“My 23 year old Lisa2 computer is not a museum piece. Lisa can run with the best of them, straight down the information super highway, the internet. She is strong, fast, connected, and still very useful today. As proof that she is so strong, she can host this web-site,” Rick writes for Lisa2.com.
Rick writes, “23 Years ago, Apple created Lisa to be the computer of the future, yet all the hype and Lisa web-sites around are stuck in the past. I hope to change that. With all the hype about the mouse and the GUI, two of the most important points of her design seem to be always forgotten:
1. She was designed to run multiple operating systems, Apple knew that the LisaOS may not be popular in 2006, so they left the door open for her to run newer OS’s (like MacOS). [On my Lisa2 Systems I run standard MacOS System 7.5.5 (the last ver that supports 68000 CPU’s) on top of the MacWorks+II PRO environment. MacWorks+II PRO is not an emulator, but a Lisa program (a Lisa environment) that allows Macintosh programs to operate on the Lisa Hardware by loading into RAM the same toolbox code that’s normally in the ROM on Mac.]
2. She was made to be hardware expandable: memory upgrades, additional ports, hard disks, and 3 expansion slots (with great ZIF connectors).
Rick writes, “I use my Lisa2 computers almost daily, doing the same sort of things you would do with a modern PC.”
• She prints to a Postscript Laser Printer
• She is connected to and shares files with Ethernet LAN with both Macs and PC’s
• She is connected to the Internet.
• She can run apps like: MS Word, Excel & Lotus 123, PageMaker & Quark Express, FileMaker Pro & FoxBase, Email, Browsers, and Fetch.
• She supports large SCSI hard drives, Scanners & Video Capture, and even CD Rom drives.
• She also makes a great web server and is hosting this site! (at least most of the time)
Specs:
Hardware:
• Lisa2 System
• 2 Meg Slot Ram
• XLerator 18 with 8 Meg Fast RAM
• MW+II PFG with ESCC
• Screen Mod Kit.
• SUN 800K floppy Drive
• SUN SCSI card with QuickBoot ROM
• 500 Meg internal SCSI Hard Disk with Apple ROM.
• Farallon EtherMac MicroSCSI etherner adapter.
Software:
• MacWorks+II Pro
• MacOS System 7.5.5
• MacTCP 2.06
• MacHTTP 2.6
Okay, let’s see what that ol’ Lisa can handle. Ready, set, GO!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Macaday” for the heads up.]
cool but ive never kept an apple for longer than a year lol, upgrading is always to tempting, and apple makes it too easy
That is really sweet. In this jaded age it is nice to read heartwarming stories like this one.
Thanks
WOW! I’d love to meet a 23 year old female host, especially if her name was Moner Lisa
If this get’s on digg, this lisa is in trouble.
Well, at least the guy got his money’s worth out of the machine, which is more than I can say for most of the computers I’ve bought.
Awesome. Where did I put that old Mac Classic and Mac II? Oh yes, the Mac II is next to the Radius monitor over by the ImageWriter printer and near the Tangerine iMac.
MDN: your pop-up windows and ad-links make you the worst behaved website I visit. Maybe if I switched to a browser on a Lisa I wouldn’t get bugged with all your ads?
Herbert Donovan,
Just what I thought too when I read it.
Makes you want to really care for your Mac!
I agree with you ME. There’s nothing more annoying than the pop-under ads that start talking about the two free iPods I just won. The whole office hears it every freakin day!
MDN: your pop-up windows and ad-links make you the worst behaved website I visit. Maybe if I switched to a browser on a Lisa I wouldn’t get bugged with all your ads?
Welcome to internet boot camp.
1: Turn off Javascript to stop the pop-under window exploit.
2: Get Safariblock to block certain flashing ads or all of them.
3: To block the mouse over popup ads on this site:
sudo pico /etc/hosts (in admin user) and arrow down to the bottom of the file, paste
0.0.0.0 macdailynews.us.intellitxt.com
to the bottom of the file, do not delete anything already there!
Control X, then press y and return to save changes. Reload the page.
You can make your computer not access any server you wish. Just google for “block hosts” and get a nice long list of ad servers to block. Makes loading web pages FAST.
Wow System7.5.5. I think I started on 7.5.2. Or as I like to call it: The Freezotron 97. 16 megs O’ Ram nursing along Photoshop 4 on my PowerMac 7500. Good times, good times. BTW I splurged on the 1Gig HD. I knew, KNEW I’d need the extra space down the road. Boy was that a short road. LOL
That simply owns. Rock on!
It’s so funny, that old saying about old dogs and new tricks just doesn’t seem to apply to Apple hardware. I havn’t met a Mac that hasn’t been recycled in some way.
I happily used a Mac Plus from 1990 to 2000. MAN I miss that thing.
It was so “Macintosh”…with the multi-colored Apple logo!
Fun!
That’s like the day when a woman brought in an SE30 that had just died on her, she was in tears! She was upset that it had only lasted for 15 years.
a black and white macintosh classic was my only computer from the 80’s until 1998 when I got a shiny new G3 tower.
1983–Senior in high school, tooling around on a ][+ (I think. Memory is a little fuzzy).
Best friend sez, “Let’s go downtown and check out a Lisa…”
Was that really almost 24 years ago? Sheesh. I finally got a SE/30 in 1987, complete w/9 pin printer. Cost $2300 with a student discount. Last I heard in 1996, it was getting someone through nursing school. Sure wish I had it now.
Interesting article MDN.
When us older guys say we miss using an old Mac, I suspect we really mean we miss our youth.
I have a 512 and a Mac Plus in the cupboard, but I can’t say I miss using them. The clanging keyboards alone would drive me nuts. Nevertheless, the Mac Plus was a great machine in its day.
I must throw them out one day………… but not yet.
I used to have one of those!
This one made me run to my attic. I am happy to report that my Apple IIC+ still works! It hasn’t even been plugged in for like 10 freakin years now… Ok, later. I have to put in the code to make it run at 1/2 speed and get back to Marble Madness. So much for work today…
Widdle Wisa is so cute!
My first computer… 1993-1999, replaced by IBM Aptiva… Sigh…
Its always hard to part with these old computers. I guess that why I still have a Apple 2c in the basement. Still works of course.
Of course computers are like cars, they get old fast. My everyday Mac is a 450 mhz power mac g4 that I bought new in 1999. So that means its already going on 7 years old already.