It may be difficult to get the scanner to work. It is rather hit or miss. I have
an expensive HP scanner and a cheap Canon scanner. The cheap one works in Linux
and the expensive one doesn't. The funny thing is that it is the other way
around with Windows. The Canon is Twain and you need to do lots of fiddling to
get it to work in XP, but the HP works as advertised. I don't expect that my HP
will ever work in Linux as it is now a few years old and it still isn't
supported.

I used to think that I had essential Windows programs that I could not do
without when I moved to Linux. After dual booting for awhile, I found that the
hassle made me want to use them less and less and if you boot into Windows
rarely, it can be a frustration due to all the catch up on updates and requisite
re-booting. Now, I just manage to do without and I really don't miss them as
much as I thought.

Give Wine a shot. Install Wine Doors, because it simplifies things. If the
program won't run in Wine, then go with the dual boot or VM option.