Google Now Uses Clang As Their Production Compiler For Chrome Linux Builds

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Google Now Uses Clang As Their Production Compiler For Chrome Linux Builds

For just over one month Google's Chrome/Chromium team has been using Clang as their production compiler on Linux in place of GCC...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTg0MTk

[curaga]

Gcc 5 should be getting the identical code detection. Does anyone know if clang supports it?

[pal666]

isn't it crazy that they are changing gcc 4.6 instead of 4.9 ? it reminds me of traditional apple comparisons of clang against their gcc 4.2

[birdie]

Previously though Google engineers have internally used Clang for pre-production builds due to Clang's faster compilation times and better diagnostics than GCC.

Bullocks. What matters to the user is performance and performance only (stability too, but GCC rarely miscompiles the code and such errors are usually fixed in a timely manner).

Google has thousands of servers so the compiler performance is like the last thing on Earth they care about.

I smell something fishy here - like they withhold some important information about the decision but let's leave it to them.

[paulpach]

What's with the conspiracy theory?

I smell something fishy here - like they withhold some important information about the decision but let's leave it to them.

What's with the conspiracy theory? They should be able to use whichever compiler suits their needs best for whatever reason they want.

[-MacNuke-]

Oh no!!! Google Chrome is unsable now because of that. It is sooooo sloooooooow right now after reading this news.

[-MacNuke-]

What's with the conspiracy theory?

Because someone said that clang is better than gcc. This can't be true in this forum.

[pal666]

What's with the conspiracy theory? They should be able to use whichever compiler suits their needs best for whatever reason they want.

conspiracy theories arise when they give unsatisfying explanation

[pal666]

Because someone said that clang is better than gcc. This can't be true in this forum.

well, actually someone said that clang is more or less same as four years old gcc. it can be true, but it can not be a reason to swich

[-MacNuke-]

What to explain?

They have to use the MS compiler on Windows (I think), GCC on Linux and Clang on OS X. Now they are switching to clang because it can also produce Linux Binaries without any harm.

So why use gcc if you can use 1 compiler for 2 systems?