Asus has responded to the GPL violation allegations. “The source code found here is complete to the best of Asus’s knowledge. If you believe any additional source code files should be provided under the applicable open source license, please contact Asus at [email protected] and provide in detail the product or code module in question. Asus is committed to meeting the requirements of the open source licenses including the GNU General Public License.” Additionally, ASUS announced the upcoming SDK for the eeePC. “Asus is also pleased to announce the upcoming release of the Eee PC SDK. This will allow for the development on the Eee PC by the OpenSource community making it easy to develop, easy to port and easy to release software for the Eee PC platform.”
Camper! hahah jk, good initiative ASUS, i hope it turned out with all drivers, and im going to buy my next laptop
the mole hill becomes a mole hill again.
The SDK sounds like a bit of fun, wonder what exactly it be comprised of?
Everyone can put their “You bastards!” back in your pocket now.
Did anybody expect anything else? It’s not like Asus is some small company that can ignore licenses and be mostly ignored. I doubt this was more than a simple mistake on Asus side.
It wasn’t even that, it was just a matter of time. But some people are rather fast at burning someone then actually thinking.
“It wasn’t even that,”
Actually , what he said , was part of the factors.
“it was just a matter of time.”
Your a **BSD** , you have no credibility at all , There are Hardware , drivers code and software that where made on BSD , decade ago ( more then 30 years ) but switched license by Apple and Microsoft and other’s who to this day after four decade are still not available even do the vendor as stopped maintaining and supporting the hardware in question.
If time was really a realistic option , by now BSD would have an immense lead over GNU/Linux and the GPL. Not be a failure as an OS , not distributed and not sold as default.
“But some people are rather fast at burning someone”
1) ASUS is *something*. An international and global ODM and OEM computer and electronic device creator and vendor and supplier.
2) **You** are fast at burning someone. Other’s like me just reply in kind , to your intelligence lacking insulting and unrealistic and fabricated reality that is completely unrealistic.
3) Your a liar , traitor , coward and incompetent.
“actually thinking.”
People who actually think , don’t support , make , pro actively finance , support Free Software and Open source want nothing to do with BSD and people like you.
Because when they listen to people like you NOTHING get’s done properly and realistically.
Sitting on is ass for time to pass as never produced any result or anything.
I apparently , also need to actually point to you and take you by your childish hands , that Opening and freeing the source code will enable BSD and other OS to be run properly and correctly on this device and the hardware it’s made of.
There are two OS that work and are shipped as default and are supported on this device :
Microsoft Windows.
GNU/Linux.
If your not part of one of the other you have nothing intelligent to say at all.
Its been awhile since I’ve seen you post around here Moulinneuf, I’m sure everyone has missed thoughtful and insightful dialog like
“Your a **BSD** , you have no credibility at all”
“2) **You** are fast at burning someone. Other’s like me just reply in kind , to your intelligence lacking insulting and unrealistic and fabricated reality that is completely unrealistic.”
“3) Your a liar , traitor , coward and incompetent. ”
“I apparently , also need to actually point to you and take you by your childish hands , that Opening and freeing the source code will enable BSD and other OS to be run properly and correctly on this device and the hardware it’s made of.”
In a single post, you managed to break rules 1-4 and rule 6 of the OSNews forum rules (http://www4.osnews.com/docs/rules). I have to admit, I do love reading your posts though, especially the wild, barely comprehensible meltdowns about BSD.
Edited 2007-11-28 17:17 UTC
“Its been awhile since I’ve seen you post around here Moulinneuf,”
http://www.osnews.com/user.php?uid=266
Follow the above link since you don’t know how to use the website … I actually read all the time and Post when I have the time and feel like it …
“you managed to break rules 1-4 and rule 6 of the OSNews”
“I. No gratuitous use of profanity, biting sarcasm, or personal disparagement, especially directed at individuals.”
Not broken here …
“II. No personal attacks on story authors, other readers, or news editors of this web site.”
Not broken here …
“III. Even if you are in violent disagreement or have strong feelings, find a way to keep your comments calm, and try to explain your reasoning, instead of just ranting.”
Not Broken here …
IV. OSNews is not just an open source news web site, and it is not just an “alternative” OS site. Do not post comments that merely disparage a particular OS or company. Some examples of sentiments that are in violation of this rule: “MS Sucks!”, “Apple is dead!”, “People who use KDE should be shot!”, etc. If you hate Microsoft, or Apple, or Linux, or whatever, you may still talk about your hatred on OSNews, but please do so with reasoned, on-topic arguments.
