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I purchased a Lisa and accessories with a developer discount for over $8k in 1983, equivalent to over $25k now. It was an amazing machine. If Apple had (1) priced it as a loss leader, at least initially, and (2) made all the software open source, then Lisa would have spread like wildfire and dominate, instead of being the failure it became.

Rochus•6d ago

The technology was definitely a milestone - the first commercially available personal computer, which incorporated GUI concepts invented at Xerox PARC. The fact that they ended up competing with themselves is just one of the many mistakes that leave you wondering.

GianFabien•6d ago

Lisa was v1, Macintosh was v2 and a success.

Rochus•6d ago

The Macintosh initially wasn't a success either, which was one the reasons Jobs was fired from Apple. Apple’s decision to develop and launch the Macintosh while the Lisa was still on the market is widely seen as a major factor in the Lisa’s commercial failure. The Lisa was better than the original Macintosh in several key areas (more memory, bigger screen, more floppy storage capacity, multitasking, memory protection, expandability, integrated office suite). So no, Macintosh was not v2, but just a cheaper alternative.

GianFabien•4d ago

You're correct. My v2 comment was brought about by the marketing, not the technical facts.

I had an Apple ][ and was excited by the Lisa, but couldn't afford one at the time. When the Macintosh came out, I found the screen far too small and I hated the the constant floppy disk shuffle. Obviously I didn't buy one. Ended up going down the IBM XT then AT path because I got to work with them and didn't have to buy anything. Back then a work perk was being a PC to work with. It wasn't until 2009 that I purchased my next Apple product, a MacBook Pro.

Rochus•4d ago

I started to work with Mac Plus at the university back in the eighties. I remember well the issues you mentioned.