Apple’s Lisa was one of the earliest computers to take advantage of the graphical user interface pioneered at Xerox PARC, and it was the first to feature a desktop file browser. Read about the development (and demise) of the venerable Lisa at Braeburn.
The Apple Lisa
About The Author
Adam Scheinberg
Technology Executive • Web Developer • Father • Foodie • Music Snob • OS enthusiast
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I Apple had only priced this thing to move. We’d be working on real CPU’s and probably writting our OS’s in Assembler, rather then C. We could have been running on 68100’s by now.
Start the flames… :^)
yeah, If only it had taken off, been cheaper, and been faster. Poor mac users wouldnt have been saddled with a machinethat couldnt do real multitasking for so long
I still want to get a lisa. almost bought one off ebay a while back..
Did the article really mean Z8000?
I assume it was a mistake and they meant Zilog’s Z80.
Make sure it’s a Lisa and not a Mac XL.
I’m the author, and 78000 is correct:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z8000
Did the article really mean Z8000?
I assume it was a mistake and they meant Zilog’s Z80.
Considering it was talking about Apple trying to find a 16bit processor, and the Z8000 is a 16bit processor, whereas the Z80 is an 8bit processor… I’d assume it was not a mistake.
OK good to know, thanks.
I hadn’t previously been aware of the z8000 – and you were right to tell me off for confusing an 8bit processor with a 16 bit one.
*hides*
…there was a small computer show at the Loews Concorde hotel in Quebec City, and I must have been 13 years old. By then I had had the privilege to playing around with TRS-80 Model 3s and Apple IIs…seeing the Lisa in action was a revelation!
It was a bit disheartening as well because I was convinced I’d never be able to own one…I was already into computers at that time, but I fell in love with the GUI then (only later did I re-discover the power of the CLI, and how each interface complemented each other…)
🙂
Me too. At a computer “fair” at Bayview Village mall in Toronto. I was about 11-12 at the time. Its the only time I’ve ever felt “love” for a computer.
What a magical experience. However, I remember the sales guy said it cost $10,000 CDN.
I would say price was a definite barrier. For my 13th birthday (June 1984)… I got a Macintosh ($4,000 CDN). Glad I stayed away from the Apple /// (yes, 3) at the time.
🙂 At that fair… there were lots of KayPro’s and Osbornes (CPM based machines).
No one ever mentions it, but don’t you think the choice of such a light, effeminate name for such a robust and powerful workstation hindered its corporate acceptance somewhat? It’s still a male-dominated industry, in the ’80s even moreso, and most guys I know think of their computers similar to the way they think of their cars, and I don’t know any guy who would drive a “Lisa” to work.
Only if you think riding Dell sounds more acceptable to a heterosexual male than riding Lisa after work.
Atari was codenaming their gaming machines after women.
http://www.sothius.com/hypertxt/atari.html
IIRC, they were always named after female employees or girlfriends.
When the Amiga was released, the three coprocessors were named Paula, Agnes and Denise.
You forget that men name their cars, boats, and computers after girls.
This was the computer I really wanted! Too expensive for me at the time, though. Later on, there was never any compelling reason to go with Apple, what with the advent of Windows on inexpensive PC hardware.
Very close it IBM mainframe assembler.
Real 32bit regesters.
I remember being 10, and in Macys with my Mom. At the time, they had a computer department. Although the room was filled with “small” toolbox sized computers (the kind the size of a rolling carryon luggage), The computer I was instantly drawn to was the Apple Lisa. I remember trying to make it work. I typed “run apple”, “run lisa”, and other such commands, because I was familliar with the apple II OS at school. After I figured out the mouse thing, I was completely mesmerized by the thing, and made my mom stay until the store closed because I wanted to play with it some more. They had a little placecard near the computer, with the price on it. $10,000!!! I was REALLY impressed by that. I ended up getting a mac plus 36 months later.