VI. This is the most subjective of the rules, but its enforcement is important to everyone’s enjoyment: no mindless OS wars. In other words, please constrain your zeal for your particular pet OS, company, or product. Regardless of your intention, comments that we deem to be likely to ignite a flame war will be moderated down. Even including a throwaway “X rules, Y sucks” line into your reasoned masterpiece may result in the whole post being moderated down by the community or by the OSNews editors (see XII).
Not broken here …
“I do love reading your posts though”
Thanks … ( I know your dishonest here 😉 )
“especially the wild, barely comprehensible meltdowns about BSD. ”
If I was truly wild , incomprehensible and on a meltdown.
1) You would not bother.
2) You would not care to try and have me banned.
3) You would actually directly answer what I discussed.
Nice opinion about me do.
haha. Oops.
Great news.
… right along with their “it would have been easier to just use XP”s.
Your comment is completely stupid. both ways and not funny. I will explain why :
If “You bastards!” actually worked , then “NOW” would be the time to use it on other vendors who’s hardware spec , driver code and software are not available. As it as gained momentum and a victory. So your illogical here.
Your also trying to suggest and imply that from now on insulting a Global international hardware vendor will lead to result favorable to what we want , insulting and ridiculing the hard work of the people who actually created the legal framework , distribution systems and Lobby and financed the project until it’s creation.
To be frank , the ” we don’t want it , if it don’t meet our Open Source demand ( even do they are asking for Free Software demand ) , from distributor and important vendor and the impending legal and enforceable threat costing them Billions in Bad publicity and legal fee for the future had more impact.
It’s not funny because some people here will think and spread numerously the false thinking that : “hey if we insult them we will get the same result, for our failing OS!” as the GPL and GNU/Linux OS in there feeble mind is inferior and cannot be part of the winning factor.
Let this be a lesson for the other OS who are not offered as default , option and choice on the Eee PC platform.
– Being legal.
– Enforcing your legal license.
– Working directly with the Hardware maker and vendor at the prototype level to create a default install.
– Creating demand.
– Lobbying for your platform.
– Financing Prototype and offers.
– Making publicity about the offer.
That’s what work.
Yep. And that’s good.
Seriously, what was the story here? Traditionally, whenever companies have appeared to be contravening the GPL, the FSF in particular have generally given them time to sort things out. Usually, as in this case, things turn out OK.
While it was good that people found out about this, I found the ranting a bit distasteful. Let’s give a company with a decent product, who is putting Linux on an awful lot of desktops incidentally, a bit of slack.
The story here is ASUS , thought it could , once again , get away with doing what it usually does to other OS without consequence.
What is and what I find distasteful is your comment.
You expect people to not be ranting when this kind of thing is clearly marked as illegal and as been visibly discussed in the past ?
There are no exception because everyone is equal and know the consequence of there action if they don’t follow the rules , license and copyright.
The direct and real consequence of not ranting means we end up like all the other OS who are not shipped as default on anything , receive no hardware support officially and who are not considered mainstream due to those fact.
Ranting is extremely good as opposed to insulting them , It gives a reminder to those who might try the same thing that people are watching.
now everybody who was bashing them, can crawl back into their holes.
now everybody who was bashing them, can crawl back into their holes.
Well, actually – their website still sucks as I mentioned in the previous article comments. It’s still difficult to find recent drivers and BIOS updates for some products.
I’m also dreading a call to ASUS to resolve my recent hardware problem on a barebones box that just died. I suspect it will be more productive for me to simply buy a new PSU and/or motherboard and hope that it resolves my “dead machine”… because last time I contacted their support I got the runaround, finally got an RMA # to send them my motherboard, they proceeded to send it back without fixing it, and then asked me if I wanted to pay to ship it to them again to fix it.
So, I feel entitled (as a dissatisfied customer) to continue bashing ASUS for their crappy website and lackluster support – thank you very much.
edit: added a missing word.
Edited 2007-11-27 23:09
Just noticed:
There are even WinXP drivers on the ASUS download site…
Great! So I can get one and install a superior OS! ;D
If u wait a bit longer, u should be able to buy one with XP already installed.
Why should you wait at all when you can get one right now (no waiting), for $99 less cost, with the more secure and malware-resistant Linux installed, along with a complete set of desktop applications that won’t come with XP?
