Virtualbox is free. Debian is free. Code Sourcery ARM/GCC Lite is free. I've set up ARM crosscompile environments this way in under an hour. This isn't really a superhard thing to do.
[EDIT] Vendors do this too. I went to a workshop on the Freescale i.MX line and guess how everyone got the development system? A VMware image on a thumb drive. You don't have to be a hero when it comes to cross-compiling, just get the work done.
[EDIT] Vendors do this too. I went to a workshop on the Freescale i.MX line and guess how everyone got the development system? A VMware image on a thumb drive. You don't have to be a hero when it comes to cross-compiling, just get the work done.