Only MS can answer those questions. Even though, Python on Windows is compiled with VC++, you can still use Mingw32 to compile extensions. There are some articles floating around on how to do this and I did try it successfully in the past. Please note that I am not advocating either compiler. Just noting workarounds. I like VC for the IDE and Mingw32 for since I don't have to jump through hoops to compile most of the open source code.
I wonder if I can cross-compile extensions from Linux. It's a lot easier to get dependencies with a package manager. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
