OpenTofu: A Community-Driven Response to Terraform’s License Change
When HashiCorp, the company behind the popular open source project Terraform, announced a change in its licensing structure, it set off a firestorm in the open source community. The decision to move from the Mozilla Public License v2.0 (MPLv2) to a Commercial Source License v1.1 posed an existential threat to startups that relied on Terraform as a core component of their companies.
An Open Source Manifesto
However, the open source community did not stand idly by. In response to the license change, a group of developers sprang into action and within weeks, they had written a manifesto. This manifesto outlined their vision for an open alternative to Terraform and their commitment to its development.
The manifesto caught the attention of many in the open source community, including the Linux Foundation. They recognized the importance of the project and announced their support for the fork, which would be called OpenTofu.
OpenTofu: A Funny Name with a Serious Purpose
The name OpenTofu was deliberately chosen to be humorous. Yevgeniy (Jim) Brikman, a member of the OpenTofu founding team, explained that the goal was to bring a sense of fun to an otherwise serious project. However, behind the lighthearted name, the group was deadly serious about building an open fork of Terraform.
Brikman emphasized that Terraform’s core components should always be open source. The license change came as a shock to the community, as it went against the fundamental belief shared by many in the open source movement. The decision to create OpenTofu was driven by a desire to protect the principles of open source and ensure that developers had a trusted, community-driven alternative to Terraform.
The Founding Group
OpenTofu was not created by a single company or organization. It was a collaborative effort by several companies that relied on the open source version of Terraform. The founding group included Gruntwork, Harness Labs, Scalr, Env0, and Spacelift.
Jyoti Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Harness, explained that the founding companies were motivated by a desire to do what was best for the community. They wanted to ensure that the project remained community-owned and that an open source alternative was available.
The Linux Foundation and CNCF
The Linux Foundation’s support for OpenTofu was a significant boost for the project. It provided a neutral governance model and a trusted home for the fork. The foundation also announced that OpenTofu would apply to join the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), further solidifying its status as an important open source project.
HashiCorp’s Perspective
While the decision to change the license may have caused controversy, HashiCorp believes that it was necessary to protect its business. In a blog post, HashiCorp co-founder Armon Dadgar explained that the company’s approach allowed for close partnerships and integrations with cloud providers. However, they felt that some vendors were leveraging open source projects without making material contributions back to the community, which went against the spirit of open source.
Attracting Larger Companies
For OpenTofu to succeed, it needs to attract larger companies and gain traction in the community. Brikman acknowledged that this would take time but remained optimistic about the project’s potential. The plan is to hit milestones and increase adoption, with the hope of inspiring larger players like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to join the effort.
Brikman emphasized the importance of running the project the right way and gradually winning over larger companies. He believes that as OpenTofu gains momentum and demonstrates its value, more companies will be willing to contribute and support the project.
The Future of OpenTofu
OpenTofu has a clear roadmap in place. The first step is to launch an alpha version, which developers can download and start using. This will be followed by the release of a stable version in the near future. As adoption increases, OpenTofu aims to attract more big players to join the project and contribute to its development.
Conclusion
OpenTofu is a community-driven response to Terraform’s license change. It was created by a group of companies that rely on the open source version of Terraform and are committed to keeping the project open and community-owned. With the support of the Linux Foundation and its application to join the CNCF, OpenTofu is poised to become a significant open source project in its own right.
While HashiCorp’s decision to change the license may have caused controversy, it has sparked a movement within the open source community. OpenTofu represents a commitment to the principles of open source and a desire to provide developers with a trusted, community-driven alternative to Terraform.
As OpenTofu continues to grow and attract more companies, it has the potential to become a formidable competitor to HashiCorp’s Terraform. Only time will tell how the project evolves, but it is clear that the open source community is ready to take on the challenge.
Additional Piece: How Open Source Forks Drive Innovation
Open source projects like OpenTofu play a vital role in fostering innovation in the tech industry. When a popular open source project takes a controversial turn, as Terraform did with its license change, it often leads to the creation of forks like OpenTofu. These forks serve as a response from the community, driven by a shared belief in the principles of open source.
Open source forks have the power to drive innovation by providing alternatives that meet the needs of developers and users. They enable experimentation, customization, and collaboration, allowing for the development of new features and functionalities beyond the original project’s scope. This creates a vibrant ecosystem where different forks can coexist and compete, pushing each other to improve and evolve.
Furthermore, open source forks contribute to the democratization of technology. By providing a community-driven alternative to a commercial product, forks like OpenTofu ensure that developers have access to a trusted and transparent codebase that they can build upon. This lowers barriers to entry and empowers individuals and startups to innovate and compete on a level playing field with larger companies.
OpenTofu’s decision to join the Linux Foundation and apply to the CNCF further solidifies its position as a significant open source project. These organizations provide the governance and support needed to ensure the long-term sustainability and success of the fork. They also validate the importance of community-driven alternatives and the power of open source innovation.
