Computer History Museum Releases Apple Lisa Source Code on 40th Launch Anniversary

[MacRumors]

The Computer History Museum located in Mountain View, California, today released the Apple Lisa source code, including its system and applications software. Today happens to be the 40th anniversary of the original January 19, 1983 release of the Apple Lisa.

Aimed at business users, the Apple Lisa was priced at close to $10,000 when it was introduced, and the high price tag combined with software issues and problems with floppy disks caused it to be something of a commercial failure. Though it was largely replaced with the much more affordable Apple Macintosh and Lisa 2 after just two years, The Apple Lisa is known for its innovative use of a graphical user interface (GUI).

The Apple Lisa included several apps, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, and charts, all of which were bundled with the system. The GUI was inspired by Xerox PARC's Smalltalk system, but had its own innovations that ultimately inspired Apple's future operating systems as well as Microsoft's Windows software.

Those interested in downloading the Apple Lisa code can do so through the Computer History Museum website.

The code is being released as part of the Computer History Museum's ongoing "Art of Code" series, which explores historical code releases that power significant developments in computing. There will be a hybrid in-person/online event on January 31 at 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time that will commemorate Apple's PC journey and highlight what made the Lisa the company's "most important flop."

Article Link: Computer History Museum Releases Apple Lisa Source Code on 40th Launch Anniversary

 

[Analog Kid]

Oh man-- please someone release a Lisa simulator for Mac!

 

[Wildkraut]

Something that won't be able to be done with today's planned obsolescence, cloud tied and battery based tech.
All build to fail someday.

 

[crsh1976]

Just refreshed my memory by looking at the hardware specs - 5 MHz 68000 processor and 1 MB of RAM, 9-inch monochrome display, housed in a hefty 48 lbs package.

Just think how much more powerful and tiny your iPhone is compared to this thing, 40 years apart.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

An impressive piece of tech for 1983 but way too expensive. Basically, it's a $30,000 computer.

Does anyone know what would be a Trade-In value for Apple Lisa at an Apple store or Apple.com?

 

[MGrayson3]

In before "Apple didn't develop anything. They stole it all from Xerox."

 

[Spock]

An impressive piece of tech for 1983 but way too expensive. Basically, it's a $30,000 computer.

View attachment 2144829
Does anyone know what would be a Trade-In value for Apple Lisa at an Apple store or Apple.com?

Nothing, but they would be happy to recycle it for you. They do have a landfill of them..

 

[MGrayson3]

An impressive piece of tech for 1983 but way too expensive. Basically, it's a $30,000 computer.

View attachment 2144831

And the alternatives were...

 

[HorstBockman]

The Lisa was incredible! I had one on order with its matching external disk drive. $15K total IIRC. So glad I cancelled before the product was cancelled, though!

 

[webkit]

Though it was largely replaced with the much more affordable Apple Macintosh and Lisa 2 after just two years, The Apple Lisa is known for its innovative use of a graphical user interface (GUI).

It wasn't really even two years. The Lisa 2 (starting at $3,495) and the Macintosh (starting at $2,495) were introduced just a year later in January 1984 and basically left the original Lisa (which had seen its own price reduction) in the dust.

 

[Exponent]

Also, the Lisa gave Kevin Costner his start…

 

[Carlos_X_el_magnifco]

My first Mac was a Lisa 2 with a 10 MB Profil hard drive. My father bought it for home use and we kept it and did the Mac XL conversion, later using it for a trade-in for a Mac Plus. I’m amazed now at how much my father spent on that computer for the time.

I preferred the Lisa OS back then as it had features that Mac OS was missing until OS 7 came out.

 

[ersan191]

HUGE fan of the computer history museum, do yourself a favor and swing by if you're ever in NorCal

 

[Analog Kid]

Because I find stuff like this fun:

Lisa source unzipped: 27MB
Mail.app: 26.4MB
/System/Library/Fonts : 842MB

 

[LimeiBook86]

Oh man-- please someone release a Lisa simulator for Mac!

There is one available called LisaEm, although be aware, it does take quite a few steps to set up https://lisa.sunder.net/

 

[obviouslogic]

My first Mac was a Lisa 2 with a 10 MB Profil hard drive. My father bought it for home use and we kept it and did the Mac XL conversion, later using it for a trade-in for a Mac Plus. I’m amazed now at how much my father spent on that computer for the time.

I preferred the Lisa OS back then as it had features that Mac OS was missing until OS 7 came out.

