My apologies for writing so much about hardware and not content management this week. I suppose though, if Dean Barker at Gadgetopia can talk about content management, I can occasionally discuss gadgets here at CMS Report. Sometimes it helps to take a look at the devices we use to view our content just as much as it helps looking at the software we use to run our Web content management systems. Well, at least this is my excuse for not being fixated so much on content management.

In Thursday morning's Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg did a review of the Asus Eee PC. The article, Asus Offers Travelers Small, Mobile Eee PC, but It’s Too Cramped, can be found in his column archive (a Wordpress site). I had been waiting for someone of his stature do a review on this product, but I was a little disappointed to see yet another review of a non-Apple device (this one is Linux based) be so negative.

If you ask me, I think it is a little unfair in a review to put the $300 Asus Eee PC in the same category with the $1800 MacBook Air. Let's see you tuck in that MacBook into your purse or the deep pocket of your winter coat. These devices serve two different purposes although I see the MacBook Air just as much of a niche product as the Eee (you are not likely going to buy the Air if you don't already have a laptop due to the Air's own limitations). For the price tag, I'm a lot more comfortable taking a gamble on the Eee PC than a lot of the more expensive subnotebooks currently on the market.

I'm a big fan of Mossberg's and have always found his columns as one of the reasons I continue to subscribe to the WSJ. Perhaps though, with the Macworld Expo so recent, reviewers have their Apple blinders on a little too tight. I don't know, what do you think?

You can read Mossberg's column at his site. Attached below is a copy of the comments I wrote at All Things Digital.

Walt,

I’m an avid reader of your Personal Technology column in the Wall Street Journal.
I have to say though, I was a little disappointed in this particular
article. Lately, it seems the only products you recommend are Apple
products and even though I’m a loyal reader, I’ve become less confident
on your reviews for non-Apple products. Yes, Apple does make fine
products but for those of us that use that live in the corporate
Windows/Linux/Unix world…we know Apple isn’t the only company out there
doing IT right.

I fully admit that I do not own an Eee PC, so your review about this
device may be accurate. However, from what I get in the majority of
reviews I’ve read on this device…the Asus Eee PC is a winner.

In my opinion, technology writers for the masses are in rut…with
very few willing to look and promote devices that aren’t Apple or
Windows. I’m amazed writers haven’t caught on that consumers are ready
for something different than Windows and even different from Apple. At
my “day job”, my people easily switch back and forth between Windows XP
and Linux platforms and I’m not sure why technology writers see Linux
as “difficult”. Some of these same people (including myself) also own
Macs at home. Oddly, these same people that own Apples and say bad
things about Windows, rarely say anything negative with regards to
Linux (we use KDE on RHEL for the desktop). Linux is more Mac-like than
Windows…so many of my Apple fans see Linux as better than Windows.

Posted by Bryan Ruby
at January 19th, 2008 at 8:06 am