1993-05-25 From 1993: What's Next? Steve Jobs's Vision, So on Target at Apple, Now Is Falling Short
This article was originally published in The Wall Street Journal on May 25,1993 and was republished on Oct. 6, 2011. In the years after this article first ran, Next was acquired by Apple and Steve Jobs made his return to the company, quickly taking over as CEO and launching the string of product hits that turned it into one of the most valuable companies in the world.
本文最初于 1993 年 5 月 25 日发表在《华尔街日报》上，并于 2011 年 10 月 6 日重新发布。在这篇文章首次发表后的几年里，Next 被苹果公司收购，史蒂夫·乔布斯重返公司，迅速担任首席执行官，并推出了一系列成功的产品，使其成为世界上最有价值的公司之一。
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—Steven P. Jobs has been having a tough time. In February, his computer company, Next Inc., stopped making computers. In March, his president and his chief financial officer quit. Then, several big computer makers -- some of which he had hoped would use his software -- formed a software alliance that excluded Next.
红木城，加利福尼亚州——史蒂夫·乔布斯最近过得很艰难。二月份，他的电脑公司 Next Inc.停止了电脑生产。三月份，他的总裁和首席财务官辞职了。随后，几家大型电脑制造商——他曾希望这些公司能使用他的软件——组成了一个排除 Next 的软件下载联盟。
How is Mr. Jobs taking all this? The loss of hardware "brightened Next's future," and the pared-down company needed fewer managers anyway, he says. And, he wrote to employees after the Next-less alliance was reported, "In reality, today's announcements are a serious victory for Next. . . ."
乔布斯先生对此怎么看？他表示，硬件的损失“使 Next 的未来更加光明”，而精简后的公司本来就需要更少的管理人员。他在 Next 缺席的联盟被报道后写信给员工：“实际上，今天的公告对 Next 来说是一个重大胜利……”
All this is vintage Steve Jobs. The 38-year-old co-founder of Apple Computer Inc. is a spellbinding spinner of visions, the most famous being his once-unconventional ideas that foresaw the personal-computer revolution. For years, his biggest strength was his ability to mesmerize even savvy people with sales pitches for new, but sometimes flawed, products.
这一切都是经典的史蒂夫·乔布斯。这位 38 岁的苹果电脑公司联合创始人是一个令人着迷的愿景讲述者，他最著名的就是那些曾经不寻常的想法，这些想法预见了个人电脑革命。多年来，他最大的优势是能够用销售推介吸引甚至是精明的人们，尽管这些新产品有时存在缺陷。
Since Apple ousted him in 1985, however, his vision of creating another major computer company has begun to look like a pipe dream. His closely held Next, which he once predicted would "kill" now-huge Sun Microsystems Inc., has never turned a net profit and has nearly exhausted $125 million in cash from backers such as Ross Perot and Canon Inc. of Japan.
自从苹果在 1985 年将他赶走以来，他创建另一家大型计算机公司的愿景似乎已变得不切实际。他所创办的 Next 公司曾被他预测会“击败”如今庞大的太阳微系统公司，但从未实现过净利润，并且几乎耗尽了来自罗斯·佩罗和日本佳能等支持者的 1.25 亿美元现金。
Today, Mr. Jobs is unveiling a software program for Intel Corp.'s line of microprocessors, a program that he portrays as crucial to Next's future. The program, called NextStep, has won acclaim from software critics because it makes customizing programs quick and easy, but until today the software ran only on Next's own ill-fated computers, which weren't compatible with Intel's industry-standard chips.
今天，乔布斯先生正在发布一款针对英特尔公司微处理器系列的软件程序，他将其视为 Next 未来的关键。这款名为 NextStep 的程序因其使程序定制变得快速而简单而受到软件评论家的赞誉，但直到今天，该软件仅能在 Next 自己不幸的计算机上运行，而这些计算机与英特尔的行业标准芯片不兼容。
Mr. Jobs envisions his Next-Step-for-Intel product as an industry rallying point. He says that out of frustration with Microsoft Corp., which dominates the so-called system-software business that he is entering, heavyweights such as Hewlett-Packard Co., Sun Microsystems and Novell Inc. will meld NextStep into their own software strategies, making it a de facto standard. But so far industry reaction has been cool, with just a handful of PC makers, such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell Computer Corp., agreeing to offer NextStep simply as an option to customers.
