I have used Linux in the past but have always had to return to Microsoft because of hardware incompatibility. My hobbies are amateur radio and photography, the latter causing most problems. I have a Minolta Dimage Dual Scan SCSI negative scanner, a Nikon Coolpix 5400 digital camera (USB), Jessop USB Compact Flash card reader, UMAX Astra 1200U USB scanner, Epson Stylus Photo 830 USB/Parallell printer and a HP Laserjet 4L parallell printer. I use a built in USB amplified and powered hub to expand the ports. I am concerned about this hardware working and have looked at a number of sites that were recommended for compatibility checking. I am no wiser and would appreciate some assistance. I don't mind buying a new flatbed scanner to replace the Umax if necessary but due to high costs, cannot afford to replace the other items. I was considering either SuSE or mandrake. Any help appreciated.

Ian

Sorry... your linux future is not very bright.
this is the official supported scanners pagehttp://www.mostang.com/sane/sane-backends.html
neither your flatbed scanner or your negative scanner are supportred.
Your camera is not a problem support is in kernel. usb-storage
You mount it like a hard drive.
Printer is Good to go.
Compact flash reader should work same as camera i.e. mount as hard drive.
Usb hub is supported also.
As far as distrbutions go...."For tastes there are colors!"
I used Mandrake for a while (2.5 years) abandoned in favor of Gentoo...
Good luck

Many thanks for your help. I will wait a little longer before taking the leap.

Ian

Well, the UMAX 1220U is supported now. The 1200U was not listed as being supported or unsupported. The Minolta Dimage Dual Scan 3 is supposedly supported by VueScan (Not Open Source, but there are Versions for Mac, Windows & Linux. Free trial version available)

I also use Gentoo. It's a nice distribution, but I learned a lot about linux and the linux kernel during the install. f your not used to Linux/Unix you might want to try something else.