Where exactly is the upside for crippling the machine with XP and thereby and making it more expensive, more vulnerable and less capable?
Not much of an upside, but some people do, believe it or not, prefer and LIKE windows xp.
If I had one, I’d probably leave the *nix on it for a bit then install windows just so some of my more oft used apps would run without any hackery.
Fair enough.
You miss the point. Most (but by no means all) of the apps for XP require you to pay for another copy if you want to use it on another new machine.
However, most of the apps for XP where you don’t have to pay for another copy for your EeePC (eg Firefox, OpenOffice) are apps that are available natively under Linux anyway.
I can’t see a case for forking out more than the cost of the machine itself just to run an application that already has a functional equivalent already installed on the machine.
Of course, YMMV. If money was no object, and you wanted an XP machine of similar size and functionality of the EeePC, then why didnn’t you just get one of the UMPCs that were on offer a year or so ago?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umpc
Paying for and then installing XP on the ASUS EeePC and then paying for and installing an equivalent set of applications seems to be nixing the whole point of the machine.
Edited 2007-11-28 04:48
Um, do you really think most people would buy another copy of a program? Very few people do that. You buy a copy, you install it on whatever pc you have and keep installing it on any pcs you get after that.
The eeePC is a LOT cheaper than any UMPCs (I’ve been eying them for awhile) and it’s shaped like a normal laptop, which I like. For basic use, yeah, the built in apps are fine for 90% of the users. For some people, they aren’t. It’s obviously not aimed at people like *me*. But that won’t stop us from buying one and doing with it as we please.
I’d also have to see how well the installed linux distro, Windows XP, and whatever OS/distro I’d want to try out on it ran before I made my choice. Been several instances of me wanting to run something besides windows on a laptop but not really being able to. Simply because the alternative OSes video drivers sucked ass. I’d have have “flaky” windows than sucky 2D performance
*I’d Rather have …
I need to proof read.
…possibly breaking the law in the process.
yes, we know that. But what average user thinks about that? Or anyone else for that matter. ‘software’ stealing or whatever you want to call it is pretty immaterial and a hard concept for most people to grasp.
Be as it may, it is still probably illegal in most places. Ignorance of the law is not a valid defense, and though it’s rarely enforced now, there’s no way to say it won’t be in the future. Believe me, with Vista being such a dud, count on MS to make it *much* harder to validate your copy of XP SP3 if it’s not genuine, or if you have it installed on more than one PC (hey, they have to get some income *somewhere*…)
That’s true
I’m just glad I have a “Windows XP Pro SP2 Corp” CD gracefully given to me by a friend who shall remain unnamed
No activation required! 
I wonder if you’ll be able to upgrade to SP3, though…anyway, to each his own. As the family/friend tech support guy, I know I’ll still be taking care of sick Windows PCs in the months to come!
I’ll find out and let you know. Hopefully. I’m kinda getting sick of computers lately. Having to fix everyones issues and the like
being known as ‘the computer guy’ blows.
I don’t know what it’s like in other countries, but here in Sweden, I find that it’s very rare that people buy their software (this applies to software for personal use).
The vast majority of my friends have never ever paid for a piece of software – except for Windows licenses, which is pretty much mandatory when you buy a computer. I’ve bought a handful of programs myself, perhaps 5 games and 3 applications for the last 15 years.
So I’m not convinced that the cost of software is much of a factor when people choose an operating system. Being able to use the applications that you like and not having to learn new stuff is.
That said, I’d never dream of using anything but Linux on a device like this. But I do know what most of my acquaintances would choose – Windows.
In this particular case, the laptop is $99 more expensive if you buy it with Windows than with Linux.
To get Windows and a set of equivalent Windows applications then the additional cost on this laptop, even if we don’t count buying those applications, is either:
(1) $99 plus the effort to “find” Windows installable files for your applications and get them to your laptop (remembering that it does not have a CD drive)
… or …
(2) the effort to wipe Linux, to “find” Windows OS installable files, plus download & install the XP drivers for the laptop, plus “find” installable files for your Windows applications and get them to your laptop (remembering that it does not have a CD drive).
It is STILL going to cost money, effort and/or time to get the equivalent Windows setup going on this laptop (even if people just happen to “find” the software laying about somewhere) compared to just going with the Linux setup.
Are you sure most people are going to go to all that trouble?
I don’t think so, myself.
Edited 2007-11-30 00:24
What is so difficult about booting from USB CD-ROM? Does this device not support that?
