Microsoft Unleashes C/C++ Complier
Microsoft has recently released their command line C/C++ compiler as a free download. You don't get Visual C++, but you can use it to write programs for the windows platform. Why they did this is anyones guess. Personally, I kind of like using Bloodshed's Free Dev-C++ IDE which works with Mingw and gcc for Windows to provide a pretty complete development package in the GNU vein.