Actually, the mouse predates even Xerox PARC: It came from Doug Engelbart at SRI. I think the original mouse (which is patented) may be in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View today; I'll have to ask my friend who volunteers there.
It is well known that Apple stole nearly all of its good ideas, and many people correctly point out that much of that happened when Steve Jobs (who famously had no morals whatsoever) visited a demo of the Alto at Xerox. But if you look around, you find that Xerox also stole most of the ideas. Which shows the following: ideas are easy and free. The hard stuff is taking a bunch of good ideas, knowing which ideas are actually good and crucial and which ones only look good and are actually fluff, and turning it first into a functioning prototype (which PARC succeeded in). Even harder is turning a prototype or a demo into a commercially viable product (which Apple succeeded in). In spite of all the bad things we say about Apple, we have to give them credit for bringing a GUI to the masses.
It is well known that Apple stole nearly all of its good ideas, and many people correctly point out that much of that happened when Steve Jobs (who famously had no morals whatsoever) visited a demo of the Alto at Xerox. But if you look around, you find that Xerox also stole most of the ideas. Which shows the following: ideas are easy and free. The hard stuff is taking a bunch of good ideas, knowing which ideas are actually good and crucial and which ones only look good and are actually fluff, and turning it first into a functioning prototype (which PARC succeeded in). Even harder is turning a prototype or a demo into a commercially viable product (which Apple succeeded in). In spite of all the bad things we say about Apple, we have to give them credit for bringing a GUI to the masses.