This is Next-vs-Sun in view mode; [Up]
Date: Sun 03-Nov-1989 19:01:04 From: Unknown Subject: Next vs Sun My apologies to those who have read this message before.... I am buying a workstation within a few months. I am interested in writing GUI programs. under X I'd like to write a music scoring program, text editor, 8086 interpreter, etc. I'm particularly interested in writing portable programs that run under an industry standard windowing system like X. I am very interested in hearing from programmers working with the NeXT on whether the X implementation is decent, and whether bothers to use it. I am counting on as much GNU software as possible since after buying the computer, I won't have much money for software. I should mention that we use Sun 3/80's and Sparc 1's up at work. Anyway, I've narrowed down the choices to three 1) Sun 3/80 2) NeXT 3) Sparc 1 In order to make a fair price comparison I've come up with a price list for the three computers with comparable peripherals. Note that peripherals had to be added to the two sun computers to give them the same functionality as the NeXT. This is also reflected in the price. I've assumed a 20% discount on the suns, based on a quote from a distributor, and no discount based on the businessland price. One variable in the equation is the availability of the network version of the NeXT which has no O.D. Noone is sure whether the machine comes with the software liscense. If it does, I could concievably take a 1/4 inch tape down to business land, and get the software from them. Otherwise, it will not be a factor. Additionally, all the extra periperals are 3rd party to keep the price down. Sun 3/80 $ 9296.00 (with 19" monitor, 8MB of memory, 330MB SCSI disk, 150MB SCSI tape) NeXT $12000.00 (with 17" monitor, 8MB of memory, 256MB optical disk, 330MB SCSI disk) NeXT 11295.00 (with 17" monitor, 8MB of memory, 330MB SCSI disk) (This also assumes that I get a software licsense with the network version) Sparc 1 $10496.00 (with 17" monitor, 8MB of memory, 330MB SCSI disk, 150MB SCSI tape) Another factor which I'd like to get feedback on is the laser printer. With the Sun's, I'd be picking up a postscript laser printer which I could get for about $3500.00, which is about the same prices as the NeXT laser printer. The issue I'm concerned about is system throughput on the NeXT. Since the CPU is responsible for rasterizing pages before they are sent to the printer, it seems that printing would severely effect performance. This is opposed to the Sun's which would typically send small postscript source code out the port letting the processor in the printer handle the rasterization. Since the NeXT printer has 400dpi, this NeXT could be sending 1.8 MB of data for each page. Now, I hope the printer has some kind of page description language built in which would allow the computer to rasterize only those parts of the page that contained bits that were set, but I can't get any information from Businessland on this point. Could anyone enlighten me on this point. As for 3rd party software, I am interested in picking up a desktop publishing program for my wife, and I'm interested in seeing whether or not FRAME ever arrives for the NeXT. I've been told that FRAME for the NeXT is $1200.00, vs. $2500.00 for the Suns. If all the software for the NeXT is that much cheaper, that would be an additional consideration, although the machine will primarily be used for development work. Thanks in advance, Jaz jaz@abvax.icd.ab.com >From: ron@woan.austin.ibm.com (Ronald S. Woan)
Date: Sun 04-Nov-1989 03:07:49 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Next vs Sun It is absolutely true that when the NeXt prints through its own NeXt Laser printer, the performance of the machine is adversely affacted. More precisely, the machine effectively freezes while it is printing: for a few pages of text file, its only seconds, but woe to he who prints one of the pictures from the Webster, or who uses the "grabber" in Scene to print part of the screen: then we are talking about minutes. Now strictly speaking, it is the Window server which freezes during the printing, but one can still talk to the machine through a terminal connected to one of the serial ports. The only consolation is that what comes out of the printer looks awfully good indeed. Hope this helps you. The Next is a dynamite machine, but it has its warts. Nick Katz >From: dbk@esl.ESL.COM (David Kay)
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Marcel Waldvogel and Netfuture.ch.