The project to create a fork for the configuration control platform and automation of the infrastructure maintenance terraform renamed from Opentf to Opentofu to avoid conflicts with the Terraform project and the trademarks of Hashicorp. The decision was taken to replace the “TF” abbreviation with “TOFU,” which is already used in TerRaform file extensions, variables, functions in the code, as well as in TFC products (TerRaform Cloud) and TFE (TerRairm Enterprise). As Opentofu is positioned as a product for enterprises, the creators of the fork have chosen to eliminate the potential risks associated with possible legal claims regarding trademark violations and Hashicorp’s intellectual property.
Simultaneously, Opentofu has been officially accepted among the projects of the Linux Foundation. Developing the fork on a neutral platform under the auspices of the Linux Foundation ensures the preservation of the platform’s open nature, protects the project from policy changes by individual companies, and encourages participation from third-party companies. The initiative has gained support from 147 companies and 734 individual developers who have announced their intention to participate in the development of Fork. These companies joining the Opentofu initiative will contribute resources equivalent to the work of 18 full-time engineers for the next 5 years, compared to the 5 engineers working on Terraform at Hashicorp over the past two years.
The key principles for the future development of Opentofu are:
- Developing as an open project under the free mplv2 license.
- Involving the community in project management, accepting changes from the community, open process of reviewing changes, and developing innovations through public discussions using the RFC (Request For Comments) process.
- Making decisions on the inclusion of bug fixes and new features based on the benefits for the community, rather than individual suppliers.
- Using a modular structure that is convenient for programmers and encourages the development of a new ecosystem of tools and components for integration.