🚀 go-pugleaf

[ Although I urgently need help concerning gcc, I've a feeling that
  this message doesn't quite belong in gnu.gcc.help; I apologise if
  it is inappropriate. ]

I want to use gcc and friends as a cross environment running on SPARC
SVR4 machines to produce code for m68k based peripheral controller
cards. We have prototyped this very successfully - my thanks to the
many GNU contributors. I now need to justify my recommendation of
the GNU software to my management.

Within the next day or so I need to get together a list of "good
things" about the GNU C development tools which will convince people 
that they are robust enough, reliable enough, and of high-enough
quality to use in the building of major commercial products. The sorts
of things I'm after are:

 - names of commercial organisations who use gcc to produce software
   products (especially large companies, and systems software); I'm
   aware that Dell and NeXT use gcc to produce their UNIX operating
   systems, and release it as their compilation system.

 - benchmark comparisons of object code produced by gcc and other
   compilers (especially for m68k family, especially systems software;
   my main criterion is the performance of the produced program -
   compilation times, and so on, are of little consequence).

 - recommendations for commercial organisations who provide support
   for GNU users. I'm aware of Cygnus Support - are there others
   similar? Anyone with good stories to tell of the quality of support
   offered?

 - experience from people who've used the GNU tools as a cross-build
   system, especially targeting m68k, even better if run on SPARC,
   and better still if running under SVR4!

 - anything else I haven't thought of which might be useful!

I need to get this together very quickly, so fast responses would be
greatly appreciated - a short reply as soon as you read this will
probably be of more use to me than a longer one later. Please reply
by mail (to jjf@dsbc.icl.co.uk); I'll post a summary to gnu.misc.discuss
in a few days if anyone asks me to do so.

Thanks for reading this far, and for any help you can offer; and I
suppose I had better point out that any views or opinions expressed
or implied in this message are my own, and should not be taken as
indicative of ICL's views and opinions.