I have just finished restoring a NeXTcube and was surprised how modern the environment feels: neworking, interface, unix tooling, .. To get to know the environment I compiled the original httpd server and managed to get it compiling after only tweaking the makefile a bit, very similar to what still is sometimes needed on Linux.

The usability of the NeXT computers also had a lasting impact on interactive music applications with the introduction of MAX at IRCAM:

https://0110.be/posts/Electronic_Music_and_the_NeXTcube_-_Ru...