>The idea of networked technology & connected computing was & is so cool. I'm not sure what exactly here offers that though?
It was talking about the features of NeXTMail. It might not be obvious if you weren't using computers at the time, but email in the 1980s was just text. NeXTMail allowed fonts, formatting, pictures, and audio. All normal features of email now, but not then.
The ambition certainly felt bigger than email from what he was saying & how he said it!
The object oriented ideas that arose shortly after this 2.0 seem nebulous to me now, buts it's clear there was something happening, that this meant a lot. That it meant computing interoperability & components. I have no idea the provenance here, but https://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Articles/NeXTWORLD/9... in 94 at least starts to hint at the bigger current. (Not just email!!!)
It was talking about the features of NeXTMail. It might not be obvious if you weren't using computers at the time, but email in the 1980s was just text. NeXTMail allowed fonts, formatting, pictures, and audio. All normal features of email now, but not then.