Not to mention it was a true preemptive multitasking system, which Mac users didn't get until Mac OS X!!!

 

[ThomasJL]

Due to the innovative mind of Steve Jobs, Microsoft copied Apple by implementing a GUI and a user-friendly skeuomorphic design first popularized by Apple with the Lisa and the Macintosh.

Due to the mediocre mind of Tim Cook, Apple copied Microsoft by implementing a user-unfriendly flat design first popularized by Microsoft with the Zune, Windows Phone 7, and Windows 8.

 

[sherwinzadeh]

Oh wow... didn't know it was written in Pascal!

 

[obviouslogic]

I couldn't resist this stroll down memory lane and had to pull my Mac SE out of storage... Can't believe the damned thing still runs after 35 years! I've owned it since Fall of 1987. In fact the oldest files I can find in my archives is from a Pascal programming class, March of 1988.

Obviously, it doesn't get any use anymore. But was last in regular use around 2003-2004 when I had it set up in a small local coffee shop/bakery. I wrote a couple of HyperCard stacks to implement a Gift Card system and Customer Order Tracking system. It ran for about 6 months before I replaced it with a cheap iMac running a web based version of those systems. (The poor SE was getting beat up and dirty as hell.)

As you can see in the 2nd photo, it started out as a 1MB, two 800K floppy system. Was first upgraded to an FDHD system, which replaced the controller chip and floppy drives with HD versions (US$500), then upgraded RAM to 4MB (US$600), then replaced one floppy drive with an internal 45MB HD (US$800), and finally installed an ethernet card after I bought my first iMac so I could use the SE as a file and print sever.

They don't make them like that anymore. Although my 2009 iMac is still chugging along just fine.

*If you look at the second photo, you can see how much the color of the case has changed over the years. The transparent sticker with all the computer info has protected the plastic underneath.

 

[RalfTheDog]

I couldn't resist and had to pull my Mac SE out of storage... Can't believe the damned thing still runs after 35 years!

View attachment 2144869 View attachment 2144870

I was digging through old family storage and I found an SE, but I don't have a mouse or a keyboard for it.

 

[dysamoria]

Due to the innovative mind of Steve Jobs, Microsoft copied Apple by implementing a GUI and a user-friendly skeuomorphic design first popularized by Apple with the Lisa and the Macintosh.

Due to the mediocre mind of Tim Cook, Apple copied Microsoft by implementing a user-unfriendly flat design first popularized by Microsoft with the Zune, Windows Phone 7, and Windows 8.

This is it.

EDIT: Though it really started with Windows XP's use of hyperlinks as UI elements outside web browsers. Like, in the file system browser, the settings panels, etc. Utter bollocks.

 

[obviouslogic]

Due to the innovative mind of Steve Jobs, Microsoft copied Apple by implementing a GUI and a user-friendly skeuomorphic design first popularized by Apple with the Lisa and the Macintosh.

Due to the mediocre mind of Tim Cook, Apple copied Microsoft by implementing a user-unfriendly flat design first popularized by Microsoft with the Zune, Windows Phone 7, and Windows 8.

Microsoft actually took and used Apple's code to "implement" their GUI in Windows.

Apple and Microsoft had an agreement... In order for Microsoft to develop a version of "Office" for the Mac, Apple had to port Apple's Macintosh Toolbox API's to x86 so that Microsoft could use them to create a GUI based version of their Office suite that ran on top of DOS. Microsoft then used those API's to create a much better version of Windows than what they were peddling. If you were a programmer back then, it was blatantly obvious what Microsoft had done. The API calls were all the same, except with a different naming scheme. Apple did sue, but lost because just enough API's (10%, I believe) were different enough.

 

[DocMultimedia]

Just refreshed my memory by looking at the hardware specs - 5 MHz 68000 processor and 1 MB of RAM, 9-inch monochrome display, housed in a hefty 48 lbs package.

Just think how much more powerful and tiny your iPhone is compared to this thing, 40 years apart.

Or my Apple watch. 😀

 

[obviouslogic]

I was digging through old family storage and I found an SE, but I don't have a mouse or a keyboard for it.

Unfortunately, the mouse and keyboard are not original. Several years of use and abuse took their toll and and both had to be replaced.

 

[Edsel]

In 1985 I was offered a slightly used, evaluation Lisa, for $100.00. I wish I had grabbed it. It had been evaluated by another microcomputer company. The IBM PC/Microsoft DOS 2.1 was dominating the corporate world.