Steve Jobs is a nasty man.
As Gates said to Jobs in the 'Silicon Pirates', you can't steal form a thief.
He and 1,000 other CEO's, I suppose.
"There won't be anything we won't say to people to try and convince them that our way is the way to go."
"It's possible, you can never know, that the universe exists only for me."
"... about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."
Considering the howling that's been coming from Microsoft about Linux and how hard it is to compete with a no-cost product, I found this quote particularly ironic.
"We are going to cut off [Netscape's] air supply. Everything they're selling, we're going to give away for free."
"Steve Jobs is a nasty man. "
Maybe, but he sure is a whiz at product development.
Steve Jobs has a brash, irritating personality, but he brough the company he founded from the brink of bankruptcy to a leading technology company. There's no denying he's an asshole, but he deserves credit for what he's done.
What he doesnt deserve credit for is "stealing" anything. The "theft" from Xeros did not happen, Apple PAID for a technology showing, they got it, and they never saw source code. They were already developing their ideas before the PARC dog & pony show, it was just to prove the concept to Jobs, who had'nt "got" the Mac concept yet. Many, many companies got the same demo of PARCs stuff, and later went on to publish computers and software - did they "steal" too?
It's well documented. Xerox lost their lawsuit over it. Get over it. "Pirates Of The Silicon Valley", while entertaining, had more to do with fiction than reality - and that's for everyone involved, not just Jobs.