Asus Eee PC violates Linux GPL?

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 26th November 2007

The Eee PC has proven immensely popular, but it may have broken the Linux GPL

The best things in life are free and, if you listen to the Linux userbase, they are publicly available too. That's the whole idea behind the Linux General Public License policy.

Apparently though, companies like Asus aren't quite clued in on that yet and a number of Linux users have raised concern over the fact that the Eee PC hasn't complied with the Linux GPL.

The Eee PC, a new cheap and lightweight notebook which uses the Xandros Linux distro, has proven immensely popular recently and naturally a fair bit of effort has gone into tinkering with it.

It turns out though, according to Slashdot, that the source code for part of the kernel has not been released and that the Eee PC does not easily allow users to install a new distro onto the notebook.

That said, most Eee PC owners probably don't care - the entire point of the laptop is that it is focused at low-end users and those who want something which is simple and easy to use.

Have you picked up an Eee PC yet, or do you have a different Christmas present in mind? Let us know in the forums.