The why of LisaGUI

LisaGUI is an amazing project that recreates the entire user interface of the Apple Lisa in the browser, using nothing but CSS, a bit of HTML, and SVG files, and it’s an absolute joy to use and experience. Its creator, Andrew Yaros, has published a blog post diving into the why and how of LisaGUI.

I had been trying to think of a good project to add to my programming portfolio, which was lacking. Finding an idea I was willing and able to execute on proved harder than expected. Good ideas are born from necessity and enthusiasm; trying to create a project for its own sake tends to be an uphill battle. I was also hoping to think of a specific project idea that hasn’t really been tried before. As you may have guessed by the title of this post, LisaGUI ended up being that project, although I didn’t really set out to make it as much as I stumbled into it while trying to accomplish something else.
↫ Andrew Yaros

I’m someone who prefers to run the real thing on real hardware, but in a lot of cases, that’s just not realistic anymore. Hardware like the Apple Lisa are not only hard to find and expensive, they also require considerable knowledge and skill to maintain and possibly repair, which not everyone can do. For these types of machines, virtualisation, emulation, and recreation are much better, more accessible options, especially if it involves hardware and software you’re not interested enough in to spend time and money on them.