A trip down memory lane: The Apple Lisa and Apple IIe turn 30

The original Apple Lisa

The original Lisa was introduced at an Apple shareholder meeting on January 19, 1983. It had been in development since the late 1970s, and Steve Jobs was forced out of the Lisa team just before its launch in 1983. Apple claimed it was an acronym: Local Integrated System Architecture, but the lore is that the machine was really named after Jobs' first daughter. Perched atop the machine is the ProFile 5MB hard drive.

A Lisa 1 prototype

This is a shot of an original Lisa 1 prototype before its official announcement on January 19, 1983.

Inside the Lisa

This is a rear view of the inside of the Lisa.

The Lisa desktop

The desktop on the Apple Lisa was a sight to behold. It had a revolutionary graphical user interface that resembled a "real" desktop with files and folders.

The Lisa GUI: so exciting!

This is another screenshot of the GUI on the Lisa. SO many windows open at once!

Apple's Lisa team in 1983

This is a shot of the Lisa team at Apple: Paul Baker, Bruce Daniels, Chris Franklin, Rich Page, John Couch, and Larry Tesler.

Lisa advertisement

A magazine advertisement for the first Lisa computer from 1983.

The Lisa 2 from 1984

This is the Lisa 2, the second-generation version of the Lisa first introduced in 1983. The Lisa 2 was introduced a year later in 1984 with just one floppy drive instead of two.

The Apple IIe

The Apple IIe was also introduced at the shareholder meeting on January 19, 1983, alongside the Lisa. It was the third model in the Apple II line but became one of the most successful machines Apple had released yet. Unlike the Lisa, the Apple IIe did not have a graphical "desktop," building instead upon the Apple ][+.

Apple IIe Owner's Manual

A page from the Apple IIe owner's manual, which spells out to the tinkerer which slots are for what.

MousePaint on the Apple IIe

A screenshot of MousePaint on the Apple IIe. Even though the computer didn't have a "desktop" GUI like the Lisa, the Apple IIe could show basic graphics like this.

Apples make great carrots?

This is an ad for the Apple II, a precursor to the Apple IIe. In the ad, Apple describes the Apple II as a "business machine" that gets people "excited."

Which to choose?

A poster issued by Apple after the release of the Apple IIe. It reads: "IIe or IIc. That is the question."

Data source: ars technica (by Jacqui Cheng)