Users can now create their own "Apple Lisa" through the source code, which CHM calls "Apple's most influential failed work"

CTOnews.com January 23, the computer History Museum (CHM), headquartered in Mountain View, California, today released all the source code, including systems and applications, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of Apple Lisa. CHM recently posted another blog post on how to use this source code to modify and create Apple's Lisa system.

CHM called Lisa "Apple's most influential failed work" and cited Lisa's mouse-driven GUI as a forerunner of more successful machines such as the Macintosh. And the blog post also speculated that without Lisa, there might be no Windows operating system.

The post goes on to detail the development, release, and eventual business failure of Lisa. CTOnews.com users who are interested in the history of Apple's Lisa technology can check it out.

The release of the Lisa source code means you can use it on your own machine. However, that doesn't mean you can use it as much as you want. Apple's code license agreement states that the source code is used only for "non-commercial, academic research, educational, and personal learning purposes".

According to the terms, you can:

Use, copy, compile, and modify Apple software

Run Apple software on your hardware and your modifications to it

Copy and refer to the documentation that came with the Apple software.

However, you cannot:

Redistribute, distribute, sublicense, sell, lease or transfer Apple softwar

Publish benchmark results about Apple software or your use of it

Use the name, trademark, service mark, or logo of Apple to endorse or promote your modifications or other materials to the Apple software.

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Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Apple Lisa, the computer History Museum publishes its source code.