Looking for What’s NeXT
// April 4th, 2008 // Emerging Trends
While searching for something completely unrelated, I ran across this screenshot of TIFFany, a photo editing application that runs on NeXTSTEP:
Click for larger image
Thoughts after the jump…
TIFFany looks like a stripped-down Photoshop clone. In these days of CS3, it’s nothing to blog about. Of course, this screenshot is from 1995, when Photoshop wasn’t quite what it is today. Over the years, Adobe has drawn inspiration from TIFFany and some of the functionality shown here wasn’t available in Photoshop 13 years ago. The UI seems scattered at first glance, but when you really take a good look it becomes quite functional.
But since we’re talking about inspiration, take a look at the right side of the screen. Years before OS X had Widgets and Vista had Gadgets, NeXT was building ‘em right into the launch bar. Date and time? Check. Memory usage? Check. With the right feeds, it looks like they could have throw the ubiquitous weather widget in there as well. It may not be as pretty, but the structure is there. So how much do companies like Apple, Microsoft, and even Adobe innovate? Or does innovation mean buying or “borrowing” concepts from the little guys? Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser, for example, began life as Spyglass Mosaic. Adobe Flash? That’s FutureSplash Animator. These are more obvious examples, but it’s often unclear who the true innovators really are.
