# What's Up With Open Terraform?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/arrested-devops/what-s-up-with-open-terraform
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/arrested-devops/what-s-up-with-open-terraform.md
Podcast: [Arrested DevOps](https://stenobird.com/podcast/arrested-devops)
Published: 2023-09-21T11:00:15+00:00
Episode link: https://www.arresteddevops.com/open-tofu/
Audio file: https://media.blubrry.com/arresteddevops/content.blubrry.com/arresteddevops/arrested-devops-podcast-episode193.mp3
Processing state: processed
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/arrested-devops/episodes/what-s-up-with-open-terraform
Duration seconds: 2334

## Resource

The emergence of OpenTofu as a community-driven, open-source fork of Terraform aims to restore the rapid innovation and transparent licensing lost during HashiCorp's transition to BUSL. The discussion explores the project's move toward CNCF governance and how a consortium of competitors is working to maintain the ecosystem.

## Highlights
- Main idea: OpenTofu is a community-driven project backed by a consortium of vendors to ensure Terraform's core language remains open source
- Failure mode: The ambiguity of the SSPL license creates industry confusion and potential risks for organizations building competing products
- Practical takeaway: Users can leverage OpenTofu's compatibility with existing Terraform workflows while benefiting from community-driven feature updates
- Strategic goal: The project is transitioning toward CNCF governance to establish a stable, vendor-neutral foundation
- Call to action: Developers are encouraged to test the binary and provide feedback to influence the project's roadmap

## Topics

OpenTofu, Terraform, Infrastructure as Code, CNCF, Open Source Licensing, DevOps, Cloud Native, Linux Foundation

## Chapters
- 1:00 — The OpenTofu Initiative: Introduction to the OpenTofu project and the community's mission to preserve open-source infrastructure tools.
- 6:20 — The Open Source Manifesto: A look at the group of vendors and individuals forming a manifest to ensure long-term open-source availability.
- 9:20 — Licensing and Industry Concerns: Analyzing the impact of license changes and the concerns surrounding the fluidity of modern infrastructure licenses.
- 21:30 — Security and State Management: Discussing the technical challenges of managing secrets and encryption within state files.
- 27:05 — Path to CNCF Governance: The roadmap for bringing OpenTofu under the Linux Foundation and CNCF umbrella.
- 33:15 — Community Growth and Engagement: How the project has gained rapid traction on GitHub and how to join the ongoing discussion.
- 36:00 — Influencing the Future: Final thoughts on how developers can use and provide feedback to shape the next generation of the tool.

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## Transcript

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