Does look like you are stuck with Windows until your printer and
scanner bite the dust and you go looking for a replacement, but to
save the hassle of dual-boot why not use Virtual Box and run Windows
in that ? Presumably these printer are USB so you'll need the full
version from the VBox web site as the one in the repositories doesn't
have USB support.

FWIW - installing WinXP in VBox is a lot easier than natively, and you
get to hear the trippy background track during the final setup too :-)

BP> I will have to dual boot in the meantime Ubuntu and windows in
BP> order to use my scanner and laser printer.