Topic: Extended interview footage for Bill Atkinson (Read 5942 times)

classiccomputing · « **on:** July 27, 2025, 05:27:37 pm »

I have now uploaded Part I & Part II of the extended interview footage for Bill Atkinson. I will have one more part to upload in a week or so. A lot of good stuff here; he describes more about the Lisa, but also on the Mac and Steve Jobs.

Part I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAAFnqj-Cks

Part II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8wE_tDiDXM

Before Macintosh: The Apple Lisa
The Apple Lisa Documentary
Produced & Directed by David Greelish

ried · « **Reply #1 on:** July 27, 2025, 09:28:33 pm »

That is wonderful, David. Thank you for sharing.

andrew · « **Reply #2 on:** July 27, 2025, 10:47:59 pm »

Was there actually a production run of the Lisa keyboard with the command key symbol on the Apple key? Bill mentions this in Part II but I don't think I've ever seen a photo of that...

Looking forwards to part III! Thanks David!

ried · « **Reply #3 on:** July 28, 2025, 02:46:04 am »

Quote from: andrew on July 27, 2025, 10:47:59 pm

Was there actually a production run of the Lisa keyboard with the command key symbol on the Apple key?

I think Bill may have mis-remembered that part. There was a prototype of the keyboard that indeed featured two command keys up until June or July of 1982, when it was decided to change to the Apple key configuration that ultimately went into production. The February, 1983 issue of BYTE Magazine featured an interview with the Lisa development team where they discussed that change.

Picture of the prototype and a snippet from the interview are attached for reference.