alt Hacker NewsYou 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.
Replies
dwattttt • yesterday at 8:01 PM
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.
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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...