Seems like the Apple Lisa OS Sourcecode has been released

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werpu
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Seems like the Apple Lisa OS Sourcecode has been released

Unread post by werpu »

https://info.computerhistory.org/apple-lisa-code

Short explanation for some who dont know it yet.
Apples Lisa was the predecessor to the macintosh, heavily influenced by the Xerox Parc research machines, it to my knowledge still used Smalltalk as operating system and programming environment.
Might be an interesting addition for a new core, now that the OS is out in the wild (not that there are any games on it, maybe collossal cave is ported, dont know)

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Chris23235
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Re: Seems like the Apple Lisa OS Sourcecode has been released

Unread post by Chris23235 »

Interesting news, thank you.

There was this one game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PlP95WoCBw

werpu
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Re: Seems like the Apple Lisa OS Sourcecode has been released

Unread post by werpu »

Amazing, thank you, imaging seeing all this in 1983, this must have felt like science fiction!
(UIs back then were totally unknown by the general public)

Apparently there were some games ported, including the original Wizardry:

https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/co ... too_retro/

Good question how many of them, but definitely already 1 more than the EDSAC has ever seen :lol:

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Re: Seems like the Apple Lisa OS Sourcecode has been released

Unread post by Bernouilli »

Lisa was not the predecessor of the Macintosh.
The Lisa project and the Macintosh projet were two separate projets. They have nothing in common. The Lisa project was already going on when the Macintosh project started. But that's all.

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Re: Seems like the Apple Lisa OS Sourcecode has been released

Unread post by werpu »

If Wikipedia is correct, yes and no:
In 1982, after Steve Jobs was forced out of the Lisa project by Apple's board of directors,[4] he appropriated the Macintosh project from Jef Raskin, who had originally conceived of a sub-$1,000 text-based appliance computer in 1979. Jobs immediately redefined Macintosh as a less expensive and more focused version of the graphical Lisa.

When Macintosh launched in January 1984, it quickly surpassed Lisa's sluggish sales. Jobs then began assimilating increasing numbers of Lisa staff, as he had done with the Apple II division after assuming control over Raskin's project.

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Re: Seems like the Apple Lisa OS Sourcecode has been released

Unread post by Malor »

Right, the Mac was originally Jef Raskin's project, and Jobs stole it from him and deliberately tried to destroy the Lisa by doing just enough of the same stuff.

It was a pale imitation of the original, but since hardly anyone could afford $10,000 for a personal computer, almost nobody knew how much better the Lisa was. They just saw the icons and menu and thought the Mac was a cheaper version of the same thing.

It was kind of like putting a Mustang body on a Pinto engine.

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Re: Seems like the Apple Lisa OS Sourcecode has been released

Unread post by jca »

The Original Mac was just an expensive paper weight when it came out: one floppy, 128K, Mac Write and Mac Draw. I went to a PR demo when it was introduced and I was not impressed. For the GUI I already saw the Lisa and the Apollo workstation but these were expensive:
Apollo base model July 88 price; Monochrome configurations with a disk range from $8,500 to $15,500, while color configurations with a disk range from $12,400 to $23,800.

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thisisamigaspeaking
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Re: Seems like the Apple Lisa OS Sourcecode has been released

Unread post by thisisamigaspeaking »

jca wrote: Fri Jan 20, 2023 10:58 pm

The Original Mac was just an expensive paper weight when it came out: one floppy, 128K, Mac Write and Mac Draw. I went to a PR demo when it was introduced and I was not impressed. For the GUI I already saw the Lisa and the Apollo workstation but these were expensive:
Apollo base model July 88 price; Monochrome configurations with a disk range from $8,500 to $15,500, while color configurations with a disk range from $12,400 to $23,800.

I think by '88 Apollo was pretty irrelevant compared to Sun. Out of all of these 80s computers I still think the Amiga is the most impressive.

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Re: Seems like the Apple Lisa OS Sourcecode has been released

Unread post by jca »

You are right about that, the price list was the first I found.
By the end of 1986, it had the largest worldwide share of the engineering workstations market, at twice the market share of the number two, Sun Microsystems. At the end of 1987, it was third in market share after Digital Equipment Corporation and Sun.

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