I once had to ditch a perfectly functioning scanner (HP), due to out-of-date drivers and no linux support. I now do my best to always buy hardware that I know is well supported on Linux.
My old CanoScan is only supported by Linux now. The last set of drivers they released were for Windows 7 32-bit only. The Mac drivers also stop at a similar vintage and are not forward compatible. Sane is the only remaining option.
I once had to ditch a perfectly functioning scanner (HP), due to out-of-date drivers and no linux support. I now do my best to always buy hardware that I know is well supported on Linux.
For example, some CanoScan scanners are completely supported by Sane, see http://www.sane-project.org/lists/sane-mfgs-cvs.html