I have noticed already a longer while ago: setting up PETSc with the Intel compilers (--with-cc=icc --with-cxx=icpc) takes an order of magnitude longer than with the native GNU. The step taking most of the time is configuring mpich. I have tried to configure mpich separately and indeed, with gnu it is a breeze, with intel 10x slower. In both cases, linux both 32 and 64 bit, Ubuntu 9.04 and debian testing. Intel compilers 10.x and 11.x.
I just wanted to ask opinion if anybody has similar observations and/or finds using intel worthwhile at all. Dominik
