NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP USERS GROUPS INTERNATIONAL RELEASES REPORT ON NUGICONN '95 THEN DISSOLVES
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PASADENA, CA In a move that many consider long overdue, but was greeted with sadness nonetheless, NeXTSTEP/OpenStep Users Groups International (nügi) announced that it was formally disbanding. The assets will be transferred to other elements of the NeXT community, but the structure and logo will be retired. This follows the announcement from NeXT Software (formerly NeXT Computer) that it was replacing the NEXTSTEP name with the more generic "OpenStep for Mach."
"Let's face it, everything NeXTSTEP represented is pretty much gone," laments Dr. Ernie Prabhakar, nügi President. "nügi was created for a community which no longer has an identity. The technology is still there, and OpenStep has a great future, but it is a different future than the one nügi was designed for."
Fortunately, several of the services nügi provided in its heyday have been taken over by others. The Omni Group has agreed to host the Educational and Publishing Special Interest Groups (nexted and nextpub, respectively). NeXT and Stepwise will continue to maintain their listing of user groups. And of course, many former NUGs have successfuly manage the transition to OpenStep User Groups and will continue to network and grow on their own. Plus, the various members of nügi will continue to be involved as private citizens, just not in any organized manner.
Chris Lozinski of BPG has offered his email newsletter as a lifeline of information to replace the now-defunct 'nugi-list'. You can subscribe by sending email to newsletter@bpg.com, specifying either NeXTMail or ASCII.
As a parting gesture, nügi has release its Official Report on NUGICONN '95, the nügi Connection at Object World San Francisco last August. The document provides a fascinating historical snapshot of the NeXTSTEP community just before it dissolved into the world of OpenStep and WebObjects. The report will be available at http://xent.w3.org/nugi/.
When asked whether there would ever be an "OpenStep Users International" to replace nügi, Dr. Ernie shrugged and said, "I don't know. OpenStep doesn't have the same emotional appeal that the NeXT cube did, as a complete user experience rather than a set of tools. I'd like to think that there is a place in the OpenStep world for more than just corporations, but I don't know what that place is. Hopefully someday someone will see that niche and create a network to develop a new community."
NEXTSTEP, OpenStep, and WebObjects are registered trademarks of NeXT Software, Inc. NeXTSTEP and NeXTstep used to be registered trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc. nügi isn't the registered trademark of anybody. Long life lower case 'e'!