The Computer History Museum, based in Mountain View, California, celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Apple Lisa by releasing all of its source code, including system and application software, today.
The Apple Lisa system was released on January 19, 1983, and at the time of its release was only available to business users, with a list price close to $10,000.
The Apple Lisa system was replaced by the more affordable Apple Macintosh and Lisa 2 two years after its release, but Apple Lisa was known for its innovative use of the graphical user interface (GUI).
With built-in tools for processing text, spreadsheets, and charts, the GUI was inspired by Xerox PARC’s Smalltalk system, but its own innovations ultimately inspired Apple’s future operating systems as well as Microsoft’s Windows software.
The Museum of Computer History is hosting “Art of Code,” an exhibition that focuses on the important code that drove major developments in computing. The awards ceremony will be held simultaneously online and offline on January 31 at 7 p.m. Pacific Time.
