[SLL] technically speaking, what might the vendor do?

[Phil Hughes]

I am going to toss out a "non-technical" response here. We used to do our
own typesetting for Linux Journal. The RIP was based on a custom driver card
and the commercial version of GhostScript. The vendor, a local team, has a
version that ran on NT but didn't see why it shouldn't work on Linux.

We supplied the computer, a bit of hand holding and, of course, the
imagesetter. Once they got everything running they were pretty surprised
that the exact same software, running on the exact same hardware was
something like 30% faster on Linux. We weren't.

But, the point is, they wanted to make a Linux version and, once they
realized Linux was really the better choice for this dedicated application,
they wanted to brag about it. That is, they invested in the Linux solution.