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Nicole Overson
NeXT Software, Inc.
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NeXT PUBLISHES OPENSTEP SPECIFICATION

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - June 30, 1994 - NeXT Computer, Inc. today announced that the preliminary version of the OpenStep specification is now available to the public via anonymous FTP from NeXT's archive server ftp://ftp.next.com/. The on-schedule publication of this open specification on June 30 represents a major milestone in the OpenStep initiative, jointly announced by NeXT and SunSoft, Inc. in November of 1993, to create an open object standard based on NeXT's industry-acclaimed NEXTSTEP object-oriented software. The final version of the OpenStep specification will be published by September 30, 1994.

OpenStep is an industry-endorsed specification for an operating system independent object standard, based on NeXT's advanced object technology. Applications written on OpenStep are portable across all OpenStep implementations, regardless of the underlying operating system. NeXT, Sun Microsystems, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company and Digital Equipment Corporation will all ship OpenStep-compliant products in 1995.

"NEXT, Sun, Hewlett-Packard and Digital are all driving OpenStep to become the volume object standard for the industry, and publishing an open specification is a major milestone down this path," said Steven P. Jobs, chairman and CEO of NeXT.

"SunSoft is delighted with the progress of the OpenStep specification and the industry support we've seen in the months since SunSoft and NeXT announced OpenStep," said Steve MacKay, vice president of software technology development at SunSoft. "Our customers are eager to see first-hand the benefits of OpenStep applications combined with the power of Solaris, and we are continuing to work with NeXT to make this a reality."

NeXT Computer, Inc.
NeXT develops and markets the award-winning NEXTSTEP object-oriented software for industry-standard computer architectures. Customers use NEXTSTEP's advanced object environment to rapidly develop and deploy custom, enterprise-wide, client/server applications. NeXT is headquartered in Redwood City, California, and has offices in North America, London, Paris, Munich and Tokyo.

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NeXT, the NeXT logo, OpenStep and NEXTSTEP are registered trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners.

Last modified 97-01-10. Copyright 1997 NeXT Software, Inc. Proprietary Notices.