Conclusion
Open source forks like OpenTofu are an integral part of the open source ecosystem. They drive innovation, provide alternatives, and empower developers and startups. The creation of OpenTofu in response to Terraform’s license change demonstrates the resilience and creativity of the open source community.
As OpenTofu continues to develop and attract more contributors, it has the potential to become a force to be reckoned with in the infrastructure-as-code space. Its success will not only be measured in terms of adoption and usage but also in the impact it has on the broader open source community.
In the end, OpenTofu represents more than just a fork of Terraform. It exemplifies the spirit of open source and the power of collaboration. By coming together and standing up for their beliefs, the developers behind OpenTofu have shown that the community has the power to shape the future of technology.
Summary
OpenTofu is an open, community-driven response to the controversial license change of Terraform, a popular open source project. The fork was created by a group of companies, including Gruntwork, Harness Labs, Scalr, Env0, and Spacelift, who rely on Terraform as a core component of their businesses.
In response to HashiCorp’s license change, the open source community wrote a manifesto and quickly developed OpenTofu. The project received support from the Linux Foundation and aims to join the CNCF. OpenTofu provides developers with a trusted, community-owned alternative to Terraform.
OpenTofu’s goal is to attract larger companies, such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, and increase adoption over time. The project has a roadmap in place and plans to release an alpha version followed by a stable version.
Open source forks like OpenTofu drive innovation and democratize technology by providing alternatives and empowering developers. They contribute to the vibrancy of the open source ecosystem and the principles of transparency and collaboration.
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When HashiCorp announced that it was changing your Terraform license in August he left a fire storm in the open source community, and actually posed an existential threat to startups that were built on top of the popular open source project. The community sprang into action and within weeks they had written a manifestoand shortly after released an official fork called OpenTF.
Today, that group went a step further when the Linux Foundation announced opentofu, the official name of the Terraform fork, which will live forever under the auspices of the foundation as an open source project. At the same time, the project announced that it would apply to join the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).
“OpenTofu is an open, community-driven response to Terraform’s recently announced license change from a Mozilla Public License v2.0 (MPLv2) to a Commercial Sourced License v1.1, giving everyone a trusted code alternative. open under a neutral governance model. “the foundation said in a statement.
The name is deliberately funny, says Yevgeniy (Jim) Brikman of the OpenTofu founding team, who is also a co-founder of Gruntwork. “I’m glad your reaction was to laugh. That’s good. We’re trying to keep things a little more fun,” Brikman told TechCrunch, but the group is very serious when it comes to building an open fork.
Brikman said HashiCorp left the splinter group with no choice but to launch the fork: “HashiCorp, give them all the credit, did an incredible job getting the project to where it is today. But core components like Terraform should always be open source. That’s just a fundamental belief that we all have, and it was shocking when the license was changed to a non-open source license,” he said.
Terraform gives developers the ability to treat infrastructure as code and describe how the application and infrastructure work together, saving a lot of time previously spent coding.
In addition to Gruntwork, the other members of the founding group include Harness Labs, Scalr, Env0, and Spacelift, all companies that rely on the open source version of Terraform as a core component of their companies. Jyoti Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Harness, says the founding companies are doing what is necessary to ensure the project remains open.
“Terraform has been a popular open source project for almost a decade. We wanted to do the right thing for the community and support a project that provides an alternative that will remain community owned. Having OpenTofu now part of the Linux Foundation and on track to be accepted by CNCF ensures that this important project will remain open source,” Bansal said.
As for HashiCorp, it feels it was doing what was necessary to protect a core part of its business. writing in a Blog post from August 10HashiCorp co-founder Armon Dadgar explained the reason for the change:
Our approach has allowed us to partner closely with cloud providers to enable tight integration for our joint users and customers, as well as hundreds of other technology partners with whom we work closely. However, there are other vendors that leverage pure OSS models and the community works on OSS projects for their own business goals, without providing material contributions. We don’t think this is in the spirit of open source.
Brikman understands that for the project to be successful, it will need to attract larger companies, but he believes that will happen over time as the project begins to hit milestones and gain traction in the community.
The goal is to maintain compatibility for the time being with whatever HashiCorp is doing, but Brikman sees a time where forking the project adds some pieces that could separate it from what HashiCorp has built, and he’s okay with that.
He says the big players like Google, Amazon and Microsoft are currently in wait-and-see mode, but they are in talks and the plan is to get them to see that they are serious about this and attract them over time. “I don’t think there’s any magic answer other than to run, set up the project the right way and start winning them over one at a time and eventually you’ll get a herd, and that’s exactly what we’re working on. now,” she said.
That involves a public roadmap with a plan for an alpha release and then going from there. “The first thing was to launch an alpha version. Then you can go to OpenTofu website and download OpenTofu and start using it and trying it out,” he said.
“Then next is a stable version. That will come in the very near future, but there is work to do. Once you have a stable version, people can start using it. “Then we can start to increase adoption, and once we start to increase adoption, some of the big players will start to step in when some of the big players start to step in, other big players will start to step in as well.”
Terraform fork gets renamed OpenTofu, and joins Linux Foundation
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