Jobs saw a graphic user interface in use by a company who didn't patent it and had no intention of releasing it to the public. It was for internal company use only.

He copied it and improved upon it.

That's hardly "stealing". That's brilliance in entrepreunership.

Gates, on the other hand, was hired to write software for the Mac and was given a few prototypes to work with.

Shortly thereafter, "windows" was released.

That's what I'd call "stealing"

Funny thing is, Microsoft keeps doing the same thing year after year.

Apple puts it out, and a year or three later, Microsoft follows with something "close".

Never as good, but occasionally close.

Jim