> Seriously, though, most "cheap" hardware manufacturers don't release any
> kind of spec for their product (== no drivers), or follow any real
> standard. (I may be preaching to the choir, but does it make sense to
> develop a new, proprietary protocol for each and EVERY piece of hardware
> you manufacture? How does that make production less expensive???)
It's cheaper to get a gang of underpaid Indian programmers to modify an
existing parallel port driver for the scanner (there's hardly a new
proprietary protocol developed each time), than to go SCSI with added
hardware and companies like Adaptec watching over their patents like hawks.
Apart from that, low-end scanners use low-end mechanics and CCDs, so you
tend to get what you pay for. Having said that, you do get a lot of scanner
for your money nowadays. I've got an el-cheapo variant here, which manages
really sharp and clear scans. Won't work under Linux of course, but... ;-)
-- Juha
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