I disagree, competition itself was good for GCC. Stallman's reaction¹ to LLVM was noisy and possibly childish, but it gave the FSF another important goal: not

I disagree, competition itself was good for GCC. Stallman's reaction¹ to LLVM was noisy and possibly childish, but it gave the FSF another important goal: not only should it supply a "libre" compiler but it should also be worth using over the first alternative that comes along. That second goal is a moving target, unlike the first, and it supplies a real motivation to make the best compiler they can. 1. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTU4MjA http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTU4MjA