I got it now! 
Sorry, I was a little slow parsing that. I got what you mean, and youāre right - itās certainly applicable to those folks for sure!
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Unfortunately that makes it the best time to do housework 
. The kitchen is awaiting to be cleaned by me ā¦
That does not mean you have to do everything yourself ā¦ ehem, OK, it could actually mean exactly that 
.
To add something useful to the discussion: Having brought up this topic, but I still wonder how it could be filled with reasonable content:
This is such a sad story. I am working on Linux, and I have to use the proprietary TurboPrint to run my epson inkjet printer (Epson 1500W) since there is no Linux driver available. There has, a couple of years ago, been this Linux driver project with the kernel people offering to write drivers for unsupported hardware. The project got a lot of attention in the IT mass media. With a similar amount of attention the project was closed shortly after it started, since they said that there are only a low number of requests since all of the hardware is already supported. But: The project was ā for me ā a lie, since it was only about kernel drivers. For user space drivers, the situation is totally different. Lots of printers are unsupported and ā for scanners it is even worse. You will find almost no scanner that is available as new device at the moment that is supported by Linux.
I own a slide/film scanner (Reflecta CrystalScan 7200) and for this device I cannot use Linux at all. With the last sane updates, there became code available that could support my scanner. However, I (and others) tried to install it and tested it and it does not work. I asked several times on the sane mailing list, how I could gather useful information to help solving the problem, but my questions are simply not responded to.
Sorry about this rant, but somehow my fingers were typing without control from my mind, and these things are smouldering in my mind for such a long time, they just had to come out, and with the threadās topic in mind, the question has to be asked how these problems could be incorporated into an article. We definitely need a āchosing and finding hardwareā chapter in these articles, with examples on what works well.
Sorry again, I stop here and go to the kitchen ā¦
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Kitchen has to wait: Maybe it would be better to have the shooting part in an extra article. I guess, shooting may mean MagicLantern/CHDK on one hand and tethering on the other?
@chris I may have something that makes your story slightly less sad: there are Linux drivers available for your printer.
Check http://epson.com/linux
These drivers arenāt full free, but they should work with cups, I believe. The source is even available.
If there are other Epson related things you have questions about, please donāt hesitate to ask!
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Great, @paperdigits, good to hear. Hopefully I will find time to test them. However, I am not too sad about my turboprint setup. The turboprint developers are helpful and friendly, and the setup works, but it is not a permanent solution.
In general, sad is really the wrong word ā I know that I said āsad storyā, but sad is way too much. There are things that are so much more sad in life ā¦ However, as I told, this was bothering me for such a long time, and while I thought what would fit into a beginnerās tutorial I typed faster than I thought. What made me really angry is the attitude that is attached to telling āevery device is supported, so we stop this projectā and not oneĀ¹ current scanner being supported by Linux.
Ā¹I guess you could find one or two, but when I was searching for a new affordable photo scanner (not for slides, but a flatbed scanner with additional light for medium and large format film) this was exactly the situation.
Iām using VueScan, a proprietary application that tuns on linux, to do all my scanning. It supports like every scanner ever, and yields great results. Sadly not open, but I havenāt seen any free software that comes close to it.
I use VueScan as well, but unfortunately on windows, since my slide scanner is only supported on windows in VueScan: Reflecta CrystalScan 7200 Driver for Windows 10, macOS & more | VueScan. VueScan relies on the proprietary drivers 
. Actually, there are only 2 things I keep an old notebook with windows for: scanner access and the tax declaration. That is another story that bothers me a lot: There is no Linux software, not even for a lot of money, for tax declaration. And without software this is impossible to do (at least in Germany) . For these two I pay the microsoft tax. They get the money for almost nothing. I donāt want to use their system but I am forced to 
.
I use iScan with my Epson V300. Itās basic, but it gets the job done.
However, I think if I were to start shooting more film (something I always say Iām going to do, but never seem to get around to doing), I would simply cough up the $ for VueScan Pro. It seems like a nice piece of software and Iām happy to find it running naively on Linux. It may not be F/OSS, but at least it doesnāt leave those of us exclusively on Linux in the lurch like so many other proprietary āsolutionsā.
I wonāt usually vouch for a non-free application, but VueScan yields wonderful results for me, Iāve been using it since 2002 or so. I think Iāve paid for it 3 times, but that doesnāt bother me, its that good. Plus I think it is made by one guy.
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I have this idea in the back of my mind since a while, but I never could find a good time slot to get it startedā¦ maybe we can set-up a wiki topic, and try to get the experts in the community to contribute to it?
@houz shared a diagram recently, which could serve as starting point:
And hereās the accompanying thread.
[quote=āpaperdigits, post:32, topic:931ā]
Lol, sorry I was not trying to say you were lazy! It took me an hour or so to draw the graph I made. I put it on github so hopefully someone else would add to it, because Iām lazy. 
[/quote]
Your chart is impressive. As has been mentioned it might be better to divide it into purpose driven charts to address different types of users and goals that they might typically prefer. Or it could be purpose driven charts only and let users decide what they want to peruse rather that labeling it as beginner, advanced or pro?
Paying for my Internet access by the GB means I favor written documentation over video, maybe (some) others might too?
Your chart is visually quite appealing though users will have to know what icon represents which software. The text could be a bit larger for old eyes.
Unfortunately it is not mine, it was drawn by @houz. I just referred to it concerning this threadās topic, and, especially, the colour management topic. There was some discussion about improving the chart in the linked thread (Correct way to work with color managed applications?).
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I also much prefer written tutorials over video for the most part. Not just bandwidth but also ease of following along at your own speed and ability for far higher resolution samples of needed. (And a bunch of other reasons).
With that being said, in this case I agree with @paperdigits that small vid could be super neat, and curating a list of vids on something like YouTube makes a lot of sense - it lets us point users to videos that weāve had a chance to make sure wonāt waste anyoneās time with clickbait bullshit.
I also prefer written tutorials, but people younger than me (Iām 34) go straight to YouTube when they need a tutorial.
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@paperdigits Youāre younger than I am (by a year) and I love me some video tuts.
I do, however, empathize with having to fast forward through unnecessary content to get to the bit you need, but Iāll take YouTube tutorials over charts any day of week.
Part of it may be due to the fact that Iām visually impaired. A blind photographer, if you will. Itās not that I donāt appreciate a decent, well crafted article (charts included), itās just that a good screencast often includes subtleties not present in most written docs. That, and I find watching (and listening to) others go through the motions strangely entrancing.
Most people seem to agree with you about videos. They do provide some friction though: expensive to produce and difficult to localize. Costly to update if there is an error or something changes.
I write user-facing documentation for a living, so Iām eager to produce whatever people will consume. Iām starting to sharpen my video production skills.
Iām 24 and avoid YouTube like the plague. I hate video tutorials.
Everyone feel free to do with it whatever you want, I donāt have the time to enhance it at the moment.