AbstractThe SUN Microsystems Network Extensible Window System (NeWS) is a display system that uses the PostScript page description language to provide fully device independent screen and input manipulation as a network service. This system has been available in the UK as a beta test product since April 1987 and this paper reports the work done with NeWS at Queen Mary College. A general introduction to NeWS is given, together with some more detailed information and reports of what each author has been doing with the system. We will try to predict the future of NeWS and its main rival (the MIT X‐Windows system) and to suggest changes to the NeWS beta product that will be necessary for it to realise its potentia