You can try to argue that last claim with John McLearan. He believes it. And he offers his restored Lisa 2/10 — loaded with modifications to make it a 21st-century workhorse — as proof that the computer’s reputation needs a considerable upgrade.
“I think it’s so exciting to work on a Lisa,” McLearan, a computer repair technician from Illinois, told Cult of Mac. “The Lisa did things that were unheard of during its time. It makes the Macintosh from that era look like an oversized toy. If the Lisa had not come along, Apple would look very different today.”
Apple Lisa, thank you for your contributions
Apple began developing the Lisa in 1979 as a modern business alternative to the Apple II, the company’s first mass-produced computer that, to this day, is beloved globally. Fans still fete the Apple II each year during KansasFest, a festival dedicated to the computer.
The Lisa, named after the daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, does not enjoy such enduring reverence. One of the first commercial computers with a graphical user interface, the Lisa moved computing forward. Other advances included multitasking, a built-in screen saver, and an operating system with protected memory. It also was the first consumer machine with a mouse and the ability to copy and paste information.
But the computer’s slow processor could not keep up with the Lisa’s laudable features. Users complained of system crashes and an inadequate software library. Worst of all was the price. The first Lisa model retailed for about $10,000.
Read more at cultofmac.com