CZUR Linux support
CZUR makes interesting scanners. They are currently listing a new model "CZUR ET MAX" on kickstarter. <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/czur-notebook/czur-et-max-the-unprecedented-professional-book-scanner> They claim that it will support Linux. But then we bought an ET24 Pro from them because they claimed it would support Linux. Unfortunately, it only supports Ubuntu. I bet that will be true of the new model, even though this isn't disclosed in the advertising material. <https://www.czur.com/support/et24_25pro> We wanted a scanner that didn't require rebooting to use it. Switching from Fedora to Ubuntu and back isn't better than switching to Windows and back. I guess they could have used a flatpack or snap, but they don't. I've suggested it to them but I got no response. In any case, the software is not open source. Is it easy for me to run this software on Fedora? - I could run Ubuntu in a VM under Fedora but that feels way too heavy: a whole extra distro installation - is there a way that I could package their stuff ans a Flatpak or Snap? Any other ideas are welcome.
Back in 2021 I aquired CZUR's Shine Ultra scanner off an Indiegogo campaign <https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/shine-ultra-next-gen-portable-powerful-scanner/x/22932975#/>. Cost about $175CAD, significantly less than the US$500 they want for the ET MAX (which looks to be Kickstarter only). They promised Linux support. Never came. Only the newer models, significantly more expensive, have it. Sorry I'm no help there. Suffice to say they're not very knowledgeable about Linux so may not even understand the question about flatopack. Looks like they have ONLY sold by Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Interesting business model. 1. Announce a new model, show a prototype and make some impressive YouTube videos of it 2. Fund actual development and production from the campaign "contributions" (pre-orders, really) 3. Take about 9 months from campaign close to all units shipped 4. Go to step 1 In my case they shipped in batches, first ordered first served. Took about two months to ship everything that was pre-ordered once they received the completed units themselves. Pretty sure they're in HongKong but the units are made on the mainland. I imagine that after four years and multiple product cycles since I got mine they have their manufacturing and shipping acts together better now. Plus, I bought in the middle of Chinese COViD lockdowns and I imagine their supply chain was ... affected. The ET MAX has an estimated shipping date of April; good luck with that. I don't think they've ever made a shipping target. I haven't used the Shine Ultra as much as I'd planned. But the Windows OCR software did work well, and they have provided free software updates for more than three years after delivery; more than I expected. - Evan
I have a CZUR ET 24 Pro scanner, but a couple of years ago. It quickly became apparent that it doesn’t run worth speaking about under Linux. Forget the restriction to Ubuntu, possibly tweaking for Debian; some of the basic functionality just doesn’t work. My solution was to get an old MacBook from my sister (about 6/7 years old), which runs the scanner beautifully. The OCR software is open source; it’s ABYY if I recall. The software to smooth out the scanned image isn’t, I don’t think, but you can even find versions of that in the app CamScan, which costs nowhere near as much (and doesn’t do as good a job). It would be terrific to have a Linux version of the software on the CZUR. Don’t hold your breath. Sent from my iPad On Feb 13, 2025, at 12:29 PM, Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote: Back in 2021 I aquired CZUR's Shine Ultra scanner off an Indiegogo campaign<https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/shine-ultra-next-gen-portable-powerful-scanner/x/22932975#/>. Cost about $175CAD, significantly less than the US$500 they want for the ET MAX (which looks to be Kickstarter only). They promised Linux support. Never came. Only the newer models, significantly more expensive, have it. Sorry I'm no help there. Suffice to say they're not very knowledgeable about Linux so may not even understand the question about flatopack. Looks like they have ONLY sold by Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Interesting business model. 1. Announce a new model, show a prototype and make some impressive YouTube videos of it 2. Fund actual development and production from the campaign "contributions" (pre-orders, really) 3. Take about 9 months from campaign close to all units shipped 4. Go to step 1 In my case they shipped in batches, first ordered first served. Took about two months to ship everything that was pre-ordered once they received the completed units themselves. Pretty sure they're in HongKong but the units are made on the mainland. I imagine that after four years and multiple product cycles since I got mine they have their manufacturing and shipping acts together better now. Plus, I bought in the middle of Chinese COViD lockdowns and I imagine their supply chain was ... affected. The ET MAX has an estimated shipping date of April; good luck with that. I don't think they've ever made a shipping target. I haven't used the Shine Ultra as much as I'd planned. But the Windows OCR software did work well, and they have provided free software updates for more than three years after delivery; more than I expected. - Evan --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
participants (3)
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D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Evan Leibovitch -
Peter King