[kaitnieks]

We're using Delphi with various component packs. It would be very expensive to buy all the components at once but we bought all the tools necessary during the previous years one by one. If you want to make Windows apps and you can ignore developer community's hostility against Pascal, then I would recommend Delphi, but if you plan on making cross-platform solutions then take a look at Qt.

Pirating will happen, that's inevitable. The main thing here is not to make your paying customers victims in the fight against pirates and not to worry too much about your software in torrents. Make sure your keys can't be easily generated; people tend to avoid using modified executables for reasonable fear of viruses but have no problems using pirated keys.