A query regarding Epson Perfection V39 Scanner

[Susmita/Rajib]

To,
The Sane Developers' List
sane-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org

My dear illustrious Team Members,

I am planning to buy a Scanner. Only Epson Flatbed scanner appears
viable, as in India it seems only Epson has a very good quality of
service. I have had a very negative experience with Canon.

In amazon.in, I find that Epson Perfection V39 Scanner is mostly sold.
There are no HP product at the nearby price range.

However, I see at the Sane page:
that the said printer is unsupported. But the row shows some comments
that could evoke some expectations.
I quote the row:
Perfection V39 	USB 	0x04b8/0x013d 	Unsupported 	supported by the
epkowa backend plus non-free interpreter 	epson2
(1.0.124 (unmaintained)) 	sane-epson2

It is probably developed by the manufacturer itself. The question is:
will it work for a given Linux system? I have an old Ubuntu system and
Knoppix 7.2.0 based on Debian wheezy.  Yes, I know that I need to
upgrade. I have even downloaded Knoppix 8.5 but haven't installed it
on my computer. The older versions presently address all my needs.

My Ubuntu system is:
Description:	Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Release:	14.04
Codename:	trusty

Any suggestion on Epson drivers? Any suggestion on any other scanner?
The Amazon page for India is:
https://www.amazon.in

Eagerly awaiting your advice.

Regards,
Rajib Bandopadhyay
A Linux user