[osamagirl69]

I am not sure if it was always the case, but at least with ST and NXP/freescale you can download the firmware for their debugger from the website for free. I suspect that it was a strategic decision by ST to release their dev kits for cheap (<$10 for a stm32 dev board with programmer!) to drive developer/hobby/edu interest in hopes of people using their chips in production.

Come to think of it, I think it was actually TI and the MSP430 that started the trend with the $4.30 kits with a socketed msp430 micro and onboard programmer. ST was the first to try it with an ARM as far as I know...

[nrp]

Both were likely a response to Arduino presumably increasing the adoption of AVR without Atmel having to do anything. I recall the MSP430 kits being pitched that way in any case.