Gameboy Advance; Using open source tools

Chris McCormick, Hypercube Pty. Ltd.
Disclaimer

The Myths

If you used open source software you must make your own product open
Open source is inherently better than closed source
Open source will magically solve all your problems
Paying for a commercial product will give you better support
T.C.O. (ie F.U.D.)

Open Source Advantages

Mature
Wide user base
Quick development
Cross platform
Extensible
Secure

GCC

GCC is the Open source C compiler of choice
First release was Version 0.9 on March 22, 1987
GPL License
C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, and Ada
Targets just about every processor you can think of
Unix, Windows, Mac OSX
http://gcc.gnu.org/

Python

An interactive high-level object-oriented scripting language
PSF License
Used by Google, NASA, and Industrial Light & Magic
(It's the smart developer's secret weapon)
Embeddable in C and C++
Extensible in C and C++

Pyrex

Unix, Windows, Mac OSX
http://www.python.org/

GIMP

Open source's answer to Photoshop
GPL License
Scriptable
Unix, Windows, Mac OSX
http://www.gimp.org/

wxWidgets and wxPython

wxWidgets is a cross platform widget toolkit
LGPL License
Makes your app appear native to all platforms
Scriptable with python
Unix, Windows, Mac OSX
http://www.wxpython.org/

Blender

Open source's answer to 3d Studio, Maya, Lightwave
Used to be closed source, now GPL
Incredibly fast development (new version every couple of months)
Scriptable
Unix, Windows, Mac OSX
http://www.blender3d.org/

Pure Data

Experimental audio synthesis (and video processing) software
BSD License
Patcher programming language
Extensible through externals and abstractions
Good for physical modelling
http://www.puredata.org/

Soundtracker

Open source sample sequencing software
GPL License
Writes mod formats and raw wav files
http://www.soundtracker.org/

The Future

Closed source and open source working in harmony