From: rhb@hotsand.cnet.att.com (54312 - Richard H Brandwein)
Subject: Re: comments on hp laserjet 4m & sun's newsprinter 20 sought
Reply-To: rich.brandwein@att.com
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs - Holmdel, NJ
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 17:07:26 GMT
Originator: rhb@hotsand
Keywords: hp laserjet sun newsprinter sparc


In article <1992Dec15.190232.4761@Cigna.COM>, dave@Cigna.COM (Dave Good) writes:
|> In article <51604@seismo.CSS.GOV> dsc@seismo.CSS.GOV (David S. Comay) writes:
|> >
|> >we are looking at purchasing either a hp laserjet 4m or an newsprinter 20 from
|> >sun for use on our network here.  most of the jobs consists of printouts from
|> >various mac applications (framemaker, macdraw, word, photoshop), the sun
|> >(framemaker, splus) and other miscellaneous jobs (troff, plain text, window
|> >dumps).  the above two printers looked attractive to us primarily because of
|> >their cost, but each also has certain advantages - the laserjet supports 600
|> >dpi, but this really isn't an issue with us, while the newsprinter 20 promises
|> >high speed and large paper sizes, but it does mean partially tying down a
|> >workstation somewhere.  the most important things we are looking for is speed
|> >(especially with graphics oriented programs, or mixed graphics & text) along
|> >with the ability to handle fairly memory intensive jobs (our existing printers
|> >often run out of memory while rasterizing some printouts).  one concern of
|> >ours with the sun printer is how reliable is newsprint in rasterizing jobs
|> >from real world applications from the mac, framemaker, etc.
|> >
|> 
|> The HP has several advantages over the Sun printer, mainly because of the
|> inadequacies of the SnoozePrint(tm) software:
|>     - SnoozePrint will more than "partially" tie down a printer unless you
|>       can afford to hook it to, say, a SPARCstation 2 (or 10) and don't need
|>       to use that workstation for any real work.
|>     - The SnoozePrinter can't be connected directly to your network (the
|>       HP can with an optional JetDirect card)
|>     - FONTS! The HP can use standard Type 1 Fonts, which are widely available
|>       for (relatively) low prices.  SnoozePrint requires F3 fonts, of which
|>       there are only a few sources, and they cost mucho big bucko (2-3 times
|>       the cost of the same Type 1 font).
|>     - HP has an extremely good reputation for their printers, and has been in
|>       the business for over 5 years.  Sun is just getting into the printer
|>       business, and if the SPARCprinter is any indication, they may not be
|>       in the business much longer.
|>     - HP maintenance is dirt-cheap and extremely good.  4-hour response 
|>       (at least in my area) is only $384/year.
|>     - SnoozePrint sometimes gets confused while rasterizing.  Figuring out
|>       how to fix it is problematic, and usually we just reboot the workstation
|>       it's connected to.
|> 
|> We had a LaserJet 4 in for evaluation (we ended up buying a IIIsi for its
|> speed and capacity) and were quite impressed with it.  On the other hand,
|> we have a SPARCprinter that's sitting on a shelf gathering dust.  We've also
|> used SnoozePrint on some Talaris T2090s, and desperately wish we could get
|> out of our 3-year lease on these and buy some more HP IIIsi's.
|> 
|> Of course, these opinions are mine alone (and also that of my co-worker)
|> and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer. (Although we
|> are planning to buy more IIIsi's and may just let the Talaris' gather dust
|> until the lease expires)

	I've had a Sparcprinter hanging off a sparc 2 for months now
and I am very happy with it.  As a comparison, we have an HP IIIsi
down the hall.  The sparcprinter is generally slightly faster than
the HP, and we've been having problems with the IIIsi dying when 
multiple jobs are sent to it or you send it different formats (I think
it was supposed to be switchable between HPCL 5 and Postscript on the
fly).

	On the other hand...

	I just moved up to Newsprint 2.0, in the hopes of adding an
HP Paintjet XL 300 to the parallel port on the Sparcprinter SBUS card.
Luckily I bought a new package rather than upgrade, because it costs
*** $400 **** to get a Newsprint license to add printer, almost more
than the price of the whole Newsprint package.  Outrageous.

	I've also heard that under Newsprint, we've found jobs lost
when sent to a QMS printer on our net when there were multiple jobs
hitting it at once.

	From a cost perspective, someone down the hall bought the new
HP LaserJet 4.  With a direct network (Ethernet) interface, it's still
cheaper than the SparcPrinter and prints at 600 DPI.  Also, on the Sparc 2,
my machine DOES slow down momentarily when a job is sent through it,
though I must admit that it's not any problem.  The LaserJet 4 has a
powerful dedicated RISC processor embedded in it.

	All in all, I'd say Newsprint is ultimately more flexible and
potentially a better investment IF the cost of adding licenses is set
at a reasonable level.
-- 
--
	Rich Brandwein		rich.brandwein@att.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware,comp.sys.sun.admin