The NeXT Copland is a color scheme for the Kaleidoscope control panel. Kaleidescope is a shareware program which overhauls the Mac's interface in a modular fashion. It can be obtained from:
<http://greg.math.harvard.edu/kaleidoscope/>
On December 20, 1996 Apple issued a press release that it will aquire NeXT Software. This merger will bring back Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and the NeXT talent, such as Avadis Tevanian (vice president of engineering at NeXT and one of the prinipals of the Mach microkernel development project at CMU), to architect Apple's future. After being ousted by Scully eleven years ago, Jobs returns as a part-time Apple employee! NeXTSTEP will be the foundation for Apple's forthcoming OS, with Apple technologies grafted onto it as needed.
You can read all about the merger at <http://www.next.com/Merger/Welcome.html>
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Since the company's inception ten years ago, I have read about all things NeXT extensively (despite being an avid Mac user), and I spent a good part of MacWorld Expo Boston '92 playing with the NeXTStation Monos that various hardware vendors had set up. In that short time I fell in love with the interface (I had already fallen in love with the design), and have waited patiently for the rest of the computing world to catch up. It hasn't. Although there is no way (yet) to fully experience the NeXT interface on a Mac, by working from screen shots I have painstakingly implemented as much of the interface I could as a Kaleidoscope color scheme. Although there are some fundamental differences between my implementation and NeXTSTEP, The NeXT Copland represents the closest approximation yet to the NeXT experience (and perhaps Apple's future).
Installing The NeXT Copland
With Kaleidoscope installed, place the "The NeXT Copland" file in the "Kaleidoscope Color Schemes" folder, which is within the "Extensions" folder. You can then select The NeXT Copland as your scheme from within Kaleidoscope, and changes will take effect immediately. To enjoy all the features of The NeXT Copland, you should also restart (which activates things such as a NeXT-style trash icon). To be even more authentic, change the default system font to Helvetica 12 and the default window color to the following:
HSL/HSB: 0% / 0% / 77%
which is equivalent to
Red: 77% Green: 77% Blue: 77%
Registration
There is no registration, but I did spend dozens of hours pixel-tweaking, testing, and adjusting the interface elements until they were just right, so all I ask is that if you feel compelled, send me a $1 and you'll make my day! Just mail it to:
Nathan Raymond
68 Bellevue St.
Lawrence, MA 01841
If, however, you are a college student in debt like I am (or the equivalent), all I ask is that you visit my home page ╤ I'm sure you'll enjoy Everything Mac Page while you're there!
<http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~xray/mac.html>
(It will soon be moving to an all-new expanded site, be sure to check it out when it launches!)
