Harry McCrackenIt’s the 40th anniversary of Apple’s still-underappreciated Lisa. Back in 2018, I wrote about seeing it (and the Apple IIe) for the first time, a week after they were announced. https://www.fastcompany.com/40514962/this-1983-demo-says-so-much-about-apples-past-present-and-future
Chris Marrin@harrymccracken I don’t get all this unbridled love for the Lisa. It could never have been practical. It was an expensive proof-of-concept. It paved the way for the cost effective Mac. That’s all it ever was.
@Cmarrin Proofs of concept can be important! I agree that at that price, the Lisa could never have mattered much on its own. But it’s not entirely clear that there would have been a Mac without the Lisa.
@harrymccracken absolutely. I agree that Lisa was a important step to Mac. I was referring to the “why did they have to cancel Lisa” responses. In fact there was a lot of serendipity at the time. If Xerox hadn’t let Steve Jobs see and adapt many of the features of the Star, there would have been no Lisa. If the Lisa had not been a flop Jobs probably would not have been ousted, allowing him to take over the Mac and make it the success that it turned out to be!