Unix support - are Lexmark breaking the law?
Dave
functions of
* Printer
* Scanner
* Copier
* Fax (some models only).
One such example is the X544dtn
though they have many similar models, ranging from home devices to those
designed for high speed printing in a busy office.
The technical specifications obviously list the operating systems these
work on. Windows XP, Vista etc. But they are also claimed to work on
some Unix systems:
UNIX Operating Systems Supported
Sun Solaris SPARC 8, 9, 10
Sun Solaris x86 10
HP-UX 11.11, 11.23, 11.31
IBM AIX 5.2, 5.3, 6.1
I asked Lexmark if the scanning facility was supported on Solaris. They
have told me there is no software for Solaris - only Linux.
Postscripts printers which use ethernet have been used on Solaris since
the times before Windows even existed, so clearly the printer
functionality will work on Solaris. But the scanner will not, and I
somewhat doubt the FAX will either, though Lexmark have yet to confirm
that.
Is this legal?
Where would someone stand under UK law if they bought a Lexmark 'all in
one', used it until for 11 months, then wanted a refund since the
Lexmark device did not do what it was claimed to do? In fact, given a
device such as the obove must be reasonably expected to last more than a
year, perhaps they could use a printer free for a couple of years!!
I had previously posted this to comp.unix.solaris, but have copied it to
the AIX and HPUX newsgroups, as support for those operating systems is
claimed, yet Lexmark have confirmed only Linux is supported for the
scanning software.
--
I respectfully request that this message is not archived by companies as
unscrupulous as 'Experts Exchange' . In case you are unaware,
'Experts Exchange' take questions posted on the web and try to find
idiots stupid enough to pay for the answers, which were posted freely
by others. They are leeches.
solx
Contact your local Trading Standards Office they should be able to
investigate.
Toom Tabard
> Lexmark produce a range of 'all in one' devices - which have the
> functions of
>
> * Printer
> * Scanner
> * Copier
> * Fax (some models only).
>
> One such example is the X544dtn
>
It should do what it says on the box, or what you were told on
purchase enquiry it would do If, as supplied, it doesn't and never did
do so, and the manufacturers agree this is so, then there is an
inherent design fault making it unfit for purpose. If you purchase,
test it out within a reasonable time and find it doesn't work as
specified than you can reject and claim full refund. At 11 months you
will be regarded as having accepted the goods and can't reject and
insist on full refund. They can give you a fix or compensate you. Any
compensation can be reduced to allow for the use you have had of the
goods. That all assumes it was a consumer retail purchase. Your right
to recourse is actually against the retailer.
Toom
Andrew Gabriel
solx <nos...@example.net> writes:
> Hi Dave,
>
> Contact your local Trading Standards Office they should be able to
> investigate.
Before you start going off down that route, you should check on
SANE support. Lexmark or someone else may well provide SANE backends,
and we've certainly had SANE scanning working on Solaris 8 and later,
even if not bundled with the OS itself.
--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]
Bob Ferguson
"Dave" <f...@coo.com> wrote in message news:4abb...@212.67.96.135...
There is usually an asterisk on the system requirements that leads you to a
paragraph of exceptions. The linked paragraph is not always easy to find,
but it's usually there. If there is no exceptions listed, then the device
is clearly unfit for the purpose for which it was sold.
Dave
> "Dave" <f...@coo.com> wrote in message news:4abb...@212.67.96.135...
> There is usually an asterisk on the system requirements that leads you to a
> paragraph of exceptions. The linked paragraph is not always easy to find,
> but it's usually there. If there is no exceptions listed, then the device
> is clearly unfit for the purpose for which it was sold.
>
>
I posted the link to the Lexmark device.
I can't see any exceptions listed for Solaris. Feel free to point it out
if you can.
Dave
> In article <CJ6dnXhUO-t0hibX...@pipex.net>,
> solx <nos...@example.net> writes:
>> Hi Dave,
>>
>> Contact your local Trading Standards Office they should be able to
>> investigate.
>
> Before you start going off down that route, you should check on
> SANE support. Lexmark or someone else may well provide SANE backends,
> and we've certainly had SANE scanning working on Solaris 8 and later,
> even if not bundled with the OS itself.
>
If Lexmark do have a Sane backend, then have not told me about it, when
I asked if there was support for scanning on Solaris. The email from
Lexmark says:
---------------------------------------
I have confirmed that JScan only exists for Linux, thus, there would be
no scan driver/software for Sun Solaris Sparc 10 for this printer model.
---------------------------------------
(I did not ask about JScan - only if there was scanner support for Solaris.)
I've got an Epson SCSI scanner, which I have used on Solaris with Sane.
Whilst the combination worked, the colour reproduction was pretty poor.
I went to the local DIY store, picked up a few paint brochures (Dulux,
Crown, etc), and scanned them with the Epson scanner. I then compared
the scanned colours to the original. They were a pretty poor match. I
then did the same using the Windows software, and whilst far from
perfect, the results were a lot better.
I'm not over keen on spending �600 of my own money on a
printer/scanner/copier/fax, to find that scanning either does not work,
or works only poorly.
I'm not a grapics expert, so don't know much about colour profiles. I
suspect one could improve things with some work, but I just want
something that works reasonably well, without needing a graphics guru to
sort out the colour problems.
I've not looked at the Sane project recently. Perhaps it's possible to
buy one of the standard refernce colour charts, scan that, then in some
way feed the data back into Sane to improve things. But really I'm
looking for a solution which works out of the box.
