🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <947@apple.UUCP> han@apple.UUCP writes:
>In article <3077@eagle.ukc.ac.uk>, jg@eagle.ukc.ac.uk (J.Grant) writes:
>> 
>> I have been offered a Lisa (Mac XL) 2/5 at what seems a reasonable
>> price, before I take the plunge is there anything that I should know?
>
>Buying a Mac XL would probably lead to disappointment and disillusionment.
>You would be far better off (in this humble poster's opinion) to save your
>moullah and buy a Mac Plus, SE, or Mac II.
>

The Lisa is a super, super machine, beautifully engineered, utterly reliable,
and loaded with nice features.  It is  N O T  a Macintosh of any kind.  It can
sort of be used as a Mac via a set of ROM upgrades and the MacWorks software,
but be prepared to accept an arbitrary list of non-runners, and to put up with
endless idiosyncrasies.

If you are a serious hacker, prepared to get inside system code and patch, you
can actually make almost everything Macish work, but this is a very expensive
(of time) option.  If you start playing with the hardware configuration, be
prepared to create your own versions of almost all key system software.  Also,
hardware expansions are not cheap, and lead you into the world of who is
responsible for maintaining what.

I have one Lisa officially AppleCared as a Mac/XL (costs more than a Lisa), but
I also have a very friendly local Mac dealer who turns a relatively blind eye
to one or two "minor" hardware hacks.  Memory beyond 2 meg, internal disk > 10
meg, double-sided floppy, co-processor boards, video-tap for extended screen
all have to be separately maintained, and necessitate fairly intimate hardware
knowledge.

I run a fair amount of Mac software simply for compatibility with some of my
working environments, but all serious work I do via either the Lisa workshop
and home-grown software, or under a proprietary OS to access auxilliary
hardware functions.

If you want a Mac, buy a Mac.

Robert Stanley  <<he had a mind like a steel trap; firmly closed!>>

-- 
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