No doubt about it; Everex’s gBook computer is a hacker’s dream PC. While we weren't too fond of the company's entry into the ultra-portable market, the gBook sings a different tune: On top of being a fairly well-equipped, full-size VIA-based budget laptop, the gBook also sports some impressive “hidden” features when the hood is lifted and the tires kicked. And while they may not be immediately apparent, in the hands of a seasoned tinkerer the gBook's extras can allow for some inspired modding.

If you want a super-light laptop, you have to pay for it, and you have to use Windows. That’s been the (frustrating) conventional wisdom—at least until late last year, when the Taiwanese company Asus rolled out the Eee PC (pronounced as though it were a single long “e”), a two-pound, seven-inch laptop starting at a mere $300. The tradeoff: It comes with just two to eight gigabytes of flash memory instead of a conventional, larger hard drive, and a simplified Linux operating system that essentially is usable only for e-mail, Web browsing and typing.

Like a traditional hard drive, a flash-based drive stores information in the computer-readable language of 0s and 1s. But instead of writing data by flipping magnetic poles on a spinning disk, flash memory just shuttles electrons around on a stamp-size microchip.