On 6/8/08, David Lochrin <dlochrin at d2.net.au> wrote: > On Sunday 08 June 2008 22:06, m. allan noah wrote: > >> In relation to my previous post, if it's possible to accomodate > >> manufacturers' sensitivities regarding proprietary code within the > >> constraints of the GPL and overall SANE architecture (especially a major > >> player such as Canon) the status of SANE as a de-facto standard would be > >> greatly helped. > > > > ... at the expense of helping users to give away their essential > > freedoms that made their otherwise free system possible in the first > > place? > > > The "system" consists of both hardware and software. Manufacturers can't > be forced to accept 100% open software if they feel it's not in their own > interests, and rigid enforcement of the ideal at the cost of supporting > significantly fewer recently released scanners would be an empty victory.
Your argument is based on a very loose interpretation of 'support', because you probably use Linux on x86. Fortunately, SANE is NOT just 'scanner drivers for Linux'. we cover most (if not all) unix-like OS's. Encouraging scanner vendors to think only about Linux drivers at the expense of our other platforms is a far more hollow victory than yours. > Please note, I'm not suggesting that the GPL or SANE architecture be > compromised. forget architecture, i am talking about freedom. I routinely run sane on platforms other than Linux/x86, a freedom that the GPL gives me, and proprietary software takes away. If i want to be locked in, i will go back to windows! > To put it another way, I think a ~limited~ software design compromise > which encourages adoption of SANE would be a good thing, ~if~ that's > possible. Some posts appear to indicate it might be. There certainly is a possibility for vendors like Canon who have IP restrictions to build a multi-part SANE backend, provided that it uses a simple multi-process model. It wont be truely SANE compatible unless they provide the closed parts compiled for every platform SANE supports, however. > However I'm just a SANE user, and haven't contributed to its development. As was I at first, but access to the source code made it possible for me to correct a few bugs, add a few features, and eventually support lots of new scanners. This is a freedom i want all users to have. allan -- "The truth is an offense, but not a sin"
