In case you were wondering what the time limit was on just having people say anything decent about you after you die, it now appears that we have the answer.

It’s about four days.

That’s how long its taken for the haters, the misinformed and the general douchebags to come out of the woodwork to tell everyone to slow down with all those accolades for the late Steve Jobs of Apple, who passed away on October 5th.

Apparently, in their minds at least, history needs to reflect that he was far less than an innovative genius or even a decent businessman.

Because even though the guy built Apple into the most valuable corporation in the world, mostly out of the ashes he found it in when he was asked to return in 1997 — and then doing so after he was unceremoniously ousted by that same company which he co-founded nearly two decades prior–that guy doesn’t really deserve too many accolades.

Or because he was a demanding and tough boss, whose well-known withering criticism made the products his company produced so good that they’ve been studied and copied ad nauseam, was not really even a good person.

Because the company that has been routinely criticized for decades, for making products that were “too expensive” has the audacity to have its products manufactured overseas in Asian countries, much like every other electronics manufacturer on the planet.

And most of all, because the software and systems that run on those wildly popular products isn’t “open” enough and because Apple controls every aspect of their distribution, this makes it acceptable to knock down Steve Jobs as an imperfect human being, before the guy is even laid to rest.

Wow, and they talk about the “Cult of Apple”? What the hell about the “Mob of Apple Haters?”

Gawker.com features a post that purports to hold “a great man’s reputation…to a full accounting.” It goes on to state in no uncertain terms that “truth by told, Jobs could be terrible to people, and his impact on the world was not uniformly positive.”

Well thanks for that news flash–because I was pretty sure the people appreciating the man’s life and death were all about to run out and buy out everything in the Apple Store, rather than correctly spend their hard earned money on better creations from the gentle souls who run Dell, HP, Samsung or HTC.

As a long time Apple consumer, I have gotten far too used to hearing from those who just despise anything Apple, and trash the company’s wares for whatever reason that can be rationalized.

From 1984 when the original Macintosh was considered “a toy computer” because it didn’t look like it was an overgrown typewriter with a “more business like” green and black screen, to 2007 when the iPhone wasn’t a serious phone because “it didn’t have any buttons”. Yet somehow when Microsoft, once the mighty overlord of nearly all personal computers, copied much of the graphically based Mac operating system for its Windows platform — or openly mimicked the iPhone for its Windows Phone platform, no one seemed to think there was anything wrong with those less than sincere bits of flattery.

Let’s be clear, Apple nor Steve Jobs invented the graphical user interface or a touchscreen phone that could access the internet. What they did was to make the one that worked. They did this again and again, many times after creating products that didn’t sell well – at all.

Open software provocateur Richard M. Stallman has offended the sensibility of many with his suggestion that the world is a better place now because Jobs is gone. Count me among the offended. I don’t care what your noble cause may be Mr. Stallman, the only people who the world is better off without–are those like yourself who feel the need to support their positions though the idea of eliminating anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

My favorite bit of this hater logic is the “Apple is a closed system” criticism, because all “closed systems” are the technological equivalent of communism. My favorite analogy is the question that asks “What if you bought a Ford and were only allowed to use Ford gasoline in it?” This question is apparently designed to stir some kind of freedom loving vibe, akin to the political movements that adopt the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag as their own–without understanding a thing about what the original message meant in 1775.

Of course there is one tiny flaw in this logic. Who ever forced anyone, at anytime to buy anything from Apple?

You want to a car that runs on any kind of gasoline, there are plenty of options. Same for cell phones, tablets, MP3 players and yes even personal computers.

But if somebody invented a car that ran on a special gasoline that you could only get from one company, but that car got a 100 miles to the gallon and was the most fabulous car you ever drove–maybe you’d find buying the special gasoline to be no big deal.

Apple has long believed as a fundamental business decision that they would produce and control the specifications of both their hardware and software. Indeed, they have taken that even further in recent years with the adoption of application and software “stores” where they control the sale and distribution of software to their products. Those who like to customize their experience to whatever they would like it to be, chafe at the notion that Apple does this–but regular users (also known as everyday people) have figured out that this control actually leads to a more predictable and reliable user experience.

In other words, those stupid consumers who have voted with their wallets just don’t know any better.

Once upon a time, not so long ago (1997 to be exact), Michael Dell–the guy whose name graces more than a few computers in the world, said if it were up to him “He’d shut it (Apple) down and give the money back to the stockholders.” At that moment, Apple had a meager share of the personal computer market and was looking like it would be another technology company that had once burned brightly and then burned out. There was no iMac, no iTunes, no iPhone, no iPad.

But as everyone knows, Apple staged one of the greatest comebacks in American business. And no one person had more to do with that, than Steve Jobs.

So for anyone who feels the need to criticize the legacy of Jobs and the company he built–and rebuilt–with the hollow criticisms that he was nothing more than a modern day snake-oil salesman who somehow deprived the world of true innovation, please feel free to give your money to Dell (and the other companies) who hold your “open source” beliefs so dear, or who make all of their products in less harsh Asian factories, or who never say a negative word to their employees about their lame and uninspired products.

Or failing that, just shut the hell up – and maybe go out and prove that you have a better mousetrap.