乔布斯先生将他的 NextStep for Intel 产品视为行业的集结点。他表示，由于对微软公司的不满（微软在他所进入的所谓系统软件业务中占据主导地位），惠普公司、太阳微系统公司和Novell等重量级企业将把 NextStep 融入他们自己的软件战略中，使其成为事实上的标准。但到目前为止，行业反应冷淡，只有少数个人电脑制造商，如惠普和戴尔计算机公司，同意将 NextStep 作为客户的一个选项提供。
This gives Mr. Jobs a shot at surviving as a niche player but not a chance to return to stardom. The reason: While he couldn't make up his mind about putting NextStep on standard hardware, his chief rivals—Microsoft, Novell and a partnership between Apple and International Business Machines Corp.—began scrambling to match NextStep's features. Failing to jump on Intel's bandwagon faster "has cost him valuable time," says John Warnock, chairman of Adobe Systems Inc. and a longtime friend.
这给乔布斯带来了作为一个小众玩家生存的机会，但并没有让他重返明星的可能。原因在于：在他决定将 NextStep 应用于标准硬件的同时，他的主要竞争对手——微软、Novell 以及苹果与国际商业机器公司的合作伙伴关系——却开始加紧追赶 NextStep 的特性。未能更快地搭上英特尔的快车“让他失去了宝贵的时间，”Adobe Systems Inc. 的董事长约翰·沃诺克和乔布斯的老朋友说道。
All this amounts to a steep fall from a very lofty perch. Mr. Jobs led and inspired the team that created the most acclaimed personal computer, Apple's Macintosh, but his Next workstation seems destined to become a high-tech museum relic. He himself is fighting to show he still matters in the computer industry.
所有这些都意味着从一个非常高的高度急剧下降。乔布斯先生领导并激励了创造出最受赞誉的个人电脑——苹果的麦金塔的团队，但他的 NeXT 工作站似乎注定要成为一个高科技博物馆的遗物。他本人正在努力证明自己在计算机行业仍然重要。
"People have stopped paying attention to him," says Richard Shaffer, editor of Computer Letter. "It's sad."
“人们已经不再关注他了，”Computer Letter的编辑理查德·谢弗说。“这很悲哀。”
Indeed, the decline of Mr. Jobs illustrates the way, in corporate affairs, a powerful personality can generate either a bonanza or a disaster, depending on the milieu. His legendary traits -- his imperiousness, his demand for complete control, his faith in his own genius -- served him well at Apple, where he had to overcome much skepticism, but badly at Next.
确实，乔布斯的衰退说明，在公司事务中，一个强大的个性如何在环境的不同影响下，能带来繁荣也能导致灾难。他的传奇特质——霸道、对完全控制的需求以及对自己天才的信念——在苹果期间让他克服了很多怀疑，但在 NeXT 却反而害了他。
His insistence on complete control over a project with IBM, for example, doomed a 1989 agreement that would have lent Big Blue's backing to Next's software. And he lost valuable time last year when he ignored advisers' repeated warnings that Next couldn't compete in hardware and should become a software company. He insisted that new machines would save Next, says Vincent Jordan, director of software development at WilTel Corp. and a member of a Next advisory board.
例如，他对与IBM的项目完全控制的坚持，使得1989年的一项协议注定要失败，该协议本可以让IBM对NeXT的软件提供支持。去年，当他忽视顾问们一再警告NeXT在硬件上无法竞争并应转向软件公司时，他也浪费了宝贵的时间。乔布斯坚称新机器将拯救 NeXT，WilTel Corp. 的软件开发总监文森特·乔丹和 NeXT 的顾问委员会成员说道。
"`The boy just isn't getting it,'" Mr. Jordan recalls thinking. "It was like, `Dude, stay in touch.'"
“‘这孩子就是不明白，’”乔丹回忆道。“就像是，‘伙计，保持联系。’”
In the good old days at Apple, no one had to suggest that Mr. Jobs stay in touch. With no formal training in computing, he divined the shape of things to come. His product planning amounted to making what he liked. Although this led to big flops such as the Lisa and Apple III, computers that didn't sell and drained resources, it also resulted in the Apple II, the first wildly popular PC, and later the elegant and easy-to-use Macintosh.
