Could the mplayer scheme work with scanners?

[Tom Horsley]

On linux (i386 anyway), mplayer manages to get pretty much
every format media to play by using the actual windows codecs
and constructing an environment for them to run in under linux
to fool them into thinking they are on windows.

I've just been comparing the SANE supported scanners list to
the lists of scanners you can actually walk into a store and
purchase, and the intersection of the two sets is almost
totally empty (in fact, for the scanners with "complete"
support, it is empty, there are a handful with "good" support).

Ignoring for a moment all the same copyright issues mplayer
ignores, anyone think it might be possible to do the same kind
of thing with linux scanner support mplayer does with multimedia?
Fool the scanner software into thinking it is windows?

Come to think of it, can wine already do this?

 

[Dances With Crows]

I've just been comparing the SANE supported scanners list to the lists
of scanners you can actually walk into a store and purchase, and the
intersection of the two sets is almost totally empty

Eh? ISTR seeing an Epson 3490 in Worst Buy less than 1 month ago. That
scanner's totally supported in Linux, as are most of the Epson scanners
available. The main problem people have is that you need to download an
evil binary-only SANE backend from Epson to use everything.
groups.google this newsfroup for keyword "epkowa" for a URL to Epson's
English download site for that.

Remember that the SANE website doesn't list every scanner. (Like most
software projects, they have a serious case of Not Invented Here.) And
what's up with the "walk into store and purchase" condition? You can
usually get better prices and selection on computer hardware by ordering
online. Check out the scanners available on pricewatch.com, eh?

On linux (i386 anyway), mplayer manages to get pretty much every
format media to play by using the actual windows codecs and
constructing an environment for them to run in under linux to fool
them into thinking they are on windows.

Ignoring for a moment all the same copyright issues mplayer ignores,
anyone think it might be possible to do the same kind of thing with
linux scanner support mplayer does with multimedia? Come to think of
it, can wine already do this?

Difficult to say. It's a losing long-term strategy though. Buy
hardware from a manufacturer that plays nicely, and send in the
registration card with a comment that says, "I bought this $FOO because
it has good Linux support." Enough of that, and they *might* get the
message. If you try to play catch-up-and-emulate, you'll end up on a
neverending treadmill the way OS/2 did. HTH,