Linux and Dell AIO940

Hello,

I have switched over to ubuntu Linux about a year ago now.
I have a Dell Dimension 4500.

Everything I have installed works wonderfully ( even an obscure PCMCIA adapter ).
The only exception is my printer.

I am unable to print AND scan anything with the printer.

After doing some research it was pointed out to me that the original manufacturer is not Dell but is in fact Lexmark. The Lexmark X5150 is supposedly the SAME exact printer as the Dell AIO940. Unfortunately Lexmark and Dell have not made any drivers for this printer/scanner/copier available. I have considered taking matters into my own hands and actually writting a support driver for the device, but have little experience in this matter outside of simple usbfs devices like jump/thumb drives.

My question(s) is this:

1) Has anyone had any success getting this particular printer ( or ANY All in One series for that matter ) to work under ANY distro of linux.
1a) if so, could you provide details as to how.

2) Anybody have any links to information about writing a printer driver ? Whether it be a parrellel port / usb printer.

I am a little confused as to how to go about doing this as there are different interfaces for working with printers ( ie. Should I look into writting something that works with CUPS or SANE ?....if so how do these technologies actually work )

3) I've heard that some windows drivers can be used under linux using NDIS. The only thing I've heard about this pertains to wireless cards though. Anybody know ANYTHING about this ? I sure don't.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.