在苹果的辉煌时代，没有人需要暗示乔布斯保持联系。尽管没有正式的计算机培训，他却预见了未来的形态。他的产品规划就是制作他喜欢的东西。虽然这导致了像 Lisa 和 Apple III 这样的重大失败，这些计算机没有销售并消耗了资源，但也促成了 Apple II 的诞生，这是第一款广受欢迎的个人电脑，后来又推出了优雅且易于使用的 Macintosh。
His personality quirks were tolerated. Insisting on "insanely great" work, he bullied subordinates who didn't meet his standards and publicly scoffed at defectors. "If we wanted to, we could crush you like a bug," he once warned an Apple employee who quit to start his own firm.
他的个性缺陷被宽容对待。他要求“疯狂出色”的工作，公开嘲笑那些未能达到他标准的下属，并威胁那些辞职的人。“如果我们想的话，可以像碾压虫子一样碾压你，”他曾警告一位辞职去创办自己公司的苹果员工。
He often treated business partners with disdain, too. In the early 1980s, for example, he upbraided Microsoft Chief Executive William Gates III for writing nonApple software. He would order Mr. Gates to fly to Apple headquarters at a moment's notice, Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews write in their book "Gates." The two journalists add: "At the time, Gates had little choice but to oblige. Jobs was the industry's top dog."
他还常常以轻蔑的态度对待商业伙伴。上世纪80年代初，他曾训斥微软首席执行官比尔·盖茨，因其编写非苹果软件而受到指责。他会在任何时候要求盖茨飞往苹果总部，史蒂芬·梅尼斯和保罗·安德鲁斯在其书《盖茨》中写道。两位记者补充道：“当时，盖茨别无选择，只能屈从。乔布斯是行业中的顶尖人物。”
But after a sales slump in 1985, Mr. Jobs was ousted as chairman by Apple's board amid complaints that he was arrogant, hotheaded and unwilling to heed criticism. Mr. Jobs had "a vision so pure that he couldn't accommodate . . . the world," John Sculley, who bested Mr. Jobs in the boardroom battle for Apple's reins, wrote later. After leaving Apple, Mr. Jobs founded Next, bringing with him several loyalists who were bent on creating a path-breaking computer.
但在1985年销售下滑后，乔布斯因傲慢、易怒和不愿听取批评而被苹果董事会驱逐，担任董事长的职位。约翰·斯卡利（与乔布斯在董事会争夺苹果领导权时获胜）后来写道，乔布斯“拥有如此纯粹的愿景，以至于他无法适应……现实。”离开苹果后，乔布斯创办了 NeXT，带着几位忠实追随者，他们决心创造一款开创性的计算机。
"Steve Jobs told us: `I'm going to build the world's best machines for academic computing,'" recalls Raymond Neff, vice president for information services at Case Western Reserve University.
史蒂夫·乔布斯告诉我们：“我将为学术计算构建世界上最好的机器，”凯斯西储大学信息服务副总裁雷蒙德·内夫回忆道。
But this time, Mr. Jobs's vision proved flawed. The Macintosh had sold well despite its defects -- it was slow and expensive -- because it was so easy to use. Mr. Jobs sought to take that tack further at Next, combining easy-to-use software with newfangled gadgets such as an opticaldisk drive. But unlike the Macintosh, which had flourished in a largely untapped market, the expensive, slow Next machine had to take on big, entrenched rivals when it was introduced in 1988.
但这一次，乔布斯的愿景被证明是有缺陷的。尽管麦金塔存在缺陷——它慢且昂贵——但由于使用起来非常简单，麦金塔的销量依然很好。乔布斯希望在 NeXT 进一步发展这一思路，将易于使用的软件与新奇的小工具（如光盘驱动器）结合起来。但与在一个基本未开发市场中蓬勃发展的麦金塔不同，昂贵且缓慢的 NeXT 机器在 1988 年推出时必须面对强大的、根深蒂固的竞争对手。
"Steve's trouble was that he tried to do another Apple," says Jean-Louis Gassee, a former Apple executive. "He is like a person who goes from marriage to marriage trying to get the same relationship."
