scanner

People are always talking about ‘the year of GNU/Linux on the desktop’. And they’re always wondering which year that will be. In the future.

I think that future is here already. I purchased a scanner, and it arrived today – a Canon Lide 60. It came with a big sticker warning that the software is to be installed before the scanner is plugged in. I ignored that warning, plugged the thing into my laptop (it’s USB), apt-get installed sane, and started scanning using the Gimp.

That took all of a couple of seconds.

Then I tried to install the scanner on my wife’s big Imac. I spent a good 20 minutes installing all the software that seems to be needed to use the scanner, and then it worked. Granted, there’s more eyecandy and more ‘features’ on the Mac. But I don’t need all that stuff. I just want to scan.