A lot of C++ programmers use C++ and garbage collection daily because their C++ compiler uses a tracing garbage collector.
The GCC garbage collector GGC is only invoked explicitly. In contrast with many other garbage collectors, it is not implicitly invoked by allocation routines when a lot of memory has been consumed. [1]
[1] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gccint/Invoking-the-garbage-c...