The NeXT Computer was a workstation computer system that was developed by NeXT, an American technology firm located in Redwood City, California. NeXT was founded by Steve Jobs, and was operational from 1985 until 1996: when Apple purchased the company for over $400 million dollars. The NeXT 'brand' was discontinued, and it's workstation computer system was ported into Apple's Mac OS X Server and PowerPC architecture.
The NeXT Computer was sold in 1988, and the official name of the computer was simple the 'NeXT Computer'; although it was also referred to as the "the cube". The operating system developed for the NeXT computer was named NeXTSTEP, and it was a Unix based multitasking operating system that was later modified to become Apple's iOS and OS X. The second generation NeXT computer system was released in 1990, and the computer was named the NeXTcube.
The original NeXT Computer was shipped with software that included object oriented development tools and libraries. Tim Berners-Lee used this computer sysem, and it's development tools, to write the first web server software: named CERN httpd. Tim Berners-Lee's NeXT Computer became the first ever web server in 1991. Alongside using his NeXT Computer to write web server software: Berners-Lee also used the computer to develop the first web browser: named WorldWideWeb.
Tim Berners-Lee's NeXT Computer is now a museum piece, and it is noted for the sticker on the front of the workstation that states "This machine is a server, do not power down".