The input handling system was designed to provide strong event synchronization guarantees that were not possible with asynchronous protocols like X.

[3] To support user interface widgets, NeWS expanded the original PostScript stack-based language into a complete object-oriented (OO) programming style with inheritance.

All this can happen in the windowing server without interaction with the client program, and only when the mouse is released on the button will an event be sent off for handling.

[4] The OPEN LOOK version of the FrameMaker desktop publishing program, developed by Frame Technology Corp. with funding mainly from Sun Microsystems and NSA, was one of the few commercial products that ran on NeWS.

HyperLook, developed by Arthur van Hoff at The Turing Institute, was an interactive application design system.

A commercial drawing program, Altsys Virtuoso, was produced for NeWS; it was a port of FreeHand with additional functionality that took advantage of the PostScript environment.

OLIT was built on the same Xt (X Intrinsics) base as Motif, and XView used the same APIs as Sun's earlier SunView window system.

After it was clear that OPEN LOOK had lost out to Motif in popularity, and after Adobe acquired FrameMaker, Sun stopped supporting NeWS.