The Computer History Museum held an event on January 31 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Lisa computer. The event featured interviews with members of the Lisa development team, a demo of the Lisa, and even a “one more thing” moment. The museum announced it has posted a video of the event, which can be watched on YouTube.
Moderated by Katie Hafner, 100-minute event includes interviews with Lisa software manager Bruce Daniels, engineering director Wayne Rosing, graphic artist Annette Wagner, and market development manager Dan’l Lewin. The members of the team recount their experience with the Lisa development, its release, and its short stint in the market. Also, journalist Steve Levy examines why the Lisa was a commercial failure.
[Spoiler alert for this paragraph!] At the end of the video is what Dan’l Lewin called a “one more thing” moment, and it features Steve Jobs’s daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, wishing the Lisa a happy birthday. You can skip to that part of the video.
The event was part of the museum’s Lisa 40th Anniversary celebration. Earlier in January, the museum made the source code for the Lisa software available to download for free. The event was sponsored by The Verge, which did an article about the Lisa’s legacy and posted a collection of photos by Bill Atkinson, who designed and developed the Lisa graphical interface.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor
Roman has covered technology since the early 1990s. His career started at MacUser, and he's worked for MacAddict, Mac|Life, and TechTV.