Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
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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>
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References: <wc1TnQa00VoRA4ZHxy@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1991 20:16:02 GMT
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In article <wc1TnQa00VoRA4ZHxy@andrew.cmu.edu> 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      
