Visual Studio or wxDev-C++?

P.S. Sorry for the long time I've left this blog dormant: I'm only a college student, subject to the "heavyweight" requirements of my subjects.

Microsoft Visual Studio or wxDev-C++?
These are only two of the most popular compilers in the world when it comes to making Win32 programs. The commercial companies use Visual Studio because it is an optimizing compiler (case in point: Adobe Flash Player); open-source projects (most, not all) use wxDev-C++ to compile their software projects (for example, VideoLan's VLC player). But which compiler is really better?

Vendors of software modules such as ActiveX components and skinning frameworks use Microsoft's compiler because MFC is used to encapsulate the nosebleed details of COM and the like. As many know, there are already a lot of GUI skinning frameworks out there that use MFC, such as those that provide a look-and-feel of Office 2007. However, MFC is well-known in the software world for being bloatware, so many application developers don't want to use MFC.

wxDev-C++, on the other hand, has a GUI library bundled with it, wxWidgets. Intended as a replacement for MFC? Well, not quite: it is entirely different than the coding style you have to use with MFC. But rest assured it will remain far simpler to use than MFC. :)

Well, I don't develop GUI applications myself; I more often develop library back-ends for other people to use. In this respect, I use wxDev-C++, since it is more standards-compliant and flexible than VS.