I will use it to scan all my film that I shoot, so I don't want it to be absurdly slow. I ONLY need it to scan film. The student lab has Epson scanners with a film lid in the top. Although I am happy with the quality the scanning is very slow. I suppose at home this might not be as bad considering I can do other things instead of sit there and wait so that I can go home.

Anyway, I run Ubuntu Hardy, and I suppose I can buy vuescan for $40 and then I have a pretty wide selection of scanners to choose from.

My friend has one of those $99 instant-shot slide converter 'scanners' and the speed is impressive. I wonder if anyone makes one of those type of scanners that gives good quality, and works in linux. Or, how hard it would be to haxX0r one out of a digicam...

Did you not find any listed in the supported devices for vuescan ?

http://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/vuescan.htm#supported

Check some film scanner reviews and cross reference to the supported devices.
http://www.photographyreview.com/cat...S_3126crx.aspx