Minolta DImage Scan Dual

David Rose (David.R.Rose@disney.com)
Fri, 22 Jan 1999 09:27:54 -0800

michael.muehlberger@gx.Novartis.com writes:
> What do you think about bying a Minolta DImage Scan Dual?

I know nothing about the D'imâge series, but I have a Minolta
QuickScan35, which I have been fairly happy with as a piece of
hardware. There are some issues I have with the Windows driver,
however, beyond the fact that it only runs in Windows. The
representatives of Minolta I've spoken with don't seem inclined to
repair the drivers for their cheaper scanners, but they tell me the
problems I've expressed are addressed in the newer ones, so maybe the
D'imâge will be everything you want it to be.

> Is there a posibility for a sane-backend in some time?
> I could live with the thought to boot my dusty windows machine
> to scan the images in the meantime but it would be much better to scan with
> my Linux-AXP Box. 8)

There is such a possibility. I have no idea how remote it is. I've
been in communication with Minolta about this, and they now tell me
they're currently trying to clear it through their legal department.

As far as I'm concerned, that could be the kiss of death to the whole
thing. (Working for Disney, one gets a real appreciation of the
incredible inertia of the legal department.) But I remain ever
optimistic, even perhaps foolishly so.

Still, don't underestimate the inconvenience of having a Windows-based
scanner when all of your software is Linux-based. Currently, to scan
a roll of film, I have to (a) boot under windows, scan several frames,
and save them to disk as (quite large) Windows BMP files. I do this
until I run out of space on my Windows partition. Then, (b) I boot
under Linux, fire up The Gimp, clean up lint and stuff on the scans,
and save them out as JPEG. If any image came out with a big hair or
something on it that I can't clean up in The Gimp, or if it came out
surprisingly green or something, I have to reboot Windows again just
to rescan that one frame. It is an amazing pain in the butt.

In short, think hard before you buy any hardware not presently
supported by Linux.

David

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