[sane-devel] Re: ISCAN 1.10.0 and Mandrakelinux Cooker
Johannes Meixner
jsmeix@suse.de
Thu, 19 Aug 2004 15:48:26 +0200 (CEST)
Hello,
On Aug 19 18:48 Olaf Meeuwissen wrote (shortened):
> Till Kamppeter <till.kamppeter@gmx.net> writes:
> >
> > Is it possible to complie iscan and/or the "epkowa" backend without
> > the non-free libraries (then without support for the Perfection
> > 1250/1260 and 3170)? Once one could compile with gcc 3.4.1 then and
> > second, one could include it in Mandrakelinux, as then one would have
> > totally free software (i would appreciate then if you put out two
> > separate source tarballs, one with free stuff and one with the
> > non-free add-on stuff).
I asked the same question some time ago, see the mail at the bottom.
> It is perfectly possible to drop the non-free libraries for the
> scanners you mention, if you disable their support in the backend,
> because they are all dynamically loaded. Some #ifdef's at the right
> places should do the trick.
>
> However, ripping out the non-free library used by the frontend is
> another thing. You would need to provide a wrapper for the API it
> exports and implement it ... Not my idea of fun.
>
> # Personally, I would very much like to do what you propose, but it is
> # not on the list of things to do.
If we had it well seperated into the free part and the proprietary part,
we would be able to include the free part into all of our products
which have scanner support (in particular SUSE LINUX) and then
we could add YaST support.
Up to now this is not possible.
Therefore there is no iscan package available and even if we had
an iscan package it would be useless for normal users because
there is no YaST support.
Whom at Epson Kowa must we contact to convince them that
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The advantage for the ... manufacturer is that he will receive
comprehensive Linux support for his devices in all products ...
on all hardware platforms for which these products are available
and for new versions of the products ... without any extra expenses
for the ... manufacturer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
see (the general ideas apply also for scanners):
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/11/jsmeix_print-info-for-manufacturers.html
Kind regards,
Johannes Meixner
--
SUSE LINUX AG, Maxfeldstrasse 5 Mail: jsmeix@suse.de
90409 Nuernberg, Germany WWW: http://www.suse.de/
####################################################################
>From jsmeix@suse.de Thu Aug 19 15:37:33 2004
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 15:09:51 +0200 (CEST)
From: Johannes Meixner <jsmeix@suse.de>
To: Olaf Meeuwissen <olaf@epkowa.co.jp>
Cc: lsm-printing@linuxprinting.org
Subject: Re: [lsm-printing] Summary of the printing summit
Hello Olaf,
On Jul 14 09:49 Olaf Meeuwissen wrote (shortened):
> EPSON KOWA Public Licence:
[...]
> Personally, I don't like this situation at all, but it is the best we
> could do considering the circumstances.
> # I hated having to write that licence!
Personally, I don't like this situation too ;-)
In fact this situation inhibits us (i.e. SUSE) to have your iscan
software in our distibution by default.
I have a request for the future:
The README file of the package sources reads:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Image Scan! for Linux" contains the following parts:
iscan the program you use to scan your images
libsane-epkowa an improved driver for EPSON scanners
libesmod a proprietary module used by iscan
libesint* proprietary module used by libsane-epkowa
esfw*.bin proprietary data used by libesint*
[...]
Note, the modules used by libsane-epkowa are only needed for selected
low-end scanners, namely:
libesint1F Perfection 1250/Perfection 1250 PHOTO
libesint23 Perfection 1260/Perfection 1260 PHOTO
libesint32 Perfection 3170 PHOTO
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Shouldn't it be possible that Epson Kowa does a package split
into the free part and the proprietary part
and change the free part software so that it can work with
and without the proprietary modules.
Then we could add this free package to our default system.
Then we could install the free package by default.
Then the free package would work on any hardware architecture.
See
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/11/jsmeix_print-info-for-manufacturers.html
for the advantages for manufacturers of free software
(og course it applies also for scanners):
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The advantage for the ... manufacturer is that he will receive
comprehensive Linux support for his devices in all products ...
on all hardware platforms for which these products are available
and for new versions of the products ... without any extra expenses
for the ... manufacturer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Of course the above mentionend low-end scanners would not be
supported by the free package but all the other scanners
would be supported by a free package made by the manufacturer
itself!
The proprietary part would be only installed on special user
(or YaST) request (i.e. when the user wants to configure one of
the mentioned low-end scanners) and then the user who installs
the proprietary part must accept a license dialog.
Note that the free HP printer driver also doesn't support all
HP printers but who cares about a few unsupported printers
when so many HP printers are perfectly supported by a free
package made by the manufacturer itself.
Kind regards
Johannes Meixner
--
SUSE LINUX AG, Maxfeldstrasse 5 Mail: jsmeix@suse.de
90409 Nuernberg, Germany WWW: http://www.suse.de/