[PLUG] GCC verses Visual Studio...

Robert Miesen robert.miesen at gmail.com
Fri Feb 19 23:59:40 UTC 2010


Based on my understanding of the Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition 
EULA 
<http://download.microsoft.com/documents/useterms/Visual%20Studio_2008%20Standard%20Edition_English_4c240268-8ee9-4cf3-96cf-3bd5ef02a81f.pdf>, 
there shouldn't be any problem using a Visual C/C++ compiler instead of 
GCC, so long as you have a license to do so. This is, of course, 
assuming that neither Mozilla Firefox or ReactOS are either breaching 
copyrights held by Microsoft or trying to claim code Microsoft wrote as 
their own. If either of these two assumptions are false, it wouldn't 
matter what compiler you are using; you could expect legal trouble 
sooner or later.

The truth about Visual Studio being "free" is that it is free as in 
beer, not as in freedom to modify Visual Studio's source code (though 
you can write add-ins for it). What that means is that you are permitted 
to use Visual Studio to do commercial development, so long as you are 
either using a commercially-licensed version of Visual Studio or are 
using an Express Edition (for more information about using the Express 
Editions for commercial development, see 
http://www.microsoft.com/express/Support/Support-faq.aspx and scroll 
down to "Can I use Express Editions for commercial use"). If you are 
using a student version, you /cannot/ use it to do commercial 
development. But the short answer for those living and developing the 
brave GNU world is that using Visual Studio for FOSS development is 
perfectly legal and is really a question of personal taste, personal 
views, and technology preferences.


On 02/17/2010 16:46, Michael Robinson wrote:
> Is it true that Mozilla Firefox for Windows is commonly compiled using
> Microsoft's Visual Studio?  If that is the case, I suspect a legal
> problem.  The ReactOS project insists on supporting Microsoft Visual C
> compilation over mingw(GCC) compilation!  Two things get thrown in
> your face if you linger in the ReactOS forums for any length of time.
> First thing is that GCC is supposedly crap and that MSVC is supposedly
> awesome.  One reason this kind of rhetoric is stupid is that GCC is open
> source and it can be fixed if it has a problem.  I think legally that
> trying to compile a Windows clone and give it away for free using MSVC
> to compile it is asking for litigation.
>
> What is structured exception handling and what is the philosophy
> pertaining to it as far as GCC is concerned?
>
> Is it true that many of the "open source" projects on Sourceforge are
> designed to be compiled via Microsoft Visual Studio?
>
> What is the truth about Visual Studio being "free?"  I don't buy the
> free bit and I think there is a danger in trusting Microsoft, but many
> in the ReactOS community think I'm nuts for saying so.
>
> Why is it so hard to find the Microsoft EULA for Visual Studio Express
> 2010?  The best I can seem to do is grab bits and pieces of old EULA's.
>
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