Everybody remembers that specific version :). And I wasn't even programming professionally at that time!
For many years that was the only version that could be used. What become gcc3 took years. In the end it was better, but for a while gcc 2.95 was the best we had despite the bugs.
Oof...I know of at least 1 embedded shop still using 2.95.4 for various 'reasons'.
Ah the egcs drama.
Re:GCC 16 has been released
by physicsguy on Thursday April 30, 2026 @09:27AM
(#47962103)
They changed their major release numbers too tbf. 4.x it was point release per year, now it's a major release per year.
It used to be slower and I've spent way too much time working around C++ bugs in GCC 2.95
(The fact that I remember the problematic version is telling :)