Unfortunately, it was not there - Prof. Dalisay’s article was there but did not feature the MBA. I don’t normally buy local magazines since most of the "news" are already stale but in this case, I value Prof. Dalisay’s opinions on technology and gadgets from a non-nerd point of view (although Prof. Dalisay is a Pisay graduate hehehe, peace, Sir!) so I parted with my PhP125 and got the current copy.

This magazine provided a lot of information about locally available gadgets along with prices (suggested retail price), which proves to be essential when satisfying your techno-lust. :) In addition to prices, contributors also provide product reviews to guide buyers but I must warn you, reviews are almost always subjective.

One mini-review caught my eye in this magazine’s March issue and that was about the Asus Eee PC. This is the same lightweight ultra-portable that I have praised not too long ago and then dropped in favor of the MBA but some other reasons which I have explained.

The mini-review listed two main opinions - LOVE and HATE. The authors LOVE the price and the "zippy interface" but HATE the fact that it is "NOT as customizable as Windows." Again, I am saying that reviews are subjective - however, it should not be misleading!

First and foremost, Linux is one of the most FLEXIBLE operating systems available on the planet today! What is worse is it is compared with Windows, which is *no way as flexible*! I am not sure if the authors used Linux before but basing on how they arrived at their conclusions, I HIGHLY doubt it!

I remember a couple of friends from eeeph.com (ran and maintained by a friend, Floyd Piedad) who threw everything at their Eee PC to customize it to their liking. One added a tool to change the orientation of the screen so that you can read e-books in portrait mode. Another added the Compiz 3D interface to give it full eye-candy that rivals those from Vista and Mac OS X! With the Eee PC, you can also shift from Easy UI mode and Full Desktop mode at a push of a button.

In my limited experience with Windows XP (sorry but that was the last Microsoft operating system that I have touched), I know you can customize it in a limited number of ways. In fact, it is recommended that you download a tool called TweakUI to improve its user experience. I apologize for not being up to speed with Windows XP technologies but why bother with old technology, right? :)

The point of the matter is this - give the reviews to those who are familiar with the technology. Asking someone to review a technology that s/he is not familiar with does not give justice to the product. I mean, one should at least issue a disclaimer if you are not that familiar with the technology, right?

Anyway, the Asus Eee PC is very much customizable as Windows! This little critter is one awesome machine that revolutionized the market for Linux-based ultra-light, ultra-portable computers. Given another chance, I’d snag one and customize it for my kids! Who knows? I might just get one (again) soon.