Hi,
The AVR XC8 component is GCC based and from what i read about open source software license they should be providing the source code(uncompiled) for the full avr part compiler suit at least(and free limitations turned off by default at compile) and so it should be possible to get xc8 PRO by compiling it yourshelf.I found this while browsing EEVblog forum.
Now it would be helpful if someone could point a link to the source code and give me some info about how to compile them.
PS:I do this since it looks Microchip looks like it will dump the free GCC options and become unsupported.They seem to migrate everything towards MPLAB X together with the AVR/SAM.The new PICKIT 4 can do AVR but they haven't added the same capabilities(to do PIC and PIC32 programing since they are similar protocols) to the AVRDragon or ICE.Also AS 7 doesn't recognize pickit 4 or MPLAB Snap as programers while it is supported to program AVR under MPLAB X.
PS:I can do the building on linux but i want a windows binary for install on W10.