I guess you can say the Lisa 2 is the very thin silver lining of the whole Lisa experience. As in Apple tradition, they did better the second time around and improved on the design of the Lisa 1, but still didn't manage to get it totally right. The Lisa 2 and the original Macintosh were introduced on January 24, 1984, a date now etched into the minds of many Mac aficionados. The first noticeable difference is the lack of the plagued Twiggy drives. In its place is the Sony 400k 3.5" disk drive sported on the Macintosh. The Lisa's hard drive was also upgraded to a 10 MB "Widget" drive. But sales were still slow since the OS was incompatible with any software. It was also sold without its software bundle for $3495, but the Lisa was worthless with neither Apple nor third-party software. Apple "fixed" the problem by rechristening the computer the Macintosh XL, hoping it would have better success with the Macintosh name. It now included a Mac OS emulator called MacWorks which ran business programs written for the Mac. MacWorks Plus was later released for further compatibility. After feeble sales in 1985 due its own shortcomings and the popularity of the Mac, Apple barely kept the Lisa alive. It wasn't until 1987, when Sun Remarketing bought several thousand Mac XLs and upgraded them with the latest Mac technology, that they began to sell fairly well. But Apple had had enough with the Lisa line though, and in 1989 rented some land in Utah at the Logan Landfill. After the last Lisa rolled off the shelf at a Carollton, Texas plant, they trashed the remaining machines and stripped them of their more valuable parts. The area is still around today I would guess, and a picture I saw of the place shows an eerie graveyard of the poor Apple computer that just have a chance. Check out a Lisa Office System 7/7 screen shot.

Code Names: Lisa was the original code-name. The XL in Mac XL stood for "eXtra Large", but was jokingly called "eXtra Lisa" or "eX-Lisa".

Specifications:
Processor: Motorola 68000 processor running at 5 MHz.
Memory: came with 1 MB of RAM, supports up to 2 MB. 16k ROM.
Display: 12" monochrome display at 640x480.
Drives: Sony 400k 3.5" drive also found on the original Mac. You could also opt for the 10 MB "Widget" HD.
Ports: RS-323, RCA, printer, modem, and mouse port.
Expansion: 3 slots.

Operating Systems:
Lisa 2: Lisa Office System 7/7.
Mac XL: MacWorks, MacWorks Plus.

Models in this Series:
Lisa 2: basic system, still used Lisa OS 7/7.
Lisa 2/5: Lisa 2 with 5MB Widget drive.
Lisa 2/10: Lisa 2 with 10MB Widget drive.
Macintosh XL: same computer, different name. No longer ran Lisa OS 7/7 or bundled application suite. Now ran the Mac emulator, MacWorks.

On the market from: Jan 85-Aug 86.

Interesting Facts:
I kind of wasted my interesting fact about the Lisa graveyard at top. Ironically, Apple did get a tax write-off on the land they rented for it, so at least they has some financial success with it. When I do more research on this machine I'm sure I'll have much more juicy info.

Resources and Related Links:
The Lisa entry at Richard Kilpatrick's Apple Retro.
Picture from A History of Apple Computers