[deng]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gdbserver

Visual Studio misses features like Python scripting, which for instance in gdb allows you to define pretty printers for your objects, which is immensely useful for complex data structures. The VS debugger also does not have a proper MI, at least I never heard of one. The only thing I miss from gdb is "edit and continue", which I admit is pretty cool.

[plorkyeran]

You've been able to define custom debug visualizers in VC++ for a very long time, although until 2012 it was basically undocumented. I do prefer gdb's choice of python over VS's custom xml-based stuff for defining them, though -- VS's is slightly easier for the trivial cases, but it's usually the complex cases where custom visualizers are more than just a minor convenience.