I noticed people talking about the Apple Lisa more than normal
the last couple weeks. Part of it may be that the Computer
History Museum and The Verge are pushing out a fair bit of
Lisa related content to celebrate the it's 40th anniversary,
which happened a few months ago.
Various people have posted links to individual stories here on
HN, but I figured I would put them together in a single post
so you can get your Lisa fix in one place:
** The Verge is partnering with the Computer History Museum to
explore the past and future of tech
https://www.theverge.com/23560576/apple-lisa-ethernet-verge-computer-history-museum
Here's where The Verge talks about why there's so much Lisa
content on their page: the Lisa's 40th anniversary (and the
50th anniversary of Ethernet.) The CHM hosted a panel
discussion with several of the original team members, and
I'm sure it was recorded for posterity, but this page only
has a link to a page with a link to a Zoom session (not the
archive of the event.) But hopefully it will eventually
surface.
There's also links to various bits of early Apple software
for digital archeologists.
** Apple Lisa: the "OK" Computer
https://www.theverge.com/c/23570610/apple-lisa-computer-legacy
I like this the best of The Verge articles. Despite some
kerning issues, I appreciate the design and the content
builds on previous videos and articles. Worth a read if
you're hip to the history of design.
** Lisa's Family Photos
https://www.theverge.com/c/2023/2/3/23578172/lisas-family-photos
Aside from being a talented software developer, Bill
Atkisson is a very good photographer. Perhaps it was the
photographer's sensibilities that encouraged him to record
the progress of the Lisa's software and interface design
by snapping polaroids along the way.
Andy Herzfeld has a slightly different narrative using the
same photos at folklore.org:
https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Busy_Being_Born.txt
** The Apple Lisa was a design revolution -- and it still
feels like one today
https://www.theverge.com/23669728/apple-lisa-macintosh-ui-design-history
Part of the "You, Me and UI" series on The Verge, this post
introduces the "Inside the Flop that Changed Apple Forever"
video. Personally I would have thought that was the VLC,
but nobody asked me. I have a few minor nits with the
video, technical inaccuracies that probably crept in due to
time. But it's an interesting video and reading the Lisa's
wikipedia page (or folklore.org) will clarify points that
were somewhat muddied in the video.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lisa