Apple changed gears and thought that if they supplied everything: CPU, peripherals, and software that it would lock up the market and not leave a dime on the table. They would get all the money the developers were getting on the Apple //. So the Apple /// and Lisa cut out the developers that made the Apple // such a success (remember Visacalc?) and only allowed only a select few work with prototypes. Those that were cut out went to the IBM PC and we know how that turned out.
Unfortunately, I am an IT (MIS at the time) geek and when we found out plans for the Lisa were to bypass the Fortune 500 IT departments, we sent Phil Dixon to explain how capital purchases are made by these companies and how nobody makes a major computer purchase without support. We (Apple MIS) supported many Apple users as they used our own product as dumb and not so dumb terminals. We pointed out how many people were using dumb terminals in major corporations. These were attached to mainframes and that is where the corporate data is kept. LisaTerminal was not going to connect to an IBM 370/168 running HASP and MVS (remember the time) without a lot of help. If doing a few spreadsheets and putting it in a word processing document is all a user wanted to do, then the Apple /// was a better answer.
After laughing at Phil, they announced internally a DEC Basic interpreter for Lisa. This was done to keep Apple's MIS happy as we were running the company on PDP 11/70's at the time. I am sure you programmer types realize how stupid that was. Lisa was introduced with 512K or 1MB of memory and DEC Basic could only address 62K plus 2K for system overhead for a total of 64K. John Couch, who authorized it, was so surprised to find this out after it was done. No one I knew on the Lisa team ever thought about selling Lisa to anyone other than individuals. For God's sake, it was $10,000 and no one was making peripherals or creating software at its launch. There were damn few two years later as Apple had cut so many developers.
These people really thought it would work like the Apple //. People would just buy this 50 pound machine for $10,000 and bring it to work and Lisa would take over the business world by revolution (one person at a time). This is my short cut at it. I really don't have the energy to relive the past. Woz is a great human being. The other guy is not.
Please don't get me started on the Apple ///
Jerry
On Aug 26, 2005, at 10:43 AM, Nord, Al wrote:
> If Apple cared that much about the Lisa computers they and Sun Data
> would not have hired bulldozers to drive over piles of Lisa computers
> in
> a landfill in Logan Utah many years ago. I have a picture that was in
> the local paper there. I went to the Apple authorized Lisa repair
> school
> in Minneapolis Minnesota before the Lisa's introduction. Both the class
> and I sat is awe watching the instructor operate the Lisa in the
> classroom. During the class demo he had a software glitch and was able
> to by pressing a sequence of keyswitches bring the Lisa program into
> monitor and retype the software command. I told Larry Pina about that
> experience before Larry wrote his book on the MacIntosh computer
> series.
> Apple dropped the ball on the Lisa and part of the problem was the high
> cost of any of the Lisa software and having their serial number stored
> in a prom on the logic board to prevent illegal copying of the
> software.
> I repaired one Lisa and forgot about swapping that prom and had to get
> Apple to return the prom off of the board. The customers Lisa sat in my
> repair area for 2 weeks while waiting for that prom. You think the
> customer was happy about that ? Nope. When the Mac plus was introduced
> that was the death of the Lisa I am sure. I attended an Apple dealers
> school again in Minneapolis and was able to buy a brand new Mac Plus
> for
> $1000.00 and a Imagewriter 2 for $500.00 direct from Apple shipped to
> my
> door. I purchased a single 1 meg simm to upgrade my Mac's memory for
> $85.00. My Mac Plus ran circles around the Lisa. When I upgraded to the
> $2500.00 PowerMac 6100 I upgraded that memory with 2 16 meg ram chips
> for $995.00 from the Chip Merchant. Now you can by the new Mac for
> under $500.00 Progress...
> Al
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: LisaList [mailto:lisalist_at_email.domain.hidden] On Behalf Of
> sauersr_at_email.domain.hidden
> Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 9:07 AM
> To: LisaList
> Subject: Lisa tech preservation, Alice
>
> There really should be some sort of non-profit organization designed to
> preserve the Lisa legacy. Lisa stuff is being scattered on Ebay and
> ends
> up in various collections or thrown out. Private collections are OK,
> but
> it really would be valuable for there to be a museum or some sort of
> central repository for Lisa tech.
>
> Apple should do more in this area. The company prides itself on
> innovation, but seems to be content to leave much of its innovation to
> obscurity, even loss. Maybe there's a secret cache of Apple history
> somewhere? Is there a reason why Apple would be unwise to open the
> source code for Lisa's software?
>
> The Mac is pretty well-covered with sites like folklore.org. The Lisa
> is
> usually treated as an after-thought, something to mention while writing
> about the Mac.
>
> The original version of Alice was written for the Lisa. Where is it?
> Apple's first game was actually a Lisa program. While it wasn't
> produced
> for sale, it's hardly unimportant. It would be really cool to see a
> game
> running on a Lisa, even if it's slow. I hazily recall that Steve Capps
> was the person who made the game. I wrote to the guy (Bruce Horn?) who
> runs folklore.org and he gave me Capps' e-mail, but I didn't get a
> response when I asked about Alice.
>
>
>
>
>> Hi
>>
>> Does anyone have Lisa Office System source listings?
>>
>> I'm trying to find the source listing to such programs as the Lisa
>> Desktop Manager ("Lisa Finder" in Mac parlance) or any of the Lisa
>> applications such as LisaWrite.
>>
>> Paper listings are fine. I just want to see how these programs were
>> built internally.
>>
>> I think it would be a shame if such sources disappered since they were
>
>> very innovative.
>>
>> FYI, I have the source for the Lisa boot ROM and the Lisa programmer's
>
>> ToolKit.
>>
>> - David Craig
>>
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>
>
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-- LisaList is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Shop buy.com and save. <http://lowendmac.com/ad/buy.com.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> LisaList info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/lisa.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:" Send list messages to: <mailto:lisalist_at_email.domain.hidden> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:lisalist-off_at_email.domain.hidden> For digest mode, email: <mailto:lisalist-digest_at_email.domain.hidden> Subscription questions: <mailto:listmom_at_email.domain.hidden> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/lisalist%40mail.maclaunch.com/> iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.comReceived on 2005-08-26 20:58:02
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