the-verge 1 year ago
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The Verge | Inside the Flop that Changed Apple Forever

Apple’s Macintosh, released in 1984, is celebrated for ushering in a new era of user-friendly computing. But! The Mac owes a lot to its lesser-known, older sister Lisa.

Here’s how the Lisa, while seen as a flop today, used clever interface design to welcome everyone into the personal computer era.


Though as new technologies like AR, VR, and AI chatbots arrive, are we finally leaving Lisa’s legacy behind?


00:00 | Intro

00:37 | Computers of the 1970’s 

01:13 | The Beginning of GUIs

01:40 | Xerox PARC’s Alto Computer

02:10 | Other Tech Inspirations for Apple

02:42 | Goals behind the Apple Lisa

03:20 | Hands-on with a Lisa

04:35 | Developing the Lisa with Bill Atkinson 

06:22 | Introducing Macintosh

07:06 | Lisa vs Macintosh

07:24 | Countdown of switching applications on a Macintosh

08:15 | What the ‘Desktop Metaphor’ means now

09:28 | Final thoughts with Bill Atkinson 

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