It is likely those people haven’t tried the eeePC’s Linux-based OS. Who knows, they might actually prefer it to XP.
Seriously, I fail to see what you’d get more out of XP on such a machine. It’s not as if someone would buy the eeePC to play games…
Seriously, I fail to see what you’d get more out of XP on such a machine. It’s not as if someone would buy the eeePC to play games…
There is much that can be done with a 900Mhz proc and a notebook of such size that would still require XP on it to be useful, as I posted an example of earlier.
People need to realize (though it seems they never do) Linux equivalent != Windows equivalent in all cases when comparing available software.
Ardour is not as good as Pro Tools or Cubase. GIMP is not as good as Photoshop, OOo is not as good as MS Office. etc. Sure it’s subjective, but I think I’d have a few people agree.
I wouldn’t know (though I hear that Ardour is continually improving – I’ve certainly heard excellent demos that were done on it), however that is a *very* small niche market. The eeePC wasn’t made for that market.
Are you telling me you’d want to do print-quality graphics on the eeePC and its tiny screen? That is *not* what it was designed for.
Meanwhile, if you’re *not* doing print-quality stuff (i.e. if you don’t need color separation), then Gimp *is* just as good as Photoshop. I use both on a regular basis.
Actually, it is as far as Word Processing and Spreadsheet are concerned. I doubt many people would use Access on the eeePC…
Well, I’m all for choice, so if someone wants to put Windows on the eeePC, good for them. I do believe that, unless you’re a sound designer who is sold to CuBase, there is no real rational reason to do so.
heh, Openoffice on a 900mhz machine is a lot slower than office on the same machine. (my work pc is a 1ghz pentium 3 and I have office 2003 installed and had the latest revision of openoffice on here until a few days ago).
Anyways, this whole argument is really pointless. people are going to use what they like best and/or is best for their needs. I didn’t mean to start a windows vs linux war…
jeez, I post a joke and a typical conversation springs up
Slower to start, maybe. Slower in use? I doubt it. I don’t see any significant speed difference on my old 900MHz Athlon desktop.
I do agree that people will use what they will want to use. On the other hand, the Linux eeePC is a great way to get acquainted with something that, though different, is just as capable for a vast majority of users. It seems, however, that some people here (not you) are incapable of considering that people might function just as well with a Linux OS than one from Redmond…
it was for some things. might just be something weird with my machine. Like the spell checker would crawl along. who knows
It would run Tracktion (my DAW of choice) quite well actually, and it would also run Reason well.
Meanwhile, if you’re *not* doing print-quality stuff (i.e. if you don’t need color separation), then Gimp *is* just as good as Photoshop. I use both on a regular basis.
It’s very usability is inferior to Photoshop, let alone other features. Have you used CS3?
As I said before, DAW are a small niche market, and not one the eeePC was intended for – though if that’s what you want to use it for, fine. One could still use Ardour (which I hear is quite capable) on it and save a lot of money if they don’t already have a copy of similar proprietary software. Again, it seems to me this is more a question of familiarity (and previous ownership) than anything else.
Yes, I have, and I disagree that Photoshop is “more usable.” I think it’s simply a matter of familiarity with the application (shortcuts being different, no “workspace” window, etc.). People used to Photoshop find Gimp hard to use because they are so familiar with Photoshop’s UI. Once one gets over this, however, Gimp is just as easy (or difficult) to use as Photoshop, and for 90% it’s more than enough, feature-wise.
Thanks for modding me down for disagreeing with you. I am glad you view that as off-topic or insulting.
I really don’t think I did, even though this *is* getting off-topic.
True but you would not be running Cubase on a eeePC. Nor would you run full Photoshop unless you are massochistic. GIMP, for the kind of work you can do on a eeePC, is fine as long as you know your way around GIMP. OOo is not as good as MS Office perhaps, but it is more than adequate for normal document editing and such.
XP will run on an eeePC sure, Asus even provide instructions on how to do do the install and optimize in the manual. However I think that Linux is a better fit for the platform, both in memory use and in applications available at a low cost. The eeePC is not a desktop replacement. Outside of a few corner cases I can not see most people making an eeePC their primary computer. It does provide a low cost solution for an ultraportable compliment to your primary system however.
I think you might be a little bit out-of-date with those views.
Remember, with the ASUS EeePC, we are not talking high-end expensive software … it just doesn’t have the specs for that. Putting an expensive high-end Windows application on an EeePC is just a complete and utter waste of time & money.
