
From Xerox, with Love
73
Putting the Mac into proper historical perspective is impossible without
considering its forerunner, Apple’s ill-fated Lisa computer. The Lisa began
life in the fall of 1978 when Steve Jobs and William “Trip” Hawkins
III, manager of marketing planning, began brainstorming about a next-
generation project that would break from the Apple II mold. But it wasn’t
until July 30, 1979, that the Lisa project really got under way when Ken
Rothmuller was hired as project manager. As conceived, the Lisa was nothing
like the Mac. For that matter, Lisa, the project, bore little resemblance to
Lisa, the product.
In 1979, ...