Minimizing costs like this is most important for commodity software with lots of similar competitors. I think the real answer will vary greatly from company to

Minimizing costs like this is most important for commodity software with lots of similar competitors. I think the real answer will vary greatly from company to company and market to market. Generally, I would recommend companies be careful to not think they're all that special. Special companies/products/markets may require special tools, but 99% of companies should pick the most mainstream tools available: Java, .net, c/c++, etc.