The Linux Foundation | 20 September 2023
Backed by industry leaders and hundreds of developers, OpenTofu is set to become the go-to infrastructure as code solution.
BILBAO, SPAIN – September 20, 2023 – Today, the Linux Foundation announced the formation of OpenTofu, an open source alternative to Terraform's widely used infrastructure as code provisioning tool. Previously named OpenTF, OpenTofu is an open and community-driven response to Terraform's recently announced license change from a Mozilla Public License v2.0 (MPLv2) to a Business Source License v1.1, providing everyone with a reliable, open source alternative under a neutral governance model.
While Terraform has been instrumental in simplifying infrastructure management in cloud environments, recent licensing changes have raised concerns within the open source community. OpenTofu is an open source successor to the MPLv2-licensed Terraform that will be community-driven, impartial, layered and modular, and backward-compatible.
With broad support from industry leaders like Harness, Gruntwork, Spacelift, env0, Scalr, Digger, Terrateam, Massdriver, Terramate, and others, OpenTofu has received formal pledges spanning 140+ organizations and 600+ individuals. OpenTofu will ensure the continued development and availability of its codebase and has a starting commitment of a minimum of 18 full-time developers over at least the next five years.
"The launch of OpenTofu signifies a collective commitment to fostering truly open collaboration and innovation in the realm of infrastructure as code," said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director at the Linux Foundation. "OpenTofu's dedication to open source principles underscores our shared vision of providing accessible, reliable tools that empower the tech community."
“We are thrilled about the OpenTofu initiative and look forward to the innovation that happens when you have cross-organization cooperation under open governance,” said Chris Aniszczyk, CTO of CNCF. “We also look forward to their collaboration with the CNCF community.”
“We believe that the essential building blocks of the modern Internet—tools such as Linux, Kubernetes, and Terraform—must be truly open source," said Yevgeniy (Jim) Brikman, Co-founder and CEO of Gruntwork, and OpenTofu founding team member. "That is the only way to ensure that we are building our industry on top of solid and predictable underpinnings. That is why we are so happy that OpenTofu is now a part of the Linux Foundation: having this project in the hands of a foundation, rather than a single company, means OpenTofu will be community-driven and truly open source—always.”
OpenTofu is committed to driving open and collaborative development of infrastructure as code solutions. To learn more about OpenTofu, including how to get involved, contribute, and access their repository, please visit the OpenTofu website and GitHub.
Supporting Quotes
"Today's launch of OpenTofu within the Linux Foundation represents a significant, swift milestone in our shared journey of the new project. It reflects this community’s collective commitment to neutral governance, community collaboration and meaningful contributions to this strategic project. The Harness team is proud to be a part of this important work, and support the open source community.” - Jyoti Bansal, CEO and cofounder, Harness
"The OpenTofu initiative will be driven exclusively by the pursuit of the community’s vision and will work for the community’s needs — not the interests of any individual company."
-Marcin Wyszynski, Core OpenTofu Contributor, CPO at Spacelift
"With OpenTofu, our goal is to create a stable foundation for the open-sourced future of Terraform. The community response to the project was humbling, and going forward our plan is simple - listen, learn, internalize, prioritize, execute, rinse and repeat."
- Omry Hay, Core OpenTofu Contributor, CTO at env0
"OpenTofu will be everything legacy Terraform should have been: community-first and impartial.
- Sebastian Stadil, Core OpenTofu Contributor, Founder of Scalr
“In today’s dynamic technology landscape, open source has proven to be more than just a viable alternative—it’s an avenue for innovation and agility that organizations should thoughtfully consider. What differentiates open source are its inherent qualities: innovation, flexibility, transparency, and collaboration—attributes that are often hard to achieve with closed systems. In our organization, open source technologies underpin various mission-critical solutions and have yielded significant business benefits. Our recent move to adopt OpenTofu for Infrastructure as Code aligns with this strategy. By doing so, we’re joining a community of developers, strategists, and organizations that prioritize extensibility and transparency. While it’s still early days for our use of OpenTofu, its community-driven ethos aligns well with our long-term objectives and seamlessly integrates with our existing technology stack. For those pondering shifts in their enterprise infrastructure, OpenTofu is certainly worth your attention.”
– Mike Sutton, Allianz CIO
"Open Source is about giving individuals and organizations the tools to protect their digital lives through transparency and collaboration. OpenTofu is a significant step in that direction. We firmly believe that OpenTofu will continue to foster innovation and a competitive market, ultimately benefiting end customers the most."
– Carlos Clemente, Principal Engineer ExpressVPN
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Media Contact
Noah Lehman
The Linux Foundation
nlehman@linuxfoundation.org