I'd say stick with gcc2 for Alpha 1 to get it out the door sooner. Then switch to gcc4 for Alpha 2. Like Andreas said, the choice does not have to be between R2 and Alpha 1. Waiting until R2 is definitely the worst choice in my mind because it's simply too long into the future. For all we know, the rest of the world might have switched from gcc to llvm by that time (probably not, but..) Truls