Here is my best attempt to articulate why I believe all dependencies, including compiler toolchains, belong in version control.

https://www.forrestthewoods.com/blog/dependencies-belong-in-version-control/

Dependencies Belong in Version Control

Why dependencies should be checked into version control.

@forrestthewoods yes! And, packaging up things like “visual studio” etc is not even that massive. IIRC at Unity I had that in like 200MB without even trying hard. This is for old version, but idea the same https://gist.github.com/aras-p/e5df1b7a3374b99ae31f053b14403d92
Packaging up Visual Studio & Windows 10 SDK for in-repository usage

Packaging up Visual Studio & Windows 10 SDK for in-repository usage - package_builds_vs2017.cmd

Gist
@forrestthewoods @aras hmm .. that works? I would've expected visual studio to set all kinds of archaic registry stuff that would make it not function if not "properly" installed
interesting
@logicalerror @forrestthewoods that’s what we did at Unity, so worked at least there :)
@forrestthewoods @aras you mean on the server side? I never noticed visual studio in the unity repo? (certainly didn't look for it though)
do you mean it would've compiled even I hadn't installed visual studio? 🤔
@logicalerror @forrestthewoods yes (since 2018 or so). That’s about the first thing “how to setup build environment” docs used to say. And even then, I had to explain to people over and over again that no, changing your local VS install version will not affect the build one iota.
@logicalerror @forrestthewoods …and yes VS toolchain and Win10 SDK were in the repo itself, under PlatformDependent somewhere
@aras @logicalerror @forrestthewoods a similar thing was done for Wolfenstein development. I always thought it was a great idea. Especially made updating the project and toolchains trivial to roll out to the entire team.