For Immediate Release                                    March 12, 1996

NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP USERS GROUPS INTERNATIONAL RELEASES REPORT ON
NUGICONN '95 THEN DISSOLVES

For more information contact:
     Rohit Khare
     nugi Publicist
     617/491-5030
     khare@w3.org
     http://xent.w3.org/nugi/

PASADENA, CA -  In a move that many consider long overdue, but was
greeted with sadness nonetheless, NeXTSTEP/OpenStep Users Groups
International (nugi) 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, Inc. (formerly NeXT Computer, Inc.)
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, nugi President.   "nugi 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 nugi was designed for."

Fortunately, several of the services nugi 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 listings of user groups.   And of course, many former NUGs have
successfuly managed the transition to OpenStep User Groups and will
continue to network and grow on their own.  Plus, the various members
of nugi 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, nugi has released its Official Report on last
August's NUGICONN '95, the nugi Connection at Object World San
Francisco.   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 through
http://xent.w3.org/nugi/.

When asked whether there would ever be an "OpenStep Users
International" to succeed nugi, 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 [else] will find that niche and create a
network to develop a new community."

There is also a version of the nugi DIRGE available at

         http://xent.w3.org/~khare/NugiDirge.htmld/

-----
NEXTSTEP, OpenStep, and WebObjects are registered trademarks of NeXT
Software, Inc.   NeXTSTEP and NeXTstep used to be registered
trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc.   nugi isn't the registered
trademark of anybody.  Long live lower case 'e'!