“史蒂夫的问题在于他试图再做一个苹果，”前苹果高管让-路易·加塞说。“他就像一个从婚姻到婚姻的人，试图获得相同的关系。”
Mr. Jobs tenaciously stuck to his visions even though his allies advocated changes. One befuddling example was his insistence that Next's computers have only the optical-disk drive instead of industry-standard floppy-disk drives. Mr. Jobs said the optical drive would let users carry all their files and software around on one disk -- a vision he called "The World in Your Pocket." His argument, says a former colleague, was that "we've figured it out and everyone else will catch up."
尽管如此，乔布斯坚决坚持自己的愿景，尽管他的盟友提倡改变。一个令人困惑的例子是他坚持 NeXT 计算机仅配备光盘驱动器，而不是行业标准的软盘驱动器。乔布斯表示，光盘驱动器将让用户将所有文件和软件存储在一个磁盘上——这是他称之为“口袋里的世界”的愿景。根据一位前同事的说法，他的论点是：“我们已经搞定了，其他人会赶上来。”
Optical-disk drives are indeed expected to become standard in the future, but Mr. Jobs was too far ahead of the crowd. Software makers refused to put programs on optical disks, and Next's distributors, customers and engineers clamored for a floppy drive. In late 1989, frustration with Mr. Jobs's intransigence boiled over at a staff meeting, where an employee asked him when Next would install floppy drives; Mr. Jobs insisted a floppy wasn't necessary. Another employee persisted, and soon the meeting erupted in a chant: "We need a f____ floppy. We need a f____ floppy." Still, Mr. Jobs refused, though he relented soon afterward, agreeing to design a floppy into a future model.
光盘驱动器确实有望成为未来的标准，但乔布斯走得太早。软件制造商拒绝将程序放在光盘上，而 NeXT 的分销商、客户和工程师则强烈要求使用软盘驱动器。1989年末，员工在一次会议上向乔布斯询问何时安装软盘驱动器的沮丧情绪爆发，乔布斯坚称软盘没有必要。另一名员工坚持不懈，会议很快变成了一场口号：“我们需要一个 f____软盘。我们需要一个 f____软盘。”尽管如此，乔布斯仍然拒绝，但不久后他妥协，同意在未来的型号中设计一个软盘驱动器。
Despite a weak start, Mr. Jobs inked a stunning deal with IBM in 1989 that could have turned NextStep into a big player. IBM, then heavily dependent on Microsoft for operating software, agreed to adapt NextStep for its own PCs and workstations. Big Blue's backing appeared to ensure Mr. Jobs's rebound in the computer industry; if IBM used NextStep, its rivals would soon want it, and NextStep's spread would help Next's computer sales.
尽管开局不利，乔布斯先生在 1989 年与 IBM 达成了一项惊人的协议，这可能使 NextStep 成为一个重要参与者。当时，IBM 在操作软件上严重依赖微软，IBM 同意为其自己的个人电脑和工作站改编 NextStep。IBM 的支持似乎确保了乔布斯在计算机行业的复苏；如果 IBM 使用 NextStep，其竞争对手很快也会想要它，而 NextStep 的普及将有助于 Next 的计算机销售。
But at the crucial moment, Mr. Jobs doomed the deal by insisting on complete control over NextStep's future uses and development, says Dan'l Lewin, a Next co-founder and Mr. Jobs's second-in-command at the time. "Steve got afraid that IBM was going to take away some of Next's hardware business" by packaging NextStep with IBM machines, Mr. Lewin says. "So he kept total control over the development of NextStep, and that eliminated the chance that IBM would back it because IBM will not ship a product that they cannot at least shape the future of."
但在关键时刻，乔布斯先生通过坚持对 NextStep 未来用途和开发的完全控制，毁掉了这笔交易，Next 的联合创始人和当时乔布斯的副手丹·刘易恩说。“史蒂夫担心 IBM 会通过将 NextStep 与 IBM 机器捆绑在一起，夺走 Next 的一部分硬件业务，”刘易恩说。“所以他对 NextStep 的开发保持了完全控制，这消除了 IBM 支持它的可能性，因为 IBM 不会推出他们无法塑造未来的产品。”
Mr. Jobs says the IBM deal foundered because IBM insisted on getting the rights to any future Next software and wanted Next's software to run on top of IBM's own operating system. But Lee Reiswig, chief of IBM's PC-software business, says IBM might have used NextStep as its future operating system if Mr. Jobs had agreed to quickly adapt it to Intel microprocessors and not been so afraid of IBM hurting his hardware business.
