It was January of 1997. Apple had just announced the acquisition of NeXT. The Macarena was the world’s most popular dance song. I was growing increasingly restless in my job as a management consultant.

It all came together here…

(apologies for the outdated links, but I wanted to preserve the historical record)

MacareNeXT

The BayArea Boys Mix

The official dance song of the Apple – NeXT merger

Adapted from the Bayside Boys Mix of Macarena by Los Del Rio

Copyright 1997 Dr. Ernest N. Prabhakar (3-Jan-1997)
May be copied freely provided this notice is included.

I am not trying to seduce you

When I hack I say, “run Mac on NeXTSTEP!”
and the boys they say, “Is that a dance step?”
they all want Be
they can’t have Be
so they all have to learn Objective-C
it is like C
but it’s not C
and it’s so good you’ll never go back, see

Chorus:
In Cupertino they are putting Mac on NeXTSTEP
And Gil Amelio‘s hoping this is not his LaST step
Now Steve is coming home to try and take a new step
Hey, Mac on NeXTSTEP!

(repeat Chorus)

But don’t you worry about my silly old friend
That’s an OS who’s name is Apple’s Copland
I don’t want him
couldn’t stand him
He was no good so Ellen trashed him
Now come on, what was she supposed to do?
He was oh so late and NeXT Software is sooo fine

(Chorus 2x)

I am not trying to seduce you

(Chorus 2x)

Come this December we’ll all run Mac on NeXTSTEP
Avie Tevanian will make them work in lockstep
come join me,
hack with me
and watch Bill Gates turn green with envy

Last chorus:
Now Gil Amelio’s betting everything on NeXTSTEP
Don’t know if Steven Jobs can make it for a third set
But the alternative is Windows on your doorstep
So try, Mac on NeXTSTEP
Hey!

End notes:

This version was written in honor of Apple Computer‘s friendly acquisition of NeXT Software, Inc. on December 20, 1996. NeXTSTEP is NeXT’s highly regarded object-oriented system software and development environment, which uses the C-based language Objective-C and will form the basis of the next Macintosh. Apple’s CEO Gil Amelio is bringing back Steve Jobs (NeXT’s CEO and Apple co-founder, who was ousted from Apple over 10 years ago) as a special consultant to help architect Apple’s future. Ellen Hancock, Apple’s executive VP of R&D, picked NeXTSTEP over Be Inc.‘s BeOS to replace Apple’s failed Copland next-generation Operating System. NeXT VP of Engineering Avie Tevanian will be in charge of creating the new merged OS. Good luck, everybody!

Tagged: Fun and Games, Mac OS X, objective-c