If we are talking about software other than the expensive high-end, then Linux software has Windows-only software beat pointless in terms of capability and value-for-money.
PS: A better resource for finding Linux audio tools:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_audio_software
Better explanation of capabilities and weaknesses:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosegarden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_%28software%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardour_%28audio_processor%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MusE
Edited 2007-11-28 23:45
For people that use applications that are only available on Windows, Linux is less capable. Part of the attraction of this particular product for me is being able to edit and mix audio and program drums and soft synths. I can’t do that in Linux with the (superior) applications I use.
A 900Mhz Pentium M-based Celeron is fast enough to handle light duties for audio while on a train ride.
Sadly, Linux audio tools are still far behind what’s available for XP and OSX.
Just one example. I could go on……
Point being is there is a time and place for Windows, at least for now.
So are these programs capable:
http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/
http://ardour.org/
http://wired2007.info/wired-dev/index.php?option=com_content&task=b…
You mentioned drums specifically:
http://linux-sound.org/drum.html
http://www.hydrogen-music.org/
Additional utilities described here:
http://linux-sound.org/
http://www.linuxaudio.org/
Try out some Linux audio software with a specialist liveCD:
http://dynebolic.org/
http://ubuntustudio.org/
http://64studio.com/
http://www.musix.org.ar/en/index.html
Linux is not less capable … it is more a case of people being unaware of what Linux is capable of.
These will cost you nothing, and they are far more suited to the ASUS EeePC than trying to force XP plus expensive applications on to it.
Very debatable. I’m not an expert in audio, but there are some very capable audio applications becoming available for Linux now as far as I can see. I’d say that you would have a hard time finding some function that is not supported on Linux, and as far as “lite duties” goes, I’d venture to suggest you are flat-out wrong in your claim of linux being “far behind”.
Sure there is. However, the ASUS EeePC with its capabilities and software available and its pricepoint is just not that place.
Edited 2007-11-28 23:10
I’m not an expert in audio
key phrase. You say this, then go on about how my opinion is wrong, when really you know little about this particular area.
I’ve been doing audio on PCs for nearly 10 years, and toying with it on Linux for nearly 4. I’ve tried all the apps you mentioned, and have used pretty much every audio-centric distro from FC2-based Planet CCRMA up to Ubuntu Studio 7.04.
Yes, I think Linux is still far behind in this area.
At the expensive high-end for audio software, I can see that and I would agree.
That however is clearly not what the ASUS EeePC is meant for, and you yourself said that your use would be for “lite duties”. I just cannot see that you have in any way established that the Linux audio software that is available (especially recent versions of it) is not capable of those “lite duties” that you have in mind, and that Linux audio software is not actually a better fit on the EeePC for “lite duties” than anything on Windows (especially anything they expect you to pay for to the extent that it costs you more than the machine itself).
To be specific for my personal use, I have licenses for software already purchased for my main machine that can be installed on two PC’s at once.
System requirements for this particular package is a PIII with 256MB of RAM. I’ve already been running it on an old PIII-based 1Ghz Celeron laptop w/ 768MB of RAM in this very duty for over two years.
Why would I possibly want to switch between platforms and applications when I can just get an OEM XP license, install the software I already legally own, and be done with it?
Furthermore “capable” and “efficient for workflow” are two very different things. Can I record/mix/edit all in Linux? Sure.
Is the workflow as good as Tracktion or Cubase? Definitely not.
This is already so far off topic, I should probably just end it with this.
Edited 2007-11-29 02:39
jeez, modded to 0 already. Someone can’t take a joke.
You all did notice the smiley right? It was SARCASM.
Or I’m modded down for being offtopic…
In which case, mod away.
I thought XP was sort of on the way out of being sold to distributers because vista was out?
Well, that would make it imposssssible to run windows on the Eeee then, for sure.
I thought XP was sort of on the way out of being sold to distributers because vista was out?
Well, that would make it imposssssible to run windows on the Eeee then, for sure.
Not yet. It was previously Jan. ’08 for the cut off to OEMs, but that has since been extended to June ’08. Thank God for that!
yeah, people put up a huge fuss over it because they all hate Vista
So MS decided to extend support.
Awesome news, I’m wondering what’s in the SDK, AFAIK the GUI is supposed to be KDE-based. Anyway, the eeePC is still a bit pricey for me, but I plan to get one as soon as the hype cools down and the price drops a bit
The prices these things are bringing on eBay and the like is ridiculous. I want my $200 laptop dammit!