乔布斯表示，IBM交易的破裂是因为IBM坚持要获得对未来 Next 软件的使用权，并希望 Next 的软件能在IBM自己的操作系统之上运行。但IBM PC软件业务的负责人李·瑞斯维格表示，如果乔布斯同意迅速将其适应英特尔微处理器，并不太害怕IBM损害他的硬件业务，IBM可能会将NextStep作为其未来的操作系统使用。
"We just couldn't get him across the hurdle, so we began to look at alternatives," Mr. Reiswig says. Eventually, IBM formed a joint venture with Apple, called Taligent, to build an operating system that more than duplicated NextStep.
“我们就是无法让他跨越这个障碍，所以我们开始寻找替代方案，”Reiswig 先生说。最终，IBM 与苹果公司成立了一个名为 Taligent 的合资企业，旨在开发一个不仅仅是复制 NextStep 的操作系统。
Next went into a long, slow slide. Mr. Jobs's concentration on higher-education markets gave way to an interest in selling to corporations. But in that rough-and-tumble market, rivals such as HewlettPackard and Sun turned out faster models more quickly and at lower prices, and Next's sales failed to grow much. Mr. Jobs compounded his problems by doggedly sticking to a Motorola Inc. microprocessor that his rivals were abandoning in favor of faster chips.
接下来进入了一个漫长而缓慢的滑坡。乔布斯先生对高等教育市场的关注转向了对企业销售的兴趣。但在那个竞争激烈的市场中，惠普和太阳微系统等竞争对手更快地推出了更快的型号，并且价格更低，Next 的销售额几乎没有增长。乔布斯先生通过顽固地坚持使用摩托罗拉公司的微处理器，加剧了自己的问题，而他的竞争对手则放弃了这种处理器，转而使用更快的芯片。
At the same time, Mr. Jobs dragged his feet on a product that many considered Next's most important: a version of NextStep that runs on PCs using Intel's 486 microprocessor. He said in January 1992 that the Intel version would be out by fall of 1992, but the project hit serious delays.
与此同时，乔布斯对一个许多人认为是 NeXT 最重要的产品拖延不前：一个可以在使用英特尔 486 微处理器的个人电脑上运行的 NextStep 版本。他在 1992 年 1 月表示，英特尔版本将在 1992 年秋季发布，但该项目遭遇了严重的延误。
Next's customers urged Mr. Jobs to stop pouring resources into hardware development and concentrate on developing software, especially the Intel version. His reaction was so cool that, a day before a group of advisers was to meet with him in June 1992, they agreed to confront him with a unanimous message: Next couldn't compete in software while hardware investments in new models were draining its resources.
Next的客户敦促乔布斯停止将资源投入硬件开发，而专注于开发软件，尤其是英特尔版本。他的反应冷淡，在1992年6月，顾问小组在与他会面前一天达成一致意见：Next无法在硬件投资耗尽资源的情况下与软件竞争。
Mr. Jobs, enamored with his machines, ignored the advice.
乔布斯先生迷恋于他的机器，忽视了建议。
Meanwhile, Mr. Jobs's chief lieutenants began jumping ship; by last fall, every significant co-founder had left. Those that remained, while attracted by Mr. Jobs's virtues, were increasingly subjected to his legendary temper. "Everybody just lived in fear of him," says Max Henry, a Next vice president who left to start a software company. "He would spend a lot more time beating up people than thanking them for doing it right."
与此同时，乔布斯的主要助手们开始纷纷离开；到去年秋天，所有重要的联合创始人都已离去。那些留下来的人虽然被乔布斯的优点所吸引，但越来越多地受到他传奇脾气的影响。“每个人都生活在对他的恐惧中，”前 Next 副总裁马克斯·亨利说，他离开后创办了一家软件公司。“他花更多时间在责备人们上，而不是感谢他们做得对。”
By late last year, Peter van Cuylenberg, then Next's chief operating officer, was telling Mr. Jobs that Next would run out of money in 1993 if it didn't make drastic changes. Mr. Jobs finally endorsed a software-only plan in February, when Next closed its computer factory and said it would lay off more than half its 536 employees. "It made me sad, but we had no choice," Mr.Jobs says.
