[pkmays]

Unlike ICC, MinGW's gcc.exe is not a drop in replacement for cl.exe. It's a separate compilation environment. The headers are different and often out of date compared to the Windows SDK. Microsoft extensions are not supported so it chokes on newer APIs like DirectX 11.

If you are a Mac or Linux weenie who just wants to port something over to Windows sure, no problem, use MinGW. But good luck getting any Visual Studio devs to rely on what is, for all intents and purposes, a second rate Win32 toolchain.