home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Xref: sparky comp.sys.mac.misc:13906 comp.sys.mac.hardware:14322 comp.sys.mac.system:10444 comp.sys.mac.wanted:6983
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.macintosh,comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.hardware,comp.sys.mac.system,comp.sys.mac.wanted
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!milano!cactus.org!rdd
- From: rdd@cactus.org (Robert Dorsett)
- Subject: Re: Need LISA (Yes LISA) system disks
- Message-ID: <1992Jul28.081243.13569@cactus.org>
- Organization: Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society, Austin, Tx
- References: <1992Jul28.034751.6419@intelhf.hf.intel.com>
- Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 08:12:43 GMT
- Lines: 101
-
- In article <1992Jul28.034751.6419@intelhf.hf.intel.com> george@hfglobe.intel.com (George Rachor) writes:
- >Yes folks I found a LISA. This one has a 3.5 in floppy drive so I am hoping
- >it might be more closly related to the Mac XL.
- >
- >I'm looking for system software for this beast. When I turn the machine
- >on it gets as far as wanting a floppy disk to be inserted. Here is what
- >I a really worried about: I would expect any 400K floppy diskette to be
- >examined but when I put the diskette in I can't detect any motor vibration.
-
- As I recall, the Lisa drive was very difficult to hear. The drive is
- identical to that used in early 128's and 512's; there's a simple hack
- to add an LED "in use" indicator to it. I'll post it, if there's any
- interest; it's a MacPaint 1.5 file.
-
-
- >Is this normal? The local Apple dealer made a gallent effort
-
- <snicker> :-) Mistake number one: never go to Apple dealers for support.
-
-
- >and has come
- >up with all sorts of applications but between the two of us we still haven't
- >found anything that will boot this.
- >
- >Or should I just add this to an aging collection?
-
- (sigh)
-
- The Lisa 2 was essentially a Lisa with *one* 3.5" 400K drive, no bundled
- software (maybe some system stuff; I don't remember), and a variety of
- configurations: 512K of memory or 1M of memory; and no, 5, or 10M hard
- disks. Both hard disks became known as "Profiles," but in my mind, the
- Profile will always be the 5M tank that sat on top of the Apple ///. But
- I digress. :-) The Lisa 2/5 retailed for about $6000 when it came out;
- food for thought, for those who insist on whining about not getting any
- computer from Apple, anymore.
-
- The 5M hard disk went on top (the Profile); the 10M goes in the front case.
- If you find early Lisa 1's, sometimes, you'll find TWO 5M Profiles
- stacked on top! This before the 10M unit was released with the Lisa 2.
-
- Both the Lisa and Lisa 2 were rather dumb machines, nowhere near the
- ROM support of the Mac. Virtually everything useful was in software;
- that's one reason it was so slow. And a reason why it was reasonably
- effective at running two operating systems (and, yes, the MacOS was
- MUCH faster than the Office System).
-
- The Mac XL WAS a Lisa 2/10, bundled with MacWorks and a version of the
- Macintosh documentation. MacWorks was the key: it was a program to load
- what amounted to a Macintosh 64K ROM emulator.
-
- There were many "64K" versions of MacWorks, but two with identifiable
- features. One required you to insert a floppy after system start-up.
- It chug-a-lugged for a long while, displayed the Welcome to Macintosh
- screen, belched it out, and attempted to mount a hard disk, if any.
- Otherwise, one could put a little floppy in (get a ramdisk, if you use
- this approach!), which could launch, say, System 4.1.
-
- The other version could be installed on the hard disk. In this case,
- (theoretically) one would just turn the computer/hard disk on, and it
- would boot up. I found that quite often it would "lose" the hard disk.
- Since it took a minute for the hard disk's self-diagnostics to pass,
- power-cycling to try to get the system to gel was quite aggravating.
-
- The Mac XL was shipped with the latter version (Version 3.1, if I recall).
-
- Unfortunately, the 64K ROMs didn't support a hierarchical file system:
- that meant that all "standard" system file operations were REAL slow. A
- company, Sun Remarketing, sells a "128K" version, which purports to bring
- it up to a Mac Plus level (assuming you have the memory), but I'd really
- have to question why you're putting yourself through this. Used Plusses
- with hard disks are less than $600, used ($500, if you know who to ask);
- without, they range from $400 to $450. It isn't THAT much more to pay,
- and it's a much faster machine.
-
-
- The cool thing about the Lisa, IMHO, was that it LOOKED like a computer.
- There was the Apple ///, then the Lisa. Everything else Apple's produced
- has either looked... odd... or IBM-ish "boxes." :-) The other neat thing
- was that until the Plus really demonstrated how slow the Lisa had become,
- it was pretty fun to have a "large screen" to play with.
-
- But, boy, was that sucker SLOW... slow, slow, SLOW... (faster than the
- Mac 128, though! :-)).
-
- Call Sun Remarketing. They're rip-off artists, but they'll get your
- computer running. I also have a 3.1 disk around here somewhere,
- if you want it.
-
-
- >George L. Rachor Jr.
- >Prefered mail address:
- >george@endeavor.intel.com
-
-
-
-
- ---
- Robert Dorsett
- rdd@cactus.org
- ...cs.utexas.edu!cactus.org!rdd
-