[sf-lug] Xsane can't see an HP Laserjet 1536dnf MFP scanner / printer

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Christian Einfeldt (einfeldt at gmail.com):

> > Why do we never see "Easily usable on a Linux system" on any consumer
> > product such as a printer?  Is it simply because there aren't enough of
> > us?
>
> Seems logical to me.

But grossly mistaken.  ;->

The assumption of strength of numbers being the critical factor is an
error that people often attempt to import into open source from the
proprietry-software mindset.  Some people eventually manage to work
themselves out of that mindset; others never do.

You've been kicking the tires for well over a decade to my knowledge, so
probably you're stuck, at this point.  For the benefit of others:

No, it's simply _not_ 'there aren't enough of us'.  If you wanted crappy
proprietary drivers in vast numbers available for Linux/SANE/etc., all you'd
really need to do is get the developers to give up open source, which
would then permit accepting and using really awful binary-only
proprietary code under NDA.

And then you would basically have re-created the MS-Windows developer
and market model.

As of today, if you want that, it's simple:  Use Windows.[1]

For the rest of us, we'd rather prefer something better, i.e.,
manufacturers releasing meaningful hardware specifications and example
code without requiring a non-disclosure agreement that prevents release
of the resulting work as open source, and hardware drivers written,
supported, and documented by the open source community rather than by 
hardware manufacturers -- because the latter almost never works out
well.

> That is why I evangelize desktop Linux.  

I will quote the Linux User Group HOWTO:
http://linuxmafia.com/lug/User-Group-HOWTO-4.html#ss4.1

   [W]hen done concerning GNU/Linux, [OS advocacy is] also pointless:
   Unlike the case with proprietary OSes, our OS will not live or die by
   the level of its acceptance and release/maintenance of ported
   applications.  It and all key applications are open source: the
   programmer community that maintains it is self-supporting, and would
   keep it advancing and and healthy regardless of whether the business
   world and general public uses it with wild abandon, only a little, or
   not at all.  Because of its open-source licence terms, source code is
   permanently available.  GNU/Linux cannot be "withdrawn from the market"
   on account of insufficient popularity, or at the whim of some company.
   Accordingly, there is simply no point in arm-twisting OS advocacy --
   unlike that of some OS-user communities we could mention.  (Why not
   just make information available for those receptive to it, and stop
   there?  That meets any reasonable person's needs 



> More Linux users, more market share, more stuff will be written for
> it.

Revealing that you really don't have a clue about how this works in the
first place.

[1] In the matter specifically of scanner software, there is a perfectly
serviceable proprietary alternative to SANE called VueScan from Hamrick
Software (Ed Hamrick's firm).  Hamrick is delighted to sign NDAs to get 
secret-sauce information from scanner manufacturers, so when you've made
the mistake of acquiring a cruddy scanner or multifunction device from a
manufacturer uncooperative with the SANE developers, you are free to pay
money for VueScan and run it instead of SANE.  https://www.hamrick.com/
Enjoy!