到去年底，彼得·范·库伦贝格，当时的 Next 首席运营官，告诉乔布斯先生，如果 Next 不进行重大改变，1993 年将会耗尽资金。乔布斯先生最终在二月份支持了一项仅软件的计划，当时 Next 关闭了其计算机工厂，并表示将裁员超过 536 名员工的一半。“这让我感到难过，但我们别无选择，”乔布斯先生说。
Sadder still are those who bought his visions. Many who joined Next expected to cash in stock options when it went public, as Mr. Jobs promised it would (but hasn't). Avadis Tevanian, a Next software designer, chose to work for Mr. Jobs in 1988, rejecting a job offer from Mr. Gates, who wooed him with Microsoft stock options that would now be valued at millions of dollars. "I'd be lying to you if I told you I had no regrets at all," says Mr. Tevanian, who adds that Next still offers him a wonderful creative challenge. "I can compute right down to the dollar what my net worth would be if I'd joined Microsoft."
更令人伤心的是那些相信他愿景的人。许多加入 Next 的人期待在公司上市时兑现股票期权，正如乔布斯先生所承诺的那样（但实际上并没有）。Avadis Tevanian，一位 Next 的软件设计师，选择在 1988 年为乔布斯先生工作，拒绝了比尔·盖茨的工作邀请，盖茨用微软的股票期权来吸引他，而这些股票期权现在的价值将达到数百万美元。“如果我告诉你我完全没有遗憾，那我就是在撒谎，”Tevanian 先生说，他补充道 Next 仍然给他带来了美妙的创造性挑战。“我可以精确计算出如果我加入微软，我的净资产将是多少。”
Investors such as Mr. Perot and Canon have also taken a hit. In 1989, Canon invested $100 million in Next for a 17% stake, plus another $15 million last year while extending a line of credit convertible into stock. In 1987, Next received $20 million from Mr. Perot, the Texas billionaire. A Canon spokesman says the Japanese company is studying ways to recoup value from its investment. A spokesman for Mr. Perot declines to comment.
佩罗特和佳能等投资者也遭受了损失。1989年，佳能为Next投资了1亿美元，获得17%的股份，去年又追加了1500万美元的投资，并延长了一条可转为股票的信用额度。1987年，Next从德克萨斯亿万富翁佩罗特那里获得了2000万美元。佳能的发言人表示，该日本公司正在研究如何收回其投资的价值。佩罗特的发言人拒绝置评。
Mr. Jobs's new start as a software company probably has come too late. When NextStep was released four years ago, it used a path-breaking approach called object-oriented programming, in which programmers can plug together modular pieces of software to create programs more quickly. Today, object programming has been widely embraced, putting Mr. Jobs's competitive position at risk. Microsoft, for instance, suggests its code writers already have surpassed NextStep. "We're doing a lot more than NextStep, and we'll have it finished a lot sooner than he thinks," says Jim Allchin, who leads Microsoft's development effort.
乔布斯先生作为软件公司的新起步可能来得太晚了。四年前，当 NextStep 发布时，它采用了一种开创性的方法，称为面向对象编程，程序员可以将模块化的软件片段组合在一起，更快地创建程序。如今，面向对象编程已被广泛接受，这使得乔布斯先生的竞争地位面临风险。例如，微软表示其代码编写者已经超越了 NextStep。“我们做的事情远远超过 NextStep，而且我们会比他想的更快完成，”负责微软开发工作的吉姆·奥尔钦说。
Indeed, Michael Slade, who left Microsoft two years ago to become Mr. Jobs's chief lieutenant, says he left Next in November rather than butt heads with the Goliaths. "I wanted to get out of businesses where you're directly competing with Microsoft," Mr. Slade says.
