Originally posted by blakespot
Amazing. How did the Mac not inherit this? Multifinder did not come until a few years after the Mac's intial debut, and it is a very poor example of how to multitask ('poor' also describing the multitasking model of OS 9.2.2). You learn something new every day.
blakespot
This
LISA FAQ was VERY informative on many aspects of the machine. I agree that the multi-tasking model of OS 9 (descended from Multifinder) is still poor. If only Apple had kept innovating we still wouldn't be using essentially the same OS as the early '80's.
To answer your question:
"When Apple introduced the Lisa in January 1983, the Macintosh was still under development. In January 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh, a physically smaller version of the Lisa.
The Macintosh from a casual glance resembled the Lisa in many ways. But underneath, the Macintosh and the Lisa were totally different. The Lisa supported a multi-tasking operating system, the Macintosh supported single-tasking. The Lisa's extra memory (8 times larger than the Macintosh) and hard drive allowed larger more-sophisticated Lisa programs and larger data files.
The Lisa's Desktop Manager and its distinctive user interface were used by the Macintosh developers as a foundation for the Macintosh's Finder and its user interface
I don't mean to criticize the Macintosh unfairly since it has in its own right contributed much to the field of personal computing. But from an overall perspective the Lisa was a result of a total system approach that delivered integrated functions with a consistent and high quality user interface. I can only speculate how this "total approach" originated but think it may have something to do with the experience and age differences of the Lisa and Macintosh development teams. From my readings it appears that the Lisa developers were about a decade older than their Macintosh counterparts. The Lisa developers came mainly from large computer companies (eg Xerox, HP, DEC) which dealt mainly with mini-computer class systems, while the Macintosh developers came mainly from Apple itself and its Apple 2 and 3 computer divisions. The Lisa developers also appear to have had a different perspective on programming than the Macintosh developers. The Lisa's core software was mainly written in Pascal, a high-level language. Macintosh core software on the other hand was written in 68000 assembly language."
