Bruno Ferreira is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has decades of experience with PC hardware and assorted sundries, alongside a career as a developer. He's obsessed with detail and has a tendency to ramble on the topics he loves. When not doing that, he's usually playing games, or at live music shows and festivals. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-23/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Bruno Ferreira Social Links Navigation Contributor Bruno Ferreira is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has decades of experience with PC hardware and assorted sundries, alongside a career as a developer. He's obsessed with detail and has a tendency to ramble on the topics he loves. When not doing that, he's usually playing games, or at live music shows and festivals.
hwertz Don't know where you got the idea this was the first commercial computer with aa GUI. Part of the whole lawsuit when Apple was trying to sue everyone over GUI related stufff hinged on the fact Jobs had visited Xerox and saw what they had there. Xerox Star 8010 was first on the market with a GUI by several years. (Xerox Alto was done up by 1972 but only sent to universities and treated like a prototype with several hundred sent out rather than a product.) Edit: OK I see this is in the article, just some saying it didn't count (because it included a server and laser printer. Xerox did basically view this as a way to sell laser printers, which back then were like $50K.) Reply
American2021 hwertz said: Xerox Star 8010 was first on the market with a GUI by several years. You are correct! 0_bgAryP380:506 Reply
hwertz American2021 said: You are correct! 0_bgAryP380:506 I must say, it's too bad Xerox did all this work on GUIs, ethernet with file sharing and e-mail, and so on, but really only marketed and sold them as a document editing system (and research models for universities). Although unless they could get the price down I suppose it would have faced the same fate as the Lisa as a standalone system. The bit I've read about Mesa is fascinating, and so are LISP and Smalltalk (which were widely used by Xerox PARC and whatever universities received Xerox systems through the 1970s and 1980s.) Reply
vossile I applaud people re-creating the tech that started it all. It's just gotten so "normal" to slap FPGAs or a Picos in every project, that it feels a little like AI-slop nowadays. Why not collect the originals, repair and restore them while they are still around? You can pick up a Lisa II for what 2K? Reply
hwertz vossile said: Why not collect the originals, repair and restore them while they are still around? You can pick up a Lisa II for what 2K? I see some hopeful EBayer has one listed for like $6300. But, you know, I can see going for a reproduction — that $2K is a lot of cash. And with the repro you have HDMI, USB-C (for serial ports) and SD Card (for floppy and hard drive)… which is not authentic, but I think it'd be tricky to even get software on or off a machine this vintage otherwise. I'd have real concerns primariy over just how long that CRT will last, and the 5MB HDD. Since the Mac used non-standard format I assume the Lisa did too (so you'd need a catweasel or something to even read and write the floppies to supply it with software), and it supports serial (if there's a comms program on the Lisa?) and (when running certain software only) LocalTalk (… which I'm not sure how you'd interface to with modern hardware. Linux *used* to actually have in-kernel AppleTalk networking but I think it was removed a while ago (and I'm not sure it would use LocalTalk as opposed to AppleTalk over ethernet… since the PC serial ports are RS232 rather than the multi-drop-supporting RS422 LocalTalk uses, and a USB to serial adapter would be right out for something like this.) You can bridge LocalTalk to Ethernet with a bridge but these are probably rather rare these days. It's like that with collector cars too — there's a real market for collector cars. But there's also a market for reproductions… which can be a fraction the cost, and even when it's not will still have fuel injection, anti-lock brakes, etc. that the collector car generally wouldn't. If someone wants the authentic experience of tuning up their car (jets, idle mixture, checking out or replacing the plugs and wires, adjusting the timing with the distributor) or souping it up (that stuff, and possibly putting a bigger 4-barrel on there, air intake, and so on) maybe the repro isn't what they want. But if they want to hop in and drive it, perhaps it is. Reply
American2021 hwertz said: I see some hopeful EBayer has one listed for like $6300. Elon should buy it and donate it to the Smithsonian. Give them something to work on besides DEI. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/maker-stem/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/maker-stem/enthusiast-creates-an-fpga-powered-apple-lisa-clone-modernized-machine-faithfully-recreates-the-first-commercial-computer-with-a-gui#main
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