The creation of a new organization called opentf was announced, with the aim of developing a fork of the configuration control platform and automation tool, terraform. The development of the platform will be transferred to the Linux Foundation, under the protection of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, in order to ensure its open nature and protect it from changes in individual company policies. Currently, all the necessary documents for joining the Linux Foundation have been prepared. 108 companies, 11 projects, and 416 individual developers have expressed their support and intention to participate in the development of the fork.
The creation of the fork is in response to a proprietary license, BSL 1.1, introduced by Hashicorp, the company that owns terraform. This license restricts the use of the code in cloud systems that compete with Hashicorp’s products and services. The goal of the OpenTF project is to preserve the open nature of the terraform platform and continue its distribution under a free license. The new project aims to simplify participation from third-party companies and enthusiasts in the development and decision-making processes.
Two weeks ago, the community behind the OpenTF initiative published a manifesto, urging Hashicorp to review their solution and return terraform to an open license. However, Hashicorp has not responded to the proposal, leading to the public announcement of the creation of the fork.
The companies that have joined the OpenTF initiative have allocated resources equivalent to the work of 14 full-time engineers for the development of the fork. In comparison, only 5 engineers have worked on the platform at Hashicorp in the past two years. The roadmap for the fork will be placed in the repository after 1-2 weeks, following the completion of work on renaming and cleaning the documentation. The first release of OpenTF 1.6.0 will then be worked on. The OpenTF release will serve as a transparent replacement for terraform, compatible with all providers and modules.
The basic principles of further development of OpenTF are as follows:
- Development as an open project under a free mplv2 license.
- Participation of the community in the project management, including the review of changes and development of innovations through public discussions.
- Decision-making based on benefits for the community, rather than individual suppliers.
- Use of a modular structure for easy integration and development of a new ecosystem of tools and components.