Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!tgingric From: tgingric@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Tyler S Gingrich) Subject: Re: NextStation vs. NextStation color Message-ID: <1991Apr12.201602.1393@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> Sender: news@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: right.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Organization: The Ohio State University References: Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1991 20:16:02 GMT Lines: 38 In article da1n+@andrew.cmu.edu (Daniel K. Appelquist) writes: >Exactly how much slower is the display on the NextStation color? Does >it make a big difference? How much support is there for color among >NeXT applications in general? We want answers, damnit! (All we have >on campus here are monochrome next's.) > NeXT brought the Color Station in for a demo visit. The following are subjective comments based on a prototype NeXTStation color (running at 20Mhz instead of the production 25Mhz). The machine was slower than the monochrome station (probably due to the slower processor), but NOT as slow as I expected. The performance was very good -- more than fast enough to do REAL work. Most of the apps I saw (WordPerfect, Diagram, Create(beta), SoftPC) supported color. The workspace is monochrome with some colored icons & colored window contents for most apps. The 4096 (from 16.7 Million) with 4 bits of alpha channel (transparancy) produced VERY nice ('near photographic') pictures. We saw the 'Puffin', 'Tulips', and 'Van Gogh' (maybe -- I don't know anything about art) -- all these pictures where clear, crisp, and impressive. John Karabaic took the 'Puffin' picture, JPEG compressed it to 9% of it's original size (in about 4 seconds), un-compressed it, and displayed both versions on the screen side-by-side. Very little difference -- my compliments to the JPEG folks for an excellent algorithm. Speed - 8.5 (NS Monochrome = 9) Color - 8.5 (32 bit color = 10) Price - 9.0 (Very competitive -- BUT, big color monitors are STILL expensive) Software - 9.5 (NextStep 2.0 is truly awesome -- but not perfect) Overall 9.0 - Great value for the money. Tyler