The NeXTcube was the hardware used as the world’s first web server.
At CERN, Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web on a NeXT computer and used a NeXTcube as the first web server. The machine hosted the original web software, including the first website and the early HTTP server, while Berners-Lee also used it to create the first web browser-editor, called WorldWideWeb.
The NeXTcube was a powerful workstation introduced by NeXT in 1990. Its graphical operating system and development tools helped Berners-Lee build the Web quickly, even though the Internet itself and earlier networked information systems already existed.
The first web server was not the same thing as the first Internet-connected computer. The Web was an application layered on existing networks: browsers requested documents using HTTP, and servers delivered them through that system. CERN’s original machine reportedly carried a handwritten warning telling users not to switch it off.