03-02-2007
Conceptually Linux and Unix are the same. The main difference I see is that Linux has evolved into an attempt to replace Windows on the desktop that also works quite well as a server and Unix generally isn't a replacement for a desktop.
So Linux has a bunch of User type stuff. mp3 players, graphics programs, cute window managers (which I like, don't get me wrong) and people who are converting from Windows to Linux. So things like wireless card drivers, graphic drivers, and device like USB stuff are important.
Unix (as in Solaris, AIX, HP-UX) is more a server side os, used for web servers, e-mail, and other servers. While they are used as workstations, they're more likely used for scientific or high-end graphics processing than as a replacement for Windows to do web browsing or reading of e-mail.
If you're downloading Linux, you can find anything you want over here:
http://distrowatch.com/
You can retrieve a Live CD which is Linux on a bootable CD or DVD so it doesn't mess with your current installation or you can download an image you can use to install on your system. Ubuntu seems to be a pretty good distribution nowadays.
Since you're downloading Linux, I'd hunt for a beginning Linux book since examples and such will be available on your installation.
Carl
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LEARN ABOUT REDHAT
sane-find-scanner
sane-find-scanner(1) General Commands Manual sane-find-scanner(1)
NAME
sane-find-scanner - find SCSI and USB scanners and their device files
SYNOPSIS
sane-find-scanner [-h|-?] [-v] [-q] [-f] [devname]
DESCRIPTION
sane-find-scanner is a command-line tool to find SCSI and some USB scanners and determine their Unix device files. It's part of the sane-
backends package.
For SCSI scanners, it checks the default generic SCSI device files (e.g., /dev/sg0) and /dev/scanner. The test is done by sending a SCSI
inquiry command and looking for a device type of "scanner" or "processor" (some old HP scanners seem to send "processor"). So sane-find-
scanner will find any SCSI scanner connected to those default device files even if it isn't supported by any SANE backend.
For USB scanners, first the USB kernel scanner device files (e.g. /dev/usb/scanner0), /dev/usb/scanner, and /dev/usbscanner are tested. The
files are opened and the vendor and device ids are determined if the operating system supports this feature. Currently USB scanners are
only found this way if they are supported by the Linux scanner module or the FreeBSD or OpenBSD uscanner driver. After that test, sane-
find-scanner tries to scan for USB devices found by the USB library libusb (if available). There is no special USB class for scanners, so
the heuristics used to distinguish scanners from other USB devices is not perfect. sane-find-scanner will even find USB scanners, that are
not supported by any SANE backend.
sane-find-scanner won't find parallel port scanners, or scanners connected to proprietary ports.
OPTIONS
-h, -? Prints a short usage message.
-v Verbose output. If used once, sane-find-scanner shows every device name and the test result. If used twice, SCSI inquiry informa-
tion and the USB device descriptors are also printed.
-q Be quiet. Print only the devices, no comments.
-f Force opening all explicitely given devices as SCSI and USB devices. That's useful if sane-find-scanner is wrong in determing the
device type.
devname Test device file "devname". No other devices are checked if devname is given.
EXAMPLE
sane-find-scanner -v
Check all SCSI and USB devices for available scanners and print a line for every device file.
sane-find-scanner /dev/scanner
Look for a (SCSI) scanner only at /dev/scanner and print the result.
SEE ALSO
sane(7), sane-scsi(5), sane-usb(5), scanimage(1), xscanimage(1), xsane(1), sane-"backendname"(5)
AUTHOR
Oliver Rauch, Henning Meier-Geinitz and others
SUPPORTED PLATFORMS
USB support is limited to Linux (kernel, libusb), FreeBSD (kernel, libusb), NetBSD (libusb), OpenBSD (kernel, libusb). Detecting the vendor
and device ids only works with Linux or libusb.
SCSI support is available on Irix, EMX, Linux, Next, AIX, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and HP-UX.
BUGS
No support for parallel port scanners yet.
15 Sep 2002 sane-find-scanner(1)