Some sources actually say the NS prefix in Cocoa/OpenStep classes stands for NeXT/Sun.
(others say it’s simply NeXTSTEP, however considering that those classes had a NX prefix initially, the NeXT/Sun bit might actually be closer to truth)
Aha. I think that explains why NS<foo> methods started creeping into NeXTStep 3. That's about the same time frame as the yellow box, NeWS and sparc becoming a first class supported platform for gnu/objc.
(others say it’s simply NeXTSTEP, however considering that those classes had a NX prefix initially, the NeXT/Sun bit might actually be closer to truth)