That's a great question. Here's my take on it: I switched from Windows to Linux over a decade ago...but as somebody that has to often write a lot of C/C++ code,

That's a great question. Here's my take on it: I switched from Windows to Linux over a decade ago...but as somebody that has to often write a lot of C/C++ code, man do I miss Visual C++. I've gone through all the IDEs (Eclipse, Code::Blocks, Anjuta, QtCreator, etc). QtCreator comes close for me, but I feel most comfortable with Sublime Text and a terminal for compiling/debugging/profiling. Visual C++'s intellisense actually worked...not perfectly, but much better than what I've seen on Linux (QtCreator is close). Their debugger quality, source control integration, profiler integration, target code quality, compiler error messages/feedback, a call browser (a feature I still can't find on any other IDE, not the same as grep)...all wonderful. All of that stuff can be leveraged for writing cross platform code, including the Linux kernel. I know it sounds insane to use a Windows-specific IDE, but VC++ is that good of an IDE. Personally I would think it's way more trouble than it's worth, but apparently the OP felt otherwise :) I don't have many good things to say about Microsoft's products, but for Visual Studio I only have praise. MS has always excelled with compilers, languages, development tools. People mock Steve Ballmer for his "developers, developers, developers!!!" rant, but IMO MS's dev toolchain is a big part of how they attracted developers and achieved market domination.