using MSVC 8 for free

Microsoft is providing free licences for Visual Studio 2005 (aka VS8) Express Editions. The marketroid speak makes them sound like they're not suitable for "professionals", but the feature comparisson link makes it look like it's great for somone doing QT + BOOST + STL

We'll see how it flies.

linkage:
download MSVC Express Edition: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/download/
install the platform SDK: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/usingpsdk/