Does the Asus EeePC violate the Linux GPL?
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted November 25th 2007 2:46PM
posted November 25th 2007 2:46PM
A group of Linux users have spoken out against Asus and their apparent non-compliance with certain aspects of the General Public License attached to Xandros Linux distro that comes with the Eee PC. This flustered controversy centers around Asus modifying a module of the Linux kernel without distributing the source code, something that breaks the rules of the license. Your average Eee PC owner isn't going to give a damn about such a trivial point, so end users can safely ignore this debate. As for whether Asus will step up and do what it should have done from day one, that'll depend on how loud the developers involved make their case. Type harder guys![Via Slashdot]
I don't see why people are whinnying. The Linux community is only trying to defend itself and the rules it's been playing by for the last decades while others didn't quite see the interest in it.
Now that MS is slowly dying, all of a sudden attention is going towards linux, witch I think is a good thing as it's a very viable option. The people protecting these licenses are basically making sure that the os (well mostly it's kernel) is still going for the public, not to big companies... as it could quite rapidly taken over.
My friend, despite what you might think, Microsoft is far from dying or beginning to die.
I'll admit they have f#@$%! some stuff up recently, but honestly what company hasn't? And considering the potential inroads they can make with the Zune and Xbox franchises, the company is far from dead.
I admit that they are still probably doing financially well as of now but I think the general public is getting to be more aware that Windows isn't the be all and end all of what a PC has to be. You know, the general perception that computers aren't reliable machines is slowly turning into "windows is a poorly designed os"...
Just open
http://support.asus.com/download/download_item.aspx?product=20&model=Eee%20PC%204G(701)
Click source code. Isn't that including everything?
Looks like those Linux fellows need to do their research a little better.
Thats the problem, there all so paranoid that big companies are out to steal there open-source goodness.
Chill out chaps.
Looks like those Linux fellows need to do their research a little better.
Thats the problem, there all so paranoid that big companies are out to steal there open-source goodness.
Chill out chaps.
Looks like those Linux fellows need to do their research a little better.
Thats the problem, there all so paranoid that big companies are out to steal there open-source goodness.
Chill out chaps.
Same holds true for the Everex "green" PC, sold by walmart.
They use GOS, see thinkgos.com. It does not state clearly the licence mode now - a former version named a creative commons licence, which is very unusual for source code.
Got my EEE PC (for $349) before they pull them from the shelves! :P Don't care about Linux anyways, Windows is going on it on day one. :)