Exactly. I was all hyped up and ready to go out and buy two of these things, until they doubled the price. At the current price of these things, it’s a bit ridiculous.
The default window manager is IceWM, customised to fit the screen with a tabbed interface.
The full set of KDE libs are installed, though, as most of the apps are KDE apps. All you have to do is install kcmserver and kicker via apt-get and modify the X startup scripts to get a full KDE desktop, though.
Thanks for the info
The main attraction of GPL code is that it is publicly available. Anyone can just grab the source code & use it. The source code is published.
For anyone who has used GPL code in their product, and they are subsequently accused of GPL violation … the remedy is a classic “no brainer”. Just publish the sorce code as you used it. All accustaions instantly vanish.
After all, it was already published when you got it in the first place, so where’s the harm? What is the downside of GPL compliance?
Monsoon multimeida showed how that “no brainer” decision worked a few weeks ago. Before them, Parallels made exactly the same choice. Now ASUS have shown us again.
As I said … a no brainer.
Edited 2007-11-27 23:37
Has anyone found the wireless card driver? I looked quickly, maybe i missed it (hope so).
The madwifi project is dual-licensed under GPL/BSD, so Asus is not obligated to provide corresponding source code for their modified ath_pci driver. For the time being, the binary driver that ships with the eeePC is the only way to get the wireless chipset to function under other Linux distributions.
Maybe if a lot of eeePC users ask nicely, Asus will release the source. But under the BSD, the distributor ultimately has the legal power.
if its under the bsd license… how are they able to link it with the kernel legally?
Because the 2-clause BSD licence (also known as the modified BSD licence) is compatible with GPL?
Because the 2-clause BSD licence (also known as the modified BSD licence) is compatible with GPL?
That only means you can put BSD code in the kernel or in Linux drivers. But once the code is there only the GPL applies. You can’t ship a binary driver and refuse to publish the source because it’s dual GPL/BSD licensed.
The atheros sources they use are probably available in the zip-file on their site or from xandros though.
Edited 2007-11-28 08:55
There are two links: the proprietary HAL to GPL/BSD driver and the resulting object to the kernel. How the licensing works depends on whether the distributor or the user performs each of these link steps. The only way the driver can be distributed under the GPL is if the user does both links. If the distributor does the first link, then the result may only be distributed under the BSD, and the user must perform the second link. The distributor cannot ship a completely linked kernel module as this is a violation of the GPL.
I’m not familiar with how Asus handles this situation. It could be as simple as automatically running a script on first boot. But they could be violating the GPL if they aren’t doing something to cause the linking to become the action of the user rather than of the distributor.
Well, not the *only* way, the XP drivers work under ndiswrapper too…
yeah but if they build it and distribute its not exactly a separate work, as it “links” with the kernel, which btw, is GPL.
also, if they havent released the source for modified madwifi driver, this just goes to show how asus are complete moron mongers, as they simply do the bare minimum, even though its completely a disservice to the customer, and wouldnt hurt them in any way to do.
Didnt they just in this answer to community mentioned that if customers feel that something is missing, they should email Asus and ask for it?
Asus isn’t trying to rip anybody off, it’s just that they dont have a clue about the software side as they have outsourced it to Xandros.
“Everyone can put their “You bastards!” back in your pocket now.”
If Asus is willfully tivoizing the hardware then yeah it would be discriminatory against users and they might be rightfully so labeled. It’s bad that they have to pay blood money to MS every sale they make.
MS is more or less slandering and racketeering GNU/Linux and they need to be made accountable. Don’t expect the USA to help out if MS is riding shotgun on a trade or defense agreement with Taiwan. Perhaps the only way to deal with these issues is to put pressure on Asus and the Taiwan govt. by taking face away from them.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2007/11/27/asus-resolves-…
“In response to criticism from Linux enthusiasts, Asus has made additional source code archives available for download with code for the asus_acpi module, BusyBox, and several other components. The code released by Asus brings the company into compliance with its obligations under the GPL and should satisfy most of the critics.”
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
” Version 701 2007/11/24 update
Description ASUS_ACPI Source Code
File Size 27.73 (KBytes)
Download from Global USA Europe China Japan”
…
meanwhile
…
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/v-printerfriendly/story/187043.html
“Fresno Unified officials buy 1,000 wireless laptops that will fit on students’ desktops.”
Interesting.
Edited 2007-11-29 09:04