Apple Lisa OS Will Be Publicly Released in 2018

Next year, the Computer History Museum will release the Apple Lisa OS for free, as an open source project. The Lisa was Apple’s first computer with a graphical user interface, released almost 35 years ago.

Apple Lisa

However, the Lisa was a flop, selling only 10,000 units on an R&D investment of US$150 million. The Lisa caused a fight between Steve Jobs and then-CEO John Sculley, which caused Steve to leave Apple.

Image of the Apple Lisa computer.

At the time, the Lisa was pretty cutting-edge. Not only did it have a graphical user interface, but it also introduced the mouse as an input tool. But it was an expensive machine, costing US$10,000 in 1983, which is the equivalent of US$24,000 today.

5 thoughts on “Apple Lisa OS Will Be Publicly Released in 2018

  • We had one in the office (Mortgage Business), but it was dedicated to another person’s work……so I, even though co-owner, was banging out hours on the Apple II machines. Until two Macs arrived!
    My first “personal” machine was a Mac 512K enhanced and a whooping 10 MB external Hard Drive (for a total of $5000…..ouch!). (Still have it!!!!)

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