Random thoughts and serendipity

We are on a roll. We have:

o a first cut site up and running
o a decent number of hits to the site
o a ranking that we wish would go up a bit
o a plan to start coordinating with HPLIP

Now comes the part of getting a sustaining dialog going on with the Hardware partners. These include manufacturers of printers, webcams, scanners and the like. While we will put out the list of the next batch of devices we plan to attack (while releasing refined versions of the already out drivers), the proposed way out seems to be something like:

o keep talking with the vendors as to why it is necessary to release drivers under appropriate Open Source licenses
o collect and collate the minimum information that is required
o procure hardware, test and of course release drivers for the devices

The bare minimum information that can help a project involved in printer device driver creation could be:

o a list of the printer models that are known NotGood
o a list of the printer models that are known to work in a functionally incomplete way with existing drivers
o a list of printer models which require emulation (or more specifically Epson emulation) to work
o a list of printer models which work Well with proprietary/binary only drivers

The above information would enable the classification of the printers into various classes and also allow target devices to be selected. The entire objective of this exercise would of course be to push stuff upstream. For example, take a look at the CUPS site and search for TVSE - be pleasantly surprised.