Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

FreeBSD 10 To Use Clang Compiler, Deprecate GCC

Posted by timothy on from the squash-it-like-a-figurative-bug dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Shared in last quarter's FreeBSD status report are developer plans to have LLVM/Clang become the default compiler and to deprecate GCC. Clang can now build most packages and suit well for their BSD needs. They also plan to have a full BSD-licensed C++11 stack in FreeBSD 10." Says the article, too: "Some vendors have also been playing around with the idea of using Clang to build the Linux kernel (it's possible to do with certain kernel configurations, patches, and other headaches)."

3 of 711 comments (clear)

  1. What's wrong with GCC? by jomcty · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What's wrong with GCC?

    1. Re:What's wrong with GCC? by Alex+Belits · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And WHY would a company want to avoid GPL compiler, unless it intends to distribute a sabotaged version of the compiler?

      --
      Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
  2. Re:in other words by bonch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One of the FreeBSD developers gave a talk about this. FreeBSD has commercial users, and the new GCC just wouldn't have been an option for them. The older license-compatible version still in FreeBSD wasn't receiving updates, and it was beginning to affect developers too greatly.

    Whether this compiler switch is a good thing or not depends on how much you hate the idea of commercial vendors using open source. GCC's strictness is admiral from an ideological perspective, but certainly not from a practical one. It should be noted that even Linus Torvalds adheres to a more pragmatic worldview:

    There are "extremists" in the free software world, but that's one major reason why I don't call what I do "free software" any more. I don't want to be associated with the people for whom it's about exclusion and hatred.

    It's pretty damning when Linus himself no longer refers to Linux as free software because he doesn't like the extremism of the free software movement. And why should he? He's an engineer, not a religious fundamentalist.