has to stay on. The red-ink warning on Berners-Lee’s NeXT existed because switching the machine off took the server offline.17 Today that job belongs to your web hosting provider, and the measure of it is uptime. Check what uptime a host promises and what it offers when it misses.
  • Good tools change what one person can build. Berners-Lee credited NeXTSTEP’s ready-made parts with turning about a year of work into a couple of months.12 Website builders and page builders play the same role for a small business now. Our guide to choosing a website builder compares the main options.
  • Do not build for one kind of machine. The first browser ran only on a NeXT, so few people could use it until a text-only browser for ordinary terminals arrived.217 Test your site on a phone, a tablet and an older laptop, not only on the computer you design on.
  • Keep your content portable. NeXT stopped making computers in 1993,7 but by then web pages could be read with browsers on Unix, PCs and Macs.9 Keep your text, images and customer data in formats you can export, so a platform change does not strand them. See our guide to leaving your website builder.

See also

References

  1. NeXT Computer (object 2008-5019). Science Museum Group Collection. accessed October 22, 2026.
  2. A brief history (CERN 2019 WorldWideWeb Rebuild). CERN. 2019. accessed October 22, 2026.
  3. Steve Jobs leaves Apple to start NeXT. Centre for Computing History. 1985-09-17. accessed October 22, 2026.
  4. Steve Jobs in Exile (event page). Computer History Museum. 2026-05-26. accessed October 22, 2026.
  5. NeXT (DEC analysis of the NeXT computer and its launch event, catalog 102750430). Computer History Museum. 1988. accessed October 22, 2026.
  6. What happened on October 12th (This Day in History). Computer History Museum. accessed October 22, 2026.
  7. NeXT Computers. Centre for Computing History. accessed October 22, 2026.
  8. D.M. Sendall. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C. 1999-07. accessed October 22, 2026.
  9. A Little History of the World Wide Web (created by Robert Cailliau, maintained by Dan Connolly). W3C. accessed October 22, 2026.
  10. Tim Berners-Lee, A.M. Turing Award laureate (biography by Thomas Haigh). Association for Computing Machinery. accessed October 22, 2026.
  11. WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project. Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau, CERN (copy hosted by W3C). 1990-11-12. accessed October 22, 2026.
  12. The WorldWideWeb browser. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C. accessed October 22, 2026.
  13. Frequently asked questions by the Press. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C. accessed October 22, 2026.
  14. Typography (CERN 2019 WorldWideWeb Rebuild). CERN. 2019. accessed October 22, 2026.
  15. CERN celebrates 20 years of a free, open web (press release). CERN. 2013-04-30. accessed October 22, 2026.
  16. NeXT server (Computer Centre visit point display). CERN IT Department. accessed October 22, 2026.
  17. A short history of the Web. CERN. accessed October 22, 2026.
  18. People involved in the WorldWideWeb project (November 1992 snapshot of the first website). W3C. 1992. accessed October 22, 2026.
  19. Re: Qualifiers on Hypertext links… (alt.hypertext post, archived). Tim Berners-Lee, via W3C. 1991-08-06. accessed October 22, 2026.
  20. SLAC and the WWW. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Archives, History and Records Office. accessed October 22, 2026.
  21. Apple Computer, Inc. Agrees to Acquire NeXT Software Inc. (press release, Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K). Apple Computer, via SEC EDGAR. 1996-12-20. accessed October 22, 2026.
  22. Apple Computer Inc. Form 8-K (NeXT acquisition agreement). US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). 1996-12-24. accessed October 22, 2026.
  23. Apple finalizes NeXT acquisition (Apple press release). MacTech. 1997-02-07. accessed October 22, 2026.
  24. Images of TBL's NeXT being serviced in 2009. CERN, Restoring the first website project (archived). 2013. accessed October 22, 2026.
  25. Happy 25th birthday World Wide Web (Tilly Blyth). Science Museum Blog. 2014-03-12. accessed October 22, 2026.
  26. CERN 2019 WorldWideWeb Rebuild. CERN. 2019-02. accessed October 22, 2026.

Web Building Encyclopedia. First published October 22, 2026. Last reviewed October 22, 2026. Every fact on this page is linked to a source we opened. Spotted an error? Write to [email protected].