I love it when I hear someone complain that anyone who spends more than $500 for a computer is insane. Looking at the prices at Costco, I won’t disparage what one will probably get for $500 (a nice 24” all-in-one HP lists for $699.99).  When I started playing with these devices 39-years ago $2,000 got you in the door, but there was still the issue of how reliable your machine would be. Ultimately you might get something cheaper, but then it would cost you in time and frustration to keep the cheaper system running. Things got better in the mid-1990s and the price dropped to $1,000, but again, if you went too cheap you might spend twice that in repairs and time. Our you might end up becoming your family’s unpaid go-to tech-guy. Yay!

Back in April I posted a story with video by the Verge about Apple’s failed gamble to grab the business computer market in the mid-1980s. Today’s post and video is a follow-up to the story about the Apple Lisa and birth of the original Macintosh. The earlier documentary talks about how the Macintosh’s user-interface and basic technologies came from the earlier Lisa computer. Today’s documentary goes into more depth and discusses how the Macintosh doomed the Lisa’s possible future. There’s also a bit about how astronomical the prices of these early machines were and how quickly the prices fell even just one year year after their launch. Enjoy.

The crazy prices probably contributed to my non-participation during this early era. I was building my own DIY Windows-clones for the first 15-years of my technology journey and didn’t buy my first Mac until the 2000s (a grey Power Mac G4 tower for $2,200 in 2002). I kept my PCs and Mac running together until I moved to Florida in 2008, and went Mac only. I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a little NUC PC just to stay up-to-date with how the other-half (more like 90%) has to deal with… But then I really don’t have the time. I mean, the whole point of purchasing my technology 39-years ago was to facilitate my writing. I didn’t do as much as I wanted the first 20-years because I was too busy trouble-shooting uncooperative technology. I gained some expertise, but it is kind of important that I stay a bit more focused on all the dozen of projects (mostly writing related) that I want to do. Watching the video… lessons learned. I do love this stuff. Anyway, happy Tech Tuesday, y’all. 

Sources: 

• Video Fridays: Inside the Flop That Changed Apple Forever, (2023-04-07), https://joebustillos.com/2023/04/video-fridays-inside-the-flop-that-changed-apple-forever/ 
• Lisa: Steve Jobs’ sabotage and Apple’s secret burial, The Verge (2023), https://youtu.be/rZjbNWgsDt8
• Apple’s Lisa entombment was just the beginning, shows new documentary by Evan Selleck/Apple Insider, May 30, 2023, https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/05/30/apples-lisa-entombment-was-just-the-beginning-shows-new-documentary