Imagesource: Rob Janoff, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The story of the Apple Lisa is a bit sad, almost tragic. Launched in 1978, it was supposed to revolutionize pretty much everything on the market up to that point. However, the repeated delays made the product more or less obsolete, when it was launched into the market at virtually the same time as the Macintosh.

And the Mac was also a cheaper and more focused version of the Lisa, since Steve Jobs had taken over the Mac after the kick out of the Lisa project.

The stories are manyfold. But fact is, that the Lisa was ahead of its time in some respects, and several of its concepts have found their way into mainstream computing.

On January 19th, 40 years ago, the Lisa saw the light of day in the waiting market. Today, all the software that defined the machine is available as open source.

The Computer History Museum makes it possible. The download is available if you give your name and email address, but that should not be an obstacle. There is a lot to learn, and if you are interested in the history and/or the code, you are in good hands with the corresponding article of the CHM.

That's what I call proper preservation.