Fujitsu SP Scanners Get Linux Support, Backed By Binary Blobs

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Fujitsu SP Scanners Get Linux Support, Backed By Binary Blobs

Fujitsu subsidiary PFU has announced Linux support for their SP Series scanners (SP-1120, SP-1125, SP-1130). Sadly, even in 2016, binary-only drivers are still a thing for printers/scanners...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fujitsu-SP-Linux-Scanner

[s_j_newbury]

“With the popularity of Linux on standard desktop computers increasing and an increasing number of smart devices being based on Linux derivatives, our support of this platform with a dedicated driver is a logical step”

Shame they can't comprehend that isn't what they've done. Good luck running a driver for a specific Ubuntu version for a specific architecture on "smart devices"...

[starshipeleven]

Someone fed the wrong paper to that PR guy. The correct statement is this:

“With the popularity of Ubuntu Linux on company desktop computers increasing, and big paying customers asking for it nicely, our support of this distro with a dedicated driver is a logical step. Once again we are putting the focus on evolving businness customer requirements and the product developments that go with it.”

Still, I'd say it's better than nothing. They might eventually realize that closed blobs like that are annoying if they want to support other distros too and go the HP way by opensourcing most stuff and leaving the job of packaging it to distro mantainers.

[M@yeulC]

Better than nothing, yeah, but I would still prefer to see it open sourced; and will probably stay away from it until it is the case, most notably because of the decaying support you otherwise often encounter with this kind of product. Good thing that they are supporting sane, though.

[Ardje]

Why can't they just use a language like lua (5.3) for their proprietary part as compiled binary and deliver the VM as open source. If they really want to obfuscate the drivers...
I don't use intel arch for anything but games (on steamos). In any other way it's a waste of power and money.

[starshipeleven]

Why can't they just use a language like lua (5.3) for their proprietary part as compiled binary and deliver the VM as open source.

Lua isn't compiled, maybe you mean bytecode form?
That's probably because if the VM is opensauce you can reverse-engineer the lua part relatively easily even if it is in bytecode.

If they really want to obfuscate the drivers...

Unlikely, they just don't know and keep using the same thing they always did, making closed blobs.

The devices themselves here have a firmware and for these types of devices most of the secret sauce is in the firmware, not in the driver.

[agd5f]

In fairness, the scanners may use 3rd party chipsets which the vendor is not able to provide source for.

[starshipeleven]

In fairness, the scanners may use 3rd party chipsets which the vendor is not able to provide source for.

There were some TV cards (tuners or something) where the driver is a OS-agnostic closedsource blob encased in a opensourced wrapper, due to the same reason (not a firmware, an actually closed-source driver component).
I remember one of their developers stated that their driver couldn't be fully open because they licensed third party things, but the driver could still be easily adapted by the community to work with newer/different kernels than what they were targeting thanks to their opensource wrapper.

[timofonic]

Better than nothing, yeah, but I would still prefer to see it open sourced; and will probably stay away from it until it is the case, most notably because of the decaying support you otherwise often encounter with this kind of product. Good thing that they are supporting sane, though.

Better than nothing? I prefer nothing! Nothing to Fujitsu, that is

Linux has many oxymorons in certain Open Source projects:

- SANE is inSANE. Why SANE management is so subpar and lacks so much funding?

- Apple's CUPS sucks: It's none of my prefered CUPs of tea. Apple ought to GTFO, seriously! Why nobody forked it?

[timofonic]

Do you want to go back to 1995? Please visit the SANE website...

http://www.sane-project.org