Source code of Apple’s Lisa OS will be available in 2018

The Computer History Museum has recovered the source code of Apple’s Lisa system software and is awaiting Apple’s approval to release the code in 2018. The Lisa appeared in 1983 and was one of the first systems with a gui.

Al Kossow of the Computer History Museum reports that Apple is reviewing the recovered code and that the museum will release code next year after approval from the Cupertino company. He expects that only LisaWrite’s spellchecker dictionary probably shouldn’t be published.

Apple started work on the Lisa in 1978 and the system appeared in 1983. It was one of the first computers with a graphical user interface. Apple got the inspiration for this from the Xerox Alto.

The name Lisa would stand for Local Integrated System Architecture, but Steve Jobs later admitted that the name also referred to that of his daughter. Jobs himself was no longer part of the Lisa’s team when the computer appeared; he was put on development of the Macintosh, which came out in 1984.

The Lisa is seen as a flop for Apple: the price was too high by almost $10,000. However, many of the techniques developed for the Lisa were used by Apple for the Macintosh, which brought the company great success.

Early advertisement for the Apple Lisa.