确实，迈克尔·斯莱德（Michael Slade）在两年前离开微软，成为乔布斯（Mr. Jobs）的首席助手，他表示自己在 11 月离开了 Next，而不是与巨头们正面冲突。“我想退出与微软直接竞争的业务，”斯莱德说。
In April, Mr. Jobs was also dealt a significant defeat when IBM, HewlettPackard, Sun, Novell and several other software concerns formed their alliance to standardize important aspects of workstation software -- and left out Next. In a March 17 memo to employees, Mr. Jobs found a silver lining in the snub, telling colleagues that the allies had not chosen anything instead of NextStep either. Moreover, he wrote his staff that "HP and Novell really like NextStep. . . ." While this is true, neither company plans to put NextStep at the center of its software strategy, say knowledgeable people.
4月，乔布斯还遭遇了一次重大失败，当IBM、惠普、Sun、Novell及其他几家软件公司组建了一个联盟，旨在标准化工作站软件的重要方面，并将NeXT排除在外。在3月17日给员工的备忘录中，乔布斯在被冷落中发现了一个光明的前景，告诉同事们，盟友们没有选择NextStep作为任何东西。此外，他写道：“惠普和Novell真的很喜欢NextStep……。”虽然这是真的，但这两家公司都不打算将NextStep置于其软件战略的中心，业内人士说。
Even Mr. Jobs's supporters are pessimistic. Lawrence Ellison, chairman of Oracle Corp. and a close friend, says that for Mr.Jobs to "return to the major leagues," he must persuade a leading player such as Novell to take a sizable equity stake in Next and agree to co-develop and market future versions of NextStep. Simply having persuaded PC makers to sell NextStep as one of many software options won't propel Mr. Jobs back to computing's "mainstream," he says.
即使是乔布斯的支持者也感到悲观。甲骨文公司主席劳伦斯·埃里森（Lawrence Ellison）和乔布斯是密友，他表示，乔布斯要“重返主流”，必须说服像诺瓦尔（Novell）这样的主要参与者在 Next 中占有相当大的股权，并同意共同开发和营销未来版本的 NextStep。他说，仅仅说服 PC 制造商将 NextStep 作为众多软件选项之一进行销售，并不能使乔布斯回到计算机的“主流”。
Former close associates say he needs to just go on to something else, if he wants to rise to the top of PC world again. But George Crowe, a Next co-founder who left recently, feels the odds are Mr. Jobs, who insists he will ride out the storm at Next, won't jump ship. "He's really staked his reputation on Next, and I don't see how he can walk away," Mr. Crowe says.
前密切的同事表示，如果他想再次在个人电脑界崭露头角，就需要去做其他事情。但最近离开的 Next 联合创始人乔治·克罗（George Crowe）认为，乔布斯先生坚持要在 Next 度过难关，不会跳槽的可能性很大。“他真的把自己的声誉押在了 Next 上，我看不出他怎么能离开，”克罗先生说。
Mr. Jobs, undaunted, spins visions of battles that Next is poised to win. In the March 17 memo, he accused Sun of trying to thwart Next's efforts, contending, "We represent a real threat to their aspirations to become a major software player, and I think they would rather have us dead than alive." (Sun's chief executive, Scott McNealy, responds: "I don't think a company the size of Next survives, no matter how impressive its technology.")
乔布斯先生毫不畏惧，描绘了 Next 即将赢得的战斗愿景。在 3 月 17 日的备忘录中，他指责 Sun 试图阻碍 Next 的努力，声称：“我们对他们成为主要软件厂商的愿望构成了真正的威胁，我认为他们宁愿我们死去也不愿我们活着。”（Sun 的首席执行官斯科特·麦克尼利回应道：“我认为像 Next 这样规模的公司无论技术多么出色都无法生存。”）
Yet Mr. Jobs talks of NextStep as "the operating system of the '90s," partly because "everyone wants an alternative to Microsoft." And he continues to contend that Mr. Gates can't match his own record of innovation. "Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me," he says. "Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful . . . that's what matters to me."
然而，乔布斯先生将 NextStep 称为“90 年代的操作系统”，部分原因是“每个人都想要一个微软的替代品。”他继续坚持认为，比尔·盖茨无法与他自己的创新记录相提并论。“在墓地里成为最富有的人对我来说并不重要，”他说。“晚上上床时说我们做了一些美好的事情……这对我来说才是重要的。”
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