Brian Best bought his first Mac – a Macintosh Classic, with a 9-inch black-and-white monitor – back when Kansas University was winning its last national basketball championship, so he’s plenty familiar with how fans can be a bit proprietary when it comes to a team or product they worship.

But Best, a self-described Mac “fan boy,” draws the line at supporters who criticize the $140 billion company for simply protecting its home court of products and services by limiting customers’ abilities to install new programs, opt for alternate subscription services or otherwise deviate from CEO Steve Jobs’ corporate playbook.

Just because you buy an iPhone, Best said, doesn’t mean you should expect Apple to let you run up the score at the expense of current or future Apple products, services or partnerships.

“It’s not necessarily fair to expect Apple to support a third-party hack,” said Best, chief executive officer of Lawrence-based Best Macs, which provides repair and installation services in northeast Kansas. “They’re a business. Anybody who thinks they’re not a business is crazy.

“They’re looking at the bottom line.”

Best bought an iPhone at full price on the day it came out, then watched as Jobs cut prices to boost sales. And Best didn’t mind a bit, saying that having “a cool factor going on for two solid weeks” was well worth it.

Besides, he used the $100 rebate given to him by Apple after the fact to defray the expense of buying another Mac product, an iBook laptop.

“I ended up spending another $900,” Best said, with a smile.

Perhaps Jobs does know what he’s doing.