Asus Eee's Dumb Mistakes: GPL Violations and Warranty-Voiding RAM Upgrade

Cliff Biffle, reviewing his personal Asus Eee subnotebook, discovers several glaring flaws—not dealbreakers for most, but of note all the same.

The first? Possible GPL violations:

Through disassembly (I can do that, the software is GPL'd), it appears that ASUS has extensively modified the asus_acpi kernel module from Linux 2.6.21.4, so that it now works with the eee's hardware. This would be good except that

* They appear to have stripped out all attribution. (Kernel modules contain information about the module name, version, and author. This has been removed.)

* They appear to have attempted to hide what they were doing. (All references to "asus_acpi" have been removed, but other identifying features remain.)

* They are not distributing their modified sources, or even a patch.

With Linux starting to again see some use as a desktop OS for bargain machines like the Eee and that Wal-Mart x Everex desktop unit, it's important that those companies using Linux adhere to the GPL. If they don't like it, they can write their own Unix-a-like!

The second, more our domain than GPL violations, is a stupid warranty warning sticker:

The last annoyance about the eee PC is the bright yellow "Warranty void if seal is broken or removed" sticker over the RAM upgrade slot. ... The door in question also hides an available mini-PCI-Express slot, so needless to say, people would like to open it.

I don't think I need to expound on why that is blitheringly goofy.

ASUS eeePC: First impressions and GPL violations [CliffHacks.blogspot.com]

Update: Looks like Asus has addressed the issue Good on 'em!