Why companies are using free tools like GNU?

[alexz]

Why do companies use more and more free tool chain like GNU these days?
what are other advantages except that it is free?
Why is it becoming so popular?

 

[shoaibali]

Re: Why GNU?

Well... I think, as you have already mentioned, biggest advantage is that it is FREE OF COST...
Other than that they are open source and are always being improved and get bugs removed from time to time

 

[Antharax]

Re: Why GNU?

Being free is relative for a company. Engineers are expensive too ;-). If a commercial package reduces the time needed to develop a product, it might be worth it. Most professional gui-like development environments are a bit easier to start with, but they are equally hard to master too (and then you're locked to a certain vendor).

One of the advantages of gcc is that it supports a lot of architectures and runs on a lot of platforms (Linux, bsd, Windows, ...). This makes it easy to set up servers for development, do batch/night builds, ... .
Most commercial packages are either limited in the number of architectures they support or will only work on Windows.
It is easier to write portable code when you can use the same compiler (yes, there will always be some differences between them). For instance, you can run test-cases, regression tests on a normal PC platform by compiling your code for a normal PC.
And an extra advantage is that you have a lot of extra tools for debugging and inspection of the created objects/binaries.

For me it is a reason not to choose for a certain CPU when no gcc toolchain is available.

Antharax

 

[alexz]

Re: Why GNU?

And an extra advantage is that you have a lot of extra tools for debugging and inspection of the created objects/binaries.
Antharax

Like what?

 

[Antharax]

Re: Why GNU?

Although some tools are gnu specific, others might work with other compilers too.

Like elektricfence or valgrind for memory debugging (malloc/free, ...)
Like gcov and gprof for code coverage and profiling
or just nm, objdump and objcopy for inspection of the compiled binaries and conversion to other formats.

A powerfull debugger is available with gdb/ddd.
And if you can invest some time in it, you can create a powerful build system with autoconf and make.

Just a small set of the available tools.

 

[btbass]

Why GNU?

Gnu is Not Unix!

 

[darylz]

Why GNU?

open
I think "OPEN" is the biggest advantage... more easier to get tools/info

 

[_i386sx25_]

Re: Why GNU?

I think it reflects Linux's popularity as an embedded OS. If you decide to use Linux as OS, you have to go with GNU tools.