Like the OP, I've been an "Apple watcher for 20 years", and it's always funny to seeing people harping on this Xerox transaction, while missing most of the actual facts.
For what's worth, Microsoft gave Xerox money too, and also hired key people like Charles Simonyi from PARC. So it wasn't exactly like the movie where Bill Gates was yelling "I got the loot Steve! I got the loot!"
Yep, that made for tv movie has really ruined the debates on how the event actually unfolded. It was a pretty terrible movie in a lot of ways and it got a lot of facts wrong.
