Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) (01/03/91)
I am looking for info on the Apple Lisa computer... What little I know: I recall a few years ago (around 1983?), a lot of media hype (the same stuff that heralds a new computer) about the Apple Lisa, and mildly recall its rather expensive price. A little while later, Apple introduced the Mac, thusly digging a premature grave for the Lisa. Practical experence on my side with the Lisa is nil: Ive turned it on a few times, and noted its quite similar apperence to the Mac, which might lead on to assume that the Lisa is a Mac 'prototype'. Execpt for the largish case on the Lisa (and a few other oddities), the Lisa might just as well be a Mac: same screen, mouse, similar keyboard, same diskette drive (visually... its missing a much needed mechanical eject). Can any one give me hard info on the Lisa? I might be able to get my hands on one for about $150, with mostly everything (including a ST-506 5mb hard drive! wow!). Unfortunatly, the machine lacks diskettes. I dunno if there is anything on the hard drive (no cable to mate it to the box with)... Thanx for any info Billy D'Augustine Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com
dcc@ccvr1.ncsu.edu (Daniel Carr) (01/03/91)
In article <37512@cup.portal.com> Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) writes: >I am looking for info on the Apple Lisa computer... What little I know: i have a lisa also, and i'm looking for used hardware :) >Practical experence on my side with the Lisa is nil: Ive turned it on a >few times, and noted its quite similar apperence to the Mac, which might >lead on to assume that the Lisa is a Mac 'prototype'. Execpt for the >largish case on the Lisa (and a few other oddities), the Lisa might >just as well be a Mac: same screen, mouse, similar keyboard, same >diskette drive (visually... its missing a much needed mechanical eject). right you are. when the mac first came out, software was introduced to make the lisa run the Macintosh O/S, called Macworks. The Lisa running Macworks became called a Macintosh XL. With a whole megabyte of memory and a hard disk, at that time, the Mac XL was an attractive alternative to the 128k or even 512k Mac. About a year ago, Apple destroyed all their surplus Lisas and put them in a landfill. I guess they were tired of skeletons in their closet. There are three main retailers i know of that still support the Lisa. They are: (800-821-3221) Sun Remarketing (800-323-1751) Dafax Frank Freeman, of the LisaShop <D2262%applelink@apple.com> Phone: 916-668-5637, FAX: 916-668-0950. Although Apple no longer supports these machines, these places do. Items sold include memory upgrades, SCSI cards, accelerator boards, floppy drive upgrades, etc. Sun Remarketing has rewritten Macworks and called it Macworks+. Macworks+ makes the Lisa the functional equivalent of a Macintosh Plus, except slightly slower and no digitized sound. >Can any one give me hard info on the Lisa? I might be able to get my hands >on one for about $150, with mostly everything (including a ST-506 5mb >hard drive! wow!). Unfortunatly, the machine lacks diskettes. I dunno if >there is anything on the hard drive (no cable to mate it to the box with)... $150 is quite a lot, since you can get a new SCSI card for it for the same price from Sun Remarketing. I recently bought a 5mb profile hard drive through the net for $25. And the seller thought it was a 10mb drive! I guess that's one of the pitfalls of buying stuff through the net. But it was in better condition than the one i had been using, so i kept it. $5/meg of disk space isn't too bad. the lisa is a pretty good computer, but try to avoid putting too much money in it, since new Macs can be had cheaply, and used Macs can be had for even cheaper. i've collected a wealth of information on Lisas, so if you have any further questions, feel free to ask. daniel btw, my setup is: 1 Lisa with 1 meg, 1 10mb profile with Lisa SystemV Unix, 2 5mb profiles with Macworks+, but i need a parallel card to connect more than one profile up at a time. anyone who wishes to sell Lisa stuff, please contact me. ----- Daniel Carr "I'm from North Carolina and I DON'T support Sen. Jesse Helms" --on a bumper daniel@cc.ncsu.edu dcc@ccvr1.ncsu.edu daniel@ncsuvm.BITNET
rhyde@ucrmath.ucr.edu (randy hyde) (01/04/91)
>> Any info on Lisas..
I've owned three of these beasts in my time (i'm down to 1-1/2 now, the
1/2 is a broken machine is use for parts, my third machine I traded for
a color card for my mac).
If you're planning on getting the thing to run Mac software, don't waste
your money. Macs do a much better job of it than Lisas. If you can get
the Lisa 7/7 Office System with the Package for $150, all you'll need
is 10 Megs disk space to have a really neat system. The Lisa 7/7 Office
system had much better software than anything that appeared on the Mac
until recently. Much better integrated and true multitasking. The major
complaint I've got with the Lisa is that it's *SLOW*. Multitasking at
5Mhz is almost useless (and everyone around here wonders why I think that
attempting to multitask the GS isn't such a bright idea! I speak from
experience). If you go ahead an buy it, I've got lots of software I'm
willing to sell!
*** Randy Hyderhyde@ucrmath.ucr.edu (randy hyde) (01/04/91)
Really? Where, and how much? Do these only work with MacWorks, or does it work with Lisa 7/7 Office System?
swiers@plains.NoDak.edu (Aaron Swiers) (01/07/91)
In response to 5MHz being too slow to multitask....
Yeah, sounds like an OK assertion to me...of course most people who actually
_USE_ their GS have gotten at least some sort of accelerator by now, and GS/OS
is supposed (I'm not real up on it personally) to be kinda quick. I have a
Sun 2/120 (68010@10Mhz) that's kinda slow, but multitasking is sooo nice it
sorta makes up for it. It's kinda nice DL'ing in the background, or working
on something while others are logged on the system (I have it setup for
remote login's, and I'll have a LAN if I could just get this damn ethernet
to work).....all for about 1/5th what I paid for my IIgs...
---
Mike Aos "I own a Harley, not just a T-shirt!" ['68 Sporty]
East Grand Forks, MN (yeah, it's COLD up here) {Helmit laws still suck!}
(218) 773-9154 -> Home "Mother do you think they'll drop the bomb
(218) 773-7933 -> Work Mother do you think they'll like this song"
(218) 773-6834 -> BBS | Woz | "Mother", Pink Floyd, _The Wall_
UD182050@NDSUVM1 (.Bitnet?) | Apple IIgs, | "Share and Enjoy" 'Stay Tooned!'
UD182050@VM1.NoDak.Edu | Sun 2/50 | -Sirius Cybernetics Corporation
I like to trade. | and Sun 2/120 | (reserved for a Mac slam)
Write "Fox" | 'till I can afford a NeXT!| Save _Alien Nation!_gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) (01/11/91)
In article <10875@ucrmath.ucr.edu> rhyde@ucrmath.ucr.edu (randy hyde) writes: >complaint I've got with the Lisa is that it's *SLOW*. Multitasking at >5Mhz is almost useless ... Multitasking of PDP-11 UNIX occurred on a considerably punier machine, and it was wonderful. Perhaps the real problem was with the Lisa's system software (possibly its window management routines).
rhyde@ucrmath.ucr.edu (randy hyde) (01/15/91)
>>> PDP-11...considerably punier machine...
I for one, do not consider the PDP-11 to be punier than the 68000.
One big problem with the Lisa was its terrible memory management hardwared.
Plus, even at 5 Mhz there were wait states (associated with video display).
The stock 68000 is not a good machine to multitask.
Finally, slow is a very relative term. I used a Lisa for years after the
Macs appeared. It wasn't until the Mac II ci came around that I finally
stopped using the Lisa. I now have a Mac II fx and I wouldn't trade it for
a Lisa (or a PDP-11!).