[anankaie]

You do not need a Professional or Enterprise license to use the Visual Studio Build Tools:

> Previously, if the application you were developing was not OSS, installing VSBT was permitted only if you had a valid Visual Studio license (e.g., Visual Studio Community or higher).

From (https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/updates-to-visual-stu...). For OSS, you do not even need a Community License anymore.

[WatchDog]

The license doesn't actually permit OSS development. Only compilation of near-unmodified third party OSS libraries.

You may not compile OSS software developed by your own organisation.

The OSS software must be unmodified, "except, and only to the extent, minor modifications are necessary so that the Open Source Dependencies can be compiled and built with the software."

https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/license-terms/vs2026-ga-d...

[dwattttt]

Using VS build tools for open source development is covered by the Community licence [0], separate from this Build Tools licence change. That license is more open than you might expect, working as an individual it even permits proprietary development for commercial purposes.

Under that usage, the Community license counts as a valid Visual Studio license for Build Tools purposes, hence the second paragraph:

> This change expands user rights to the Build Tools and does not limit the existing Visual Studio Community license provisions around Open-Source development. If you already are a developer contributing to OSS projects, you can continue to use Visual Studio and Visual Studio Build Tools together for free, just like before.

[0] https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/license-terms/vs2022-ga-c...

[dwattttt]

This does not apply if you're developing closed source:

> if you and your team need to compile and develop proprietary C++ code with Visual Studio, a Visual Studio license will still be required.

[quietbritishjim]

That just confirms the parent comment's point. If you're just using the build tools directly, you're fine. If need to develop "with Visual Studio" i.e. the IDE, not just the command line tools, then you need the paid license.

[dwattttt]

It's actually not. It's complicated, but they're explicitly allowing Build Tools to be used to compile open source dependencies of closed source projects that do not need the MSVC toolchain for proprietary components.

It's why the example they give in the article is a Node.js application with native open source dependencies (e.g. sqlite3).

EDIT: it's clearer when read in context of the opening paragraph:

> Visual Studio Build Tools (VSBT) can now be used for compiling open-source C++ dependencies from source without requiring a Visual Studio license, even when you are working for an enterprise on a commercial or closed-source project.

[quietbritishjim]

Ok that does sound a bit different.

[dwattttt]

I wish the post was clearer (though I'm not sure what that looks like). I've made the same mistake interpreting it, then had to go back and reread it a few times.

[irishcoffee]

Is the fancy text editor compiling, or the toolchain?

I don’t need visual to write, read, compile, or link any code using the toolchain.