Gnu C++ compiler was around but wasn't that good, it produced slow binaries and was slow with new features eg didn't have templates for a long time. Usually you

Gnu C++ compiler was around but wasn't that good, it produced slow binaries and was slow with new features eg didn't have templates for a long time. Usually you had to use the compiler that came with your flavor of Unix which was usually free (then later they started charging for that too). Borland and MS Visual C++ were popular on Windows and just a few hundred dollars.