> NeXT was the company that Steve Jobs founded in 1985 after he was fired by Apple. The company designed computer workstations and lasted through 1997, when Jobs was rehired at Apple.<p>This description is misleading. NeXT didn't go out of business. Apple acquired the company and its developers, put their executives in charge of software development, and turned NeXTSTEP into Mac OS X (and later iOS). Apple today is NeXT as much as its Apple.