grio@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu (Daniel L. Grillo) (02/06/90)
*********************************************************
IBM TO OFFER NEXTSTEP ON AIX WORKSTATIONS
NEW YORK, February 5, 1990 . . . IBM and NeXT, Inc. today
announced that IBM plans to offer NextStep on AIX. IBM's NextStep
offering will provide AIX users with a major new application environment
for enhanced business and professional productivity.
NextStep is an application software development and user interface
environment, created by NeXT and licensed to IBM in1988. IBM will
support the same applications programming interfaces (APIs) as
NextStep, providing compatibility and consistency so that developers
can offer applications on both machines, resulting in a larger market for
their efforts.
NextStep will join OSF/Motif as graphical user interface offerings
planned for the IBM PS/2 and RISC computers running AIX, IBM's open-
standard UNIX operating system based on AT&T System V and BSD 4.3.
Specific product offerings and availability will be made at a future date.
"The innovative NextStep application environment will offer
outstanding ease-of-use and development productivity," said Nick
Donofrio, president of IBM's Advanced Workstation Division. "We're
especially excited about the benefits of the NextStep Interface Builder
and Application Kit, which bring significant value to our customers."
The UNIX operating system offers sophisticated features such as
powerful networking and multitasking, but it may been considered, by
some users, to be too complicated for those who are not UNIX experts.
NextStep, which hides the complexity of the UNIX operating system
under an object-oriented environment, will allow users to take advantage
of the benefits of UNIX.
"We believe IBM's support of NextStep will have profound
implications over time," said Steven P. Jobs. "UNIX is destined to be a
crucial operating system this decade. NextStep tames UNIX so business
users can tap its power. NextStep offerings from both IBM and NeXT will
be a dynamic combination."
*********************************************************************
--
Dan Grillo grio@cs.psu.edu
Penn State NeXT Campus Consultant dgrillo@NeXT.com
(814) 862-5390