[NTLK] NewtonOS Preservation – Seeking Input

[Larry Yaeger]

On Sep 8, 2025, at 4:28 AM, Matthias Melcher <m.melcher at robowerk.de> wrote:
> My idea is to contact the Computer History Museum which is a well renown entity in the U.S., and ask them if they would be willing to ask Apple for the NewtonOS source code. It seems much more promising to go through them, instead of me calling someone at Apple.
> 
> My question is, does anyone on this list know Al Kossow or anyone else at the CHM personally?

It's been years since we were in touch, but I know Al, and have a personal email address that I suspect will still be good.  I'd be happy to endorse and forward such a proposal to him, and to make him aware of how strong the Newton users community is (if he doesn't already know).  You've been making excellent arguments, Matthias.  First object-oriented OS.  Great language.  Unique "soup" data environment.  First PDA.  First usable handwriting recognition (in 2.x).  Probably worth embracing the notoriety of 1.x's handwriting recognition--few products, tech or otherwise, have been parodied by both The Simpsons and Doonesbury.  The strength and inventiveness of the current community should be a point of interest with Einstein, new dongles, bug fixes, hardware repair support, user support all showing how vibrant the group is.  And on and on.  You'll do a better job than me, but I'm happy to be a go between.  I'm on board when you're ready to make a pitch.

- larryy