“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.]
