Have run into this multiple times with them in multiple companies.
For those asking, it's about the "VitualBox 6.1.32 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack" - it's free to install but phones home and they reach out after a year or two of use and attempt to coerce you into paying for a license. Just ensure everyone has uninstalled it and tell them to go pound sand.
I did a tiny amount of searching to verify this but came up empty handed. Guest additions (what I think you meant) is GPLv2, so it should be free for use.
The difficulty in distinguishing the two is likely intentional. At my previous org, Oracle sent a spreadsheet of IPs to my company's compliance department which they claimed were using the extension pack and so violated their license agreement. They demanded proof of the license.
The vast majority including I, only ever used guest additions (GPL).
> The difficulty in distinguishing the two is likely intentional.
That would not surprise me. Back when we were considering virtualisers many years ago, the issue was one of the reasons² I recommended against vbox despite using it at home - it felt a bit too dark-patterny¹ for my tastes. We went with a VMWare tool instead.
[1] though I'm not sure the term “dark pattern” had been coined, or if it had it was in my vocab, at that point
[2] another being Oracles general behaviour at the time - this was after their purchase of Sun and therefore Virtual Box.
I consider the reminder friendly, but definitely not what it implies... Any source on this? By guest services, you mean the additional "click this to install some custom stuff in the running VM so it works better" step? And if so, just after doing that, or VirtualBox in general?
Those features are from VirtualBox Guest Additions.
VirtualBox Extension Pack, on the other hand, provides support for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices, VirtualBox RDP, disk encryption, NVMe and PXE boot for Intel cards.
For those asking, it's about the "VitualBox 6.1.32 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack" - it's free to install but phones home and they reach out after a year or two of use and attempt to coerce you into paying for a license. Just ensure everyone has uninstalled it and tell them to go pound sand.