# Canoscan 620P

Stephen Martin (smartin@canada.com)
Thu, 28 Jan 1999 13:52:10 -0500

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Since I recently discoverd that my Canon scanner was not supported
by Sane I tried to get the protocol information from Canon that might
make it possible to write a Sane driver for it. The following is a
transcript of the email conversation.

My initial request:

> To: Customer Support
> cc:
> Subject: Fwd by CCSI - CANOSCAN 620P
>
> Is there any protocol information available about this
> scanner? I would like to write a device driver for Linux.
>
> Thanks
> Steve
>

Their response:

> Dear Mr. Martin
>
> Thank you for your e-mail inquiry received in our office.
>
> Regrettably, protocol information is not available for the Canon CanoScan
> FB 320P or the CanoScan FB 620P scanners.
>
> Sincerely
>
> Henry T.
> Customer Support

My response to that:

> Henry,

> Could you please explain to me why this is? I would think
> that it is in Canon's best interest to promote the usage of
> their products on as many platforms as possible. If there
> are people willing to help by writing drivers for them, Canon
> should do everything possible to help them. Your company should
> realize the the usage of Linux is growing at an exponential rate
> and there are almost as many Linux machines out there as there
> are Mac's. Customers are making the decision to buy your competitor's
> products based on the fact that they can not use yours on Linux.
>
> I know you are probably not responsible for this policy but I would
> appreciate it if you could send this to someone who is.
>
> Thank you,
> Stephen Martin
>
> PS. I am considering returning my scanner for one that is supported
> under Linux.

Their final repsonse

> Dear Mr. Martin
>
> Thank you for your e-mail response.
>
> Please understand that these particular scanners are marketed for operation
> under Windows 95, 98 and NT 4.0. As the Linux system grows, so too will
> the market for products, such as scanners, that will be compatible with
> them.
>
> Sincerely
>
> Henry T.
> Customer Support

Is it just me that thinks this is a really stupid attitude
on the part of a hardware manufacturer? It's a scanner! What
does a piece of hardware have to do with the operating system
running on the machine attached to it? Why would they be protective
of the protocol used to talk to the thing?

Steve

    --
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    1165 Leewood Dr.			smartin@mks.com
    Oakville, Ont.				Phone: (905) 844-4998
    Canada, L6M 3B9.

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