Asus eeePC violates GPL say Linux stalwarts

By Stan Beer
Sunday, 25 November 2007 06:13

Opinion and Analysis

Members of the Linux community have complained that the hot new sub-notebook from Asus, the eeePC, may have violated the spirit of the Linux General Public License (GPL). Some Linux advocates claim the eeePC has not included required source code with the installed Xandros Linux distribution and does not easily enable users to install another distro. However, there are indications that eeePC fans probably don't care.
The Asus eeePC has been hailed widely as abreakthrough product that could finally succeed in markedly increasingthe penetration of Linux in the consumer computing marketspace.However, some Linux purists are upset that the eeePC uses Xandros, aDebian-based distribution which charges license fees and has a similarpatent protection agreement with Microsoft to the one signed 12 monthsago by Novell.

However, the latest complaint has more to do with the modication of aparticular module of the underlying Linux kernel concerned withmanaging the hardware interfaces of the eeePC. The module asus_acpi(ACPI - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) was found by Javadeveloper Cliff Biffle to have been modified so that it works with theeeePC.

As Mr Biffle says in his blog, this would be fine except that Asus appears not to havefollowed the rules required by the GPL when making such modifications.Namely, they haven't distributed the source code for the modifiedmodule, nor have they attributed the changes to an author or given thenew module a version number or name. Mr Biffle alleges that Asus alsoappears to have attempted to hide what it was doing by removing allreferences to asus-apc.

Another more fundamental concern raised by Mr Biffle is that the Asussource code archive for the eeePC allegedly does not contain the actualsource code for the version of Xandros running on the eeePC.

As Mr Biffle says: "ASUS has posted a 1.8GB ZIP file on their websitethat they claim is the sources, but it's not -- it contains a few .debs(not even the versions that ship on the machine) and some kernelheaders."

Another concern raised by Mr Biffle is that warranty void seals havebeen placed over the eeePC RAM upgrade and mini-PCI-Express slots. Thismeans if eeePC owners want to upgrade their computer's RAM they have toget Asus to do it. Mr Biffle claims that this violates US warranty lawswhich prohibits manufacturers from forcing customers to buy additionalservices and products from that company in order for the warranty to behonoured.

While members of the Linux community are starting to echo Mr Biffle'sconcerns in the blogosphere, it appears to have done little to dampenenthusiasm for the eeePC in the wider community.
Most consumers are not concerned about Xandros' dealings withMicrosoft, whether they can run Ubuntu on the eeePC or if they canaccess Xandros source code. They just want a machine that works.

However, the issue highlighted by the latest revelations concerning theAsus eeePC and the GPL signals a growing rift developing between Linuxpragmatists such as Xandros and Novell's Suse, and Linux purists suchas Red Hat and Canonical-funded Ubuntu.