Re: Apple II-Or Come on people, It's a 20 year old computer

[Roy and/or Janet Miller <millers@inetnebr.com>]

Paul Schlyter wrote:

> > [History]
> > At the time the Macintosh came out, IBM and Microsoft said that
> > the Macintosh was a "toy" and the mouse a "gadget".
> >
> > How fun...    |-D
>
> It was mostly a gadget, at the time.  And so was the PC, which
> originally was aimed at the home computer market, mostly intended to
> play games.  That's why IBM first released the CGA (Color Graphics
> Adapter) card,

Correction Paul, the IBM PC was first released with the Monochrome Display
Adapter, which had no graphical (or all points addressable in IBMspeak)
ability at all. Probably just an oversight on you part. Further, the first
software that IBM released was a series of "productivity" software, also know
as the pfs series on the Apple ][.

> which had (low-res, by toray's standards) graphics,
> but which displayed text with not so good resolution.
>
> >>> It may have been a flop at the time because of cost, but it started a
> >>> revolution nonetheless.
> >>
> >> No it didn't.  The original idea was stolen by Apple from Xerox, so
> >> Lisa wasn't the original computer with a GUI.  And the Lisa was
> >> simply too expensive to start a "revolution" on the market -- the
> >> Macintosh did that.

IMHO you are both right. The Lisa was very expensive, but if you tried to buy
a computer with all the built in hardware that it had, you'd pay very close
to what the Lisa listed for. Remember, it came with a full meg of memory when
"business" computers only had 64K (even the IBM PC was a 64K machine at
first, and at the time of the Lisa's release 128K was the IBM standard), it
had a hard drive and the super high resolution monochrome display. Lisa was
the first computer with a GUI to be offered for sale, the Xerox machine came
a bit later. And, if you read articles from that time period, when Apple
referred to the the Mac, they talked about the "Lisa technology."

>
> >
> > The idea was not that 'stolen'. Apple bought Xerox's Lab at PaloAlto.

Apple never bought the lab, but they did allow Xerox to buy Apple stock, and
in exchange for that, they got a look see at the Lab.

I wish I owned a Lisa. I only need a 128 to complete my Mac collection. And a
Portable PC to complete my IBM collection. (Who needs a stinkin' PS/2?  :-)

Roy