[foepys]

That's not correct. You don't have to give your credit card details or even be logged in but you are still required to have any Visual Studio license. For hobbyists and startups the VS Community license is enough but larger companies need a VS Professional license even for the VS Build Tools.

How strict Microsoft is with enforcement of this license is another story.

[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]

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.

[okanat]

Well, let's say this is the world view of all companies about open-source software. Then what happens. If people "tend to not give crap" about licenses, all the nice guarantees of GPL etc also disappear.

[qingcharles]

And a VS license isn't too expensive if you really want to buy one. Stack Social have legit licenses discounted to $15:

https://www.stacksocial.com/sales/microsoft-visual-studio-pr...

[eps]

This definetly looks like some sort of scam. Like a volume key license being resold against EULA or some such.