What's amazing to me is that both Doom and the first web server were created on NeXT workstations. It's also interesting to see that while everyone a few years ago was rushing to learn Objective-C that Carmack was coding with it in 1992. Looking back on it maybe Steve Job's "lost years" were in fact his most productive (especially given that Pixar made Toy Story during this era).
Indeed. Oversimplifying a bit, modern Apple is largely NeXT stuff running on more affordable hardware. NeXT was very forward thinking, so this is far from a criticism to Apple.
This is a pattern I've spotted quite often, interesting ideas brilliant people have but that can only be executed many years later, when technology catches up.
