Useful open source software

What Keil/SDCC comparisons I have seen re speed/compactmess makes me conclude that SDCC is not useful for commercial purposes.

When you make a million thingies, e.g. the price difference between a RC2 and a RD2 matters. So does EMI which leads the drive for lower clock speeds.

Commercial software is no guarantee of good support or long term support
True, but if one falters, you switch. In a commercial environment to abandon one and pay a couple of k for the other is not a biggie. A compiler maker wanted me to switch from Keil to his brand and, as part of the deal, offered to have "his guy" do all conversions. Now, I happen to be quite pleased with Keil so, no deal. However, should that state cease, I might take the other up on the offer. Not Keil, but another tool supplier was unsupportive, but jumped to the task of support when I "discussed" changing brands.

The one to really avoid is free commercial products. When you pay for something you have bought permission to insist on support, when it is free you have no such permission. I have been trying to get SILabs to fix a bug in their free software for more than 8 months. Had that bug been a showstopper, my product would, by now, have had another brand of chip installed.

Erik