malloc() doesn't call constructors, and free() doesn't call destructors. Besides, malloc() isn't type safe, since it returns a 'void*' rather than a ptr of the right type (ANSI-C punches a hole in its typing system to make it possible to use malloc() without pointer casting the return value, but C++ closes that hole). Besides, 'new' is an operator that can be overridden by a class, while 'malloc' is not overridable on a per-class basis (ie: even if the class doesn't have a constructor, allocating via malloc might do inappropriate things if the freestore operations have been overridden).