John D Groenveld
Andrew Gabriel <and...@cucumber.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Before you start going off down that route, you should check on
>SANE support. Lexmark or someone else may well provide SANE backends,
<URL:http://www.xsane.org/doc/sane-xsane-doc.html>
<URL:http://www.sane-project.org/sane-backends.html#S-LEXMARK>
John
groe...@acm.org
Michael Laajanen
I have worked with scanners on and off on Unix and it does not work taht
great on the freeware side.
I have now replaced a HP scanner/printer with a one that does the same
but scannes to a SMB device which is on the fileserver, much easier I
think then you scan from the scanner and later pick up the files when
back to your SunRay or whatever WS you have.
/michael
solx
I purchased a Photosmart c6280 all-in-all printer, printing works but I
have to use the WebScan feature in order to scan to Solaris. WebScan
creates a Jpeg in Firefox and then I have to edit it in GIMP.
Dave
> In article <CJ6dnXhUO-t0hibX...@pipex.net>,
> solx <nos...@example.net> writes:
>> Hi Dave,
>>
>> Contact your local Trading Standards Office they should be able to
>> investigate.
>
> Before you start going off down that route, you should check on
> SANE support. Lexmark or someone else may well provide SANE backends,
> and we've certainly had SANE scanning working on Solaris 8 and later,
> even if not bundled with the OS itself.
I have an old Epson SCSI scanner, which I was going to throw out the
other day, as I thought I'd replace it with the Lexmark 'all in one'. I
previously used that scanner with Sane on Solaris.
The issue I had though was that the colours were never very accurate -
in fact considerably worst than if the same scanner was connected to a
Windows machine using the Epson's Windose driver. So whilst Sane might
provide a solution, I do wonder how accurate the colour reproduction
will be.
My copy of Sane was many years old, and things may have improved. It
still does not change the fact the Lexmark spec sheets says this
supports Solaris, but in fact Lexmark offer no software for Solaris.
I'm all for using free software - 99% of the software I use is open
source. But if spending non-trivial amounts of money on an 'all in one',
I'd like to know it is properly supported by Lexmark.
Alex Heney
>Lexmark produce a range of 'all in one' devices - which have the
>functions of
>
>* Printer
>* Scanner
>* Copier
>* Fax (some models only).
>
>One such example is the X544dtn
>
>http://www.lexmark.co.uk/lexmark/product/home/146/0,6970,252735_1301696166_1287352466_en,00.html?tabId=1
>
>though they have many similar models, ranging from home devices to those
>designed for high speed printing in a busy office.
>
>The technical specifications obviously list the operating systems these
>work on. Windows XP, Vista etc. But they are also claimed to work on
>some Unix systems:
>
>UNIX Operating Systems Supported
>
>Sun Solaris SPARC 8, 9, 10
>Sun Solaris x86 10
>HP-UX 11.11, 11.23, 11.31
>IBM AIX 5.2, 5.3, 6.1
>
>I asked Lexmark if the scanning facility was supported on Solaris. They
>have told me there is no software for Solaris - only Linux.
It is irrelevant, since you do not need any such software on your
computer.
If you read the user manual
<http://www.lexmark.com/publications/pdfs/2007/x54x/v5404678_en.pdf>
you will find that the scanning is normally done using an embedded web
server, so as long as you have a web browser on your computer, and can
give it a location to save the scanned files to, it will work on any
operating system.
They do also have *additional* software which you can use if you don't
want to use the embedded web server, and it appears *that* is what is
not supported on Solaris.
The reason it only lists that subset of operating systems appears to
be that those are all they supply printer drivers for, so the printer
functions will probably not work fully on other systems.
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
You have two choices for dinner: Take it or Leave it.
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom
Dave
> If you read the user manual
> <http://www.lexmark.com/publications/pdfs/2007/x54x/v5404678_en.pdf>
> you will find that the scanning is normally done using an embedded web
> server, so as long as you have a web browser on your computer, and can
> give it a location to save the scanned files to, it will work on any
> operating system.
>
> They do also have *additional* software which you can use if you don't
> want to use the embedded web server, and it appears *that* is what is
> not supported on Solaris.
>
> The reason it only lists that subset of operating systems appears to
> be that those are all they supply printer drivers for, so the printer
> functions will probably not work fully on other systems.
Thank you Alex. You do have a valid point. Lexmark should have pointed
that out to me when I quired if there was support for scanning on Solaris.
It would appear that pointing a web browser at the 'all in one' will
allow it to be used as a scanner on Solaris.
Bob Ferguson
"Dave" <f...@coo.com> wrote in message news:4abb...@212.67.96.135...
> Bob Ferguson wrote:
>> "Dave" <f...@coo.com> wrote in message news:4abb...@212.67.96.135...
>
>> There is usually an asterisk on the system requirements that leads you to
>> a paragraph of exceptions. The linked paragraph is not always easy to
>> find, but it's usually there. If there is no exceptions listed, then the
>> device is clearly unfit for the purpose for which it was sold.
>>
>>
>
> I posted the link to the Lexmark device.
>
> http://www.lexmark.co.uk/lexmark/product/home/146/0,6970,252735_1301696166_1287352466_en,00.html?tabId=1
>
> I can't see any exceptions listed for Solaris. Feel free to point it out
> if you can.
>
Would you like me to come and read the user's manual for you as well?