Check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dd299405.aspx. Gobs of stuff, compilers, linkers, headers free for the download. So the statement They still do, only in Linux/BSD land they do not. might not be true.
Visual studio full version is not free, but you can easily build (compile, link, run) everything for zero dollars. (Not even a picodollar.)
You can find free compilers for (almost) everything on every OS. What do you mean with Linux/BSD land here?
And bringing bread home by making compilers; can you point out a commercial compiler that 'brings bread home' besides the Visual Studio compilers (which, actually, do not bring that bread; you can download the compilers for free)? I'm curious as I thought paid compilers currently are niche and don't make the companies selling them enough to actually pay more than maybe 1 person working on it full time, if that. Maybe Intel is making enough of pure compilers to actually call it a business?
> Plus, last time I checked you need to pay to be able to have proper access to all developer information
You checked wrong. Developer docs for production versions of Mac OS and iOS are all available for free with Xcode. You only need to pay for membership to the developer program, which gets you access to prerelease OSes (and related documentation), and lets you distribute your applications through the App Stores.
Mac cost perhaps a grand five years ago, still running fine. So about $200 a year. Meanwhile cheaper laptops I have used die a quicker death as they are not built as well, apparently. So my guess is that they are roughly equivalent.
The Portland Group's (PGI) main business seems to be HPC compilers.
CodePlay make compilers for game developers.
There are companies that have made a business out of selling fully-integrated build & debug toolchains for embedded devices. There is usually some amount of customisation required for each type of device, and there's a lot of value in not having to do this yourself.
So yes, there are still companies making compilers as their main, paid product, but they tend to target specialised markets.
Thanks! I did see some AAA game compilers and tools before indeed. But I remember that being very niche and tight knit, small teams. Which is bringing home the bacon, but not compared to making more high level game tools (Unity for instance); unless you are an AAA game dev with very specific needs, you wouldn't bother even looking for those tools because they are so commodity, while high level tools like Unity and Unreal (with all it's add-ons) are not commodity and thus making millions of $.
But yes, you are right; embedded, HPC and gaming are good examples. Thanks for pointing that out.
In 2011, 3% of Intel's revenue came from "software and services", up from 1% in 2010 [1]. They also acquired McAfee in late 2010. So it's probably safe to assume that compilers generate somewhat less than 1% of Intel's revenue, perhaps significantly less. But even if only 1% of that pre-McAfee 1% figure is compilers, that's still over $5 million (over $50 billion * .01 * .01), so I suspect Intel's compiler business profitably employs a number of full-time developers.
Microsoft's combined "servers and tools" operating segment represented nearly a quarter of its revenue and over 20% of its operating income last quarter [2], and while it's not immediately clear how much of this comes from the "tools" portion, I don't imagine it's anywhere near zero.
Visual studio full version is not free, but you can easily build (compile, link, run) everything for zero dollars. (Not even a picodollar.)