When it comes to opinions about Apple or their products on Twitter, the general consensus seems to be that only positive opinions are permitted. Negative views are shot down in flames, and owners of those opinions are interrogated in order to quantify their thoughts.

It appears one could easily disagree, unchallenged, about a general political issue, or the war in Iraq; but to speak ill of anything coming out of Cupertino is a sin; with countless figureheads ready to pounce on the first who dare commit such atrocity.

Steve Jobs has his own ideas. I have my own. The two are not compatible. Whereas Jobs values the walled garden-like restrictive technology products he and his company have created; I value openness, standards, innovation and good value for money. I believe my possessions are mine to do with as I like - not what the CEO of a marketing company wants me to do (or not to do, as the case may be).

That’s not to say I don’t find certain aspects of their technology inspiring. I appreciate the magnetic power supply connector of MacBooks, and find the virtual keyboard of the iPhone more responsive and accurate than that on the Google Nexus One. But that’s not enough for me. Where’s the standard USB connectors and the Mass Storage protocol? They don’t exist.

I loathe that the whole proprietary platform is locked down. From the single application store which is a law unto themselves (often ignoring their own “rules”), down to non-user-replaceable batteries in their iPhone. The persistence on using iTunes to accomplish anything between devices. Those restrictions don’t benefit me in the slightest.

I must be strange; but I find it rather difficult to get excited about products which let me do less than the competition. I can’t excited over new products which are just recycled ideas.

Which is precisely why I don’t buy in to the Apple ecosystem. Their products simply don’t do what I want them to do. But I’ll be damned if that stops me having an opinion on them, nor will it stop me voicing it.