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From: KNIGHT@SRI-NIC.ARPA (Bob Knight)
Newsgroups: mod.computers.laser-printers
Subject: Re:
Message-ID: <12228550730.12.KNIGHT@SRI-NIC.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 6-Aug-86 01:15:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: SRI-NIC.12228550730.12.KNIGHT
Posted: Wed Aug  6 01:15:24 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Aug-86 06:40:30 EDT
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Organization: The ARPA Internet
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Approved: laser-lovers@washington.arpa

Well, to some extent, I was flaming (yeah, I thought when I hit ^Z I might
be called on it, but I did it anyways - only because I'd like to see some
real competition in the high-end market).

Hey, we went looking for a (relatively) fast printer.  At the time, Imagen
had the 24 and 12 series and there was Xerox with nothing exciting.  From
what I've heard about the Xerox 24 and 12 engines, I don't even want to
look at them: they'll break if you do THAT.  I have to support Scribe and
TeX, as well as scads of p[l]aintext stuff.  I also had to keep it under
$22K.  To make a long story short, we bought a Dataproducts 2665.  Why?
Well, we didn't pay a lot of money for it.  It may not be the fastest
PostScript interpreter in the world, but, if you've got a job that isn't
very complex (like our plaintext stuff), it screams.  It's easy to service
and maintain.  And it supports PostScript, which means that I keep our
Scribe and TeX users happy.

Ralph Gorin sez "Any time is the wrong time to buy a computer".  And he's
right, and the same adage applies to laser printers.  Imagen hadn't 
announced its new line and we may have been better off going with them.

However, I believe we made the right decision, and, given the circumstances,
I'd make it again.  It's meant that we've had to invest in some software
development, but almost anything we bought would have meant that.  Yeah, 
it's broken once (and nobody knows how to fix it - BUT...all you gotta do
to fix it is replace the controller board).  And, I've had dealings with
DataProducts for years in various capacities and have found that they
stand behind their products.

So, I guess the bottom line is, no, I don't know of a high-speed PS
printer.  But, unless Xerox gets its act together, I'll wager that you
won't find any REAL competition to PostScript or IMPress coming out of
Xerox.  And it's a shame, because Xerox should be right in there,
competitive as hell.

By the way, I think DEC'll deliver.  However, even though they've tightened
up the announcement-ship gap, they still eat it occasionally...and the PS-40
is probably one of those dinners.

And I probably ought not to hit ^Z on this one, either.
But I will.

Bob
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