[sane-devel] Re: new SANE server machine

[David Mosberger-Tang]

>>>>> On Fri, 20 Jul 2001 18:23:44 -0400, Karl Heinz Kremer <khk at khk.net> said:

  Karl> Do you know something we don't know? This short command and
  Karl> your test message from an HP account looks like there is more
  Karl> to come... :-)

Well, a caveat is in place: don't get overly excited.  I have been
working for HP Labs for over 3 years now but I'm not even closely
related to the imaging/scanner groups so my influence is quite small.
However, at HP, Linux has acquired the status of a "strategic OS" and
that is slowly opening doors.  The problem with scanners is a bit
tricky though: from what I know, HP has been doing a good job in
supporting the developers for (pure) SCL based scanners.  Where things
are lacking is with respect to the "other" scanners.  Those are
sometimes OEM'd meaning that it's often not up to HP alone to decide
what to make available to developers.  Moreover, the margins on those
products are razorthin (what else would you expect of <$100
scanners?).  Because of this, it is diffcult to justify expending
extra efforts on SANE support *unless* Linux (and the various other
free operating systems) becomes more prevalent on the desktop (or at
least on the desktops of people who buy a lot of scanners... ;-).  As
usual, it's a chicken-and-egg problem.  But we certainly keep
prodding, so stay tuned...

	--david

PS: Not speaking for HP...