Yeah, my experiences with Lazarus have been similar. I want to like it, really do! But they've been promising the new and improved linker just around the corner for... how long, now? And so many parts of the LCL just don't do what they should.

With all the nasty glitches, slowdowns, and memory leaks that Delphi subjects me to, I still use it and prefer it, because IT WORKS. The compiler produces good code, and the debugger traces lines and displays data properly, and that's more than I can say about Lazarus. The rest is just details.