Canon: Get Your Linux Drivers Done… For Free

Here’s another one for the Absurdities file: Hardware manufacturers who still don’t have Linux drivers for their devices.  Here’s an example from a friend of mine who owns a Canon LiDE 700F USB scanner.  She visited Canon’s web site and submitted a support request.  She requested that Canon contact the Linux Driver Project so that a driver for her scanner could be developed.  She even mentioned that it costs nothing.

Canon sent her what is a standard corporate response by most compnaies when they see the word “Linux” in a support email.

Dear XXXXX XXXXX:
Thank you for contacting Canon product support.  We value you as a Canon
customer and appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

While considering the desire to provide the best possible support for
Canon's products, Canon must make decisions. Currently, Canon is unable
to provide drivers for Linux.

With this in mind, we currently do not have drivers available for your
operating system.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance with your LIDE
700F.

Thank you for choosing Canon.

Sincerely,

Olaf
Technical Support Representative

So Canon (CAJ on the NYSE, valued at $39.50 a share when this article was written), like so many other companies, is completely missing the boat either from being lazily ignorant or willfully avoiding Linux.  So, here’s a quick note to Canon and any other hardware manufacturer trying to claim making a Linux driver is too hard:

Don’t do it yourself.  Let someone else do it.  The fine folks at the Linux Driver Project will do it for you.  They have developers who are standing by, ready to do the work for you.  For free.  They’ll even sign an NDA with you.  Your only responsibilities are to provide the type of device, the device’s specs, the NDA if needed, and to provide the person who will develop your driver with a demo unit of your hardware.  That’s it.  Once complete your driver will be included in the Linux kernel source tree.

There is no requirement that you support your Linux users.  The Linux community is very industrious.  If you give us a push in the right direction we can ferret out the rest and get to the destination.

Canon: Help us help you.  There’s no reason your LiDE 700F scanner doesn’t work in Linux.  The cost to your company would be negligible at worst.  So, let’s get on it and help my friend out.  Unless you prefer all of us Linux users buy HP.