Snapscan to the rescue

That is, until Snapscan publiched that they could handle the scanner.
you had to upload firmware, but else everything was fine.

That means, that you have to use a file called TAILxx.BIN ( where xx is the ver number).
and tell snapscan to load the file.

So here we go.
Get sane ( If you dont know what it is, this isnt your mental state)
apt-get install sane

Download XP Driver from epson.com.
Unzip
Find TAIL*.BIN
in my case we found TAIL61.BIN.
Copy to /etc/sane.d/
Insert line
firmware /etc/sane.d/TAIL61.BIN

This is ripped from http://www.chinwong.com/index.php/site/article/epson_scanning_on_linux/

now that didnt take long did